Maryland Section 8 program

[Richard Bailey]

Do anyone have good understanding renting a apartment to section 8 tenants in Maryland? Do you have a government liason contact person?

[Andrew Michael]

I have not placed a Section 8 tenant in PG but I have in neighboring counties.  Here are the basic steps that I went through.

1)  Landlord will fill out Section 8 application and get property approved by housing authority.  They will collect general information about your property and qualify you for a particular voucher amount based on location, rent amount, type of property, number or rooms, market competition, etc  The application is of no cost to the landlord.  

2)  Once approved, your property will go through an inspection process.  They will send the inspection results back to the landlord with a list of items they want changed, fixed and updated.

4)  After everything on their list has been addressed, they will come back and do a re-inspection.  This cycle continues until your property fulfills all of their requirements and regulations.  The inspections are of no cost to the landlord (other than the out of pocket repairs made to unit).

5) After the above is taken care of you can begin vetting section 8 applicants who have the appropriate voucher amount to rent your property. 

I would suggest you submit your own lease agreement for the potential tenant and housing authority to sign and approve.  In addition I would ask each applicant if they already have their landlord packet ready as this is a huge time saver.  Each section 8 participant needs a landlord packet in order to know their voucher amount and be eligible for the program.  Due to the paper work and appointments needed to get this done the process can sometimes take a few weeks or even months. 

Once all of this is complete and you have accepted a tenant, you will get a direct deposit into your bank from the housing authority and the difference will be paid by your tenant.

For example, if you are renting your unit for $1000 and your tenant has a voucher for $800 the tenant will need to pay $200 a month out of pocket.

Housing Pays $800

Tenant pays $200

Total Rent = $1000

Lastly, make sure to still do your due diligence when screening section 8 tenants.  Just because they have been accepted into the program does not mean they have been screened thoroughly and would make good tenants.  Many of the are great renters but there are also trouble tenants as well.  Screen them as you would anyone else.

Below is a link to the PG housing website.  Hope this helps!

http://www.princegeorgescountymd.gov/sites/Housing...