Someone was shot at my rental apartment.

[Will Wu]

I learned today that a shooting happened in one of my triplex last week and as a result someone died or was seriously injured. That happened last week and I just learned it today when I showed up at the property and one of the tenants next door told me. The tenant disappeared since the shooting (my best guess he is in police custody). He was not the victim and I don't have any details of what happened other than apparently someone was shot inside the apartment and apparently he died according to next door tenant. My tenant is on Section 8 so I guess I won't need to worry about the rent but I have no idea what happened to my tenant. Did anyone had a similar experience? 

[Bradley Bogdan]

@Will Wu while the exact circumstances of his (likely) arrest will determine the details, it is very likely that any extended incarceration with trigger a revocation of the Section 8 voucher. From a strictly financial perspective, I would begin looking at whatever options are available to you in Florida to remove the tenant from the unit and rent to another person. This doesn't seem very likely to result in anything other than a messy overpayment situation from the PHA, where they don't find out about the arrest/incarceration for an extended period of time after it happens, and then retroactively revoke the voucher and want some of their funds back from you. At the very least, call the PHA and get instructions from them on what will happen in various scenarios. They will usually not be able to give you advice (technically illegal for them to do so), but they can explain what will happen if X, Y or Z is the case and you can draw your conclusions from there. 

All that said, if you know the tenant, there is a human interest side to this as well. Obviously only you know whether there are any moral factors weighing in on an abrupt eviction based on all this, but I just want to throw it out there that your financial interests aren't the only factor in all of this. 

Final note, if this turns out to be a domestic violence issue of some sort, and there are other people in the rental other than the primary renter, that invokes a special set of rules from the PHA, so definitely look into whether there is a wife/children etc. that are part of this and are residing there. 

Best of luck, let us know how this horror story plays out?