Need advise on a section 8 tenant fiasco

[Talha K.]

Hi BP Family,

I have a very pressing situation that I'm facing right now with one of my tenants. The tenant is section 8, and all the rent comes from their voucher, they don't pay anything themselves. We inherited them at the sale of the property. Ever since we bought the property this particular tenant has been a constant source of pain for us. 

Most recently we had a section 8 inspection where the inspector noted multiple issues (primarily because the tenant specifically pointed those out to the inspector) which need to be fixed. The whole fixing process with take around 3-4 weeks and would cost us around 6K. Our problems is this, even though we muster up the courage to get everything fixed, I have a feeling this tenant will keep on giving us headache one way or another, by either breaking something and asking for us to fix it or asking the city to do unscheduled inspections (which they have done in the past) to point out random problems giving us a contest source of stress. We would really like for them to move out so we can rent this unit to someone who will take care of the unit and frankly doesn't hate us like this person does. I know that according to section 8 rules if we are unable to fix the deficiencies in a specific allowed amount of time we will have rent abatement and Section 8 will ask the tenant to find another place to live. I believe they give 120 days (4months) for the tenant to move out and find a different place, at the end of which either the tenant moves or loses their section 8 voucher. Considering this particular tenant has some underlying psychiatric issues, there is a possibility  that they may not want to move when given such notice. My question is, if it does come to that, and the tenant is not moving out, do we stand a chance to get him evicted through court, considering we didn't fix the deficiencies? If they decide to move in fear of losing their voucher, it will be a win win situation for both of us. You can tell how desperate I'm for them to move out I'm willing to sacrifice 4 months rent to achieve this.

Any previous experiences in this regard would be really helpful and any advise would be greatly appreciated. Should we just keep on spending money on this unit and keep on putting thing together and get bullied at the hands of this tenant, or should we take a stand and be ready to face consequences (is it worth the damages)?

 I thank you for reading my story, 

[Mike Makkar]

Hi @Talha K.

I deal with Section-8 tenants. Couple of suggestions

- Since you recently acquired the property with a tenant, she is "testing" your property management commitment. I suggest starting a conversation of mutual respect and sign a draft a new lease as the new landlord. Specify reasonable items that you'll fix as a landlord and what maybe unreasonable. And loosely suggest that some items are beyond your scope to support the entire section-8 criteria and that she'll need to look at alternative housing. Not all landlords support section-8, so hopefully she'll get the message  

- Section-8 tenants (especially people under the Walker program) have certain say in increasing the rent rates for their landlords. One of my tenants requested for a 20% rent increase mid-year, which helped with my rebates as a landlord. It pays to be in better terms with the good tenants.

- Start talking to the local housing authority and your tenant's case worker and find out about previous landlord issues and ask for their suggestion as well.

Good luck!