Evicting Section 8 in the winter?

Question

I'm not sure how everyone else keeps it together, but for the last week of each month and every day after the first that I don't receive a rent payment for a unit I start imagining the worst. It's actually pretty stressful and my mind runs to all the various ways it can play out.

The one that concerns me this month is a section 8 tenant that still hasn't paid her rent as of the 7th. I gave her a small window since she communicated that she'd be sending it on the 5th and I appreciate that over the alternative, ducking my texts/calls. This leads to my question:

If I move to evict her and win the judgement will most likely lead to her voucher being revoked. Since it's December and this is Illinois the sheriff will not remove her and her children until spring. Does this mean you're shooting yourself in the foot to evict someone in this situation? Anyone experience something similar?

David Dachtera · Answer

@Michael R.,

For the sake of your own health, sounds like you need to lighten up and hire someone to do the "worrying".

If you have few units and a single missed payment puts you in difficulty, that I can understand.

If you have a fair number of units, best to let someone else handle it and go look for more profits instead of biting your nails, wringing your hands, gnashing your teeth, ...

Remember: you can always get more money. Time? Not so much.

David Terbeek · Answer

In OH, the court will move them out once you get the judgement so we don't seem to have quite the same situation.  However, given your circumstance it might be best to collect the subsidized amount for the next couple months then move for eviction at the earliest time that will yield a move out order once the winter moratorium is lifted.

Property Management is not for the faint of heart,  I agree with @David Dachtera - it might be time to hire a good PM.

Michael R. · Answer

That's not a bad idea, except that it states, explicitly, in the housing choice voucher packet that the housing authority does not get involved in matters like these and it's up to the landlord to use the same process as they would for any of their other tenants.  If it gets to that point I'll call the case worker to see if they could provide some sort of a "nudge" .I'm interested to hear what the no BS, by the book, landlords think of this situation.  To evict,  be out the lawyer fees, 70% of the rent, and the next few months of squatting sounds like gluttony for punishment.  Getting walked on isn't fun but it keeps the rent rolling in until spring.  From 1,000 feet this goes back to screening well, I know,  but these are inherited tenants.  They're on a month to month so that helps should I need to take action once the weather clears up.

Michael R. · Answer

Thomas S. I'm sorry to hear about your troubles with your Sec8 tenant as well.  I was surprised to hear that your attorney told you to back away on this.  I would consult a couple of others to see if their experiences are all consistent with that of your attorney. Have you found that after you posted the notice they became stand-off-ish and decided to stop paying their portion altogether?

Christine Swaidan · Answer

@Michael R. Thankfully relations with tenant are decent and all money is being paid. Regarding consulting attorneys, when I'm unable to get housing on board with me and my regular eviction guy is saying don't waste your money, I'm listening to them. Raising the rent takes some of the sting out of this.

Best wishes dealing with your situation.  This landlording thing can be quite challenging at times.

Franklin Romine · Answer

Convinced or trick the tenant into paying you a couple more months and then get them out before next winter.Franklin

Christine Swaidan · Answer

Hi @Michael R. I can't speak to your specific situation but I am finding that dealing with Section 8 can be tricky. They don't play by the same rules. I recently gave a 60 day notice to terminate because tenant moved her daughter  and two grandchildren in--it's a one bedroom 55+ community. The daughter is acting as a caregiver which is fine but the children are in clear violation of the terms of our agreement. I thought it would be a simple matter but my own legal counsel told me that I needed to back away. No judge would ever throw her out and it would be wasting my money. I called Sec8 because she is in violation of their rules, also, and they said they are not willing to do anything. I did give her a rent increase which Sec8 is picking up because of increased water usage and wear and tear. Yesterday I got a letter from a law firm stating that tenant has retained them to address the unlawful detainer action.

To be fair this is one of the few problems I've had with Sec8. My point is that I was treating this situation like I would with any other tenant and it's not working! Good luck with dealing with your problem.

Thomas S. · Answer

Have you called your sheriffs office. If not then your assumption regarding evicting may be wrong. They may have some leeway but generally will evict unless the temp is below 15.

As a no holds barred landlord if she is on M2M I would first follow your state codes and issue all necessary paperwork regarding rent, pay or quit, eviction, whatever your state codes indicate. If you do not know your state codes sit down and learn them, learn to follow them to the letter and until you do know them do nothing. Landlords that have not learned their state codes should not be in business.

I will assume you know your codes but have chosen not to follow them. I suggest you immediately change that policy as it will only cost you more money.

Evicting tenants is not dependant on time of year. Serve the papers, if you legally do not need a lawyer in your state do the eviction yourself, this one will be easy and is a good learning process. Time to educate yourself on the process as you will need it in the future.

Based on you personality you should have a PM now.

Michael R. · Answer

@David Dachtera I totally agree, and once I get north of 10 units I'm going to transition to a property management service to save some of my sanity.

At the moment I'm on unit 5 so the more I can "juice my gains" by managing things myself, the better (financially at least).  I'm trying to nail down a 10 unit after the 1st of the year, so that marginal relief may come sooner than later.  That being said, the words "lighten up" will be pinned up in my kitchen, until that happens.  It's not just my rentals either, I'm finding that I'm like this about a lot of things…

@David Terbeek I think I would have to work through the process myself to determine if that is, in fact, the case.  It seems to be a common occurrence that they hold off until the temperature rises, based on what I'm hearing.

I'll start PM shopping now so I have one ready to go when the time comes.  Until then…stand tall, and press on!

Evicting Section 8 in the winter?

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