Working with Section 8

[Tom C]

Guess I will throw this out here.. Just looking for opinions. Purely hypothetical situation, but could possible help some people out. Being a former cop, I always look for loop holes in policy, procedures and the law in order to legally violate some dirt bags rights. Just kidding, any way keep in mind, I am not condoning this work around.

One of the biggest issue for some landlords who rent to Section 8 tenants is getting Section 8 to pay the amount of rent that you are requesting. This usually comes into play when you find an excellent tenant who is, perhaps a single working mother with one child and she is also going to school full time. In this situation, Section 8 comes back and says, due to her income, family size and your house size, you can only charge her $400 bucks a month.

Your rent is $550. Of course, you never ever want to make side deals with the tenant. This is not only illegal, but as MikeOh points out, it will give the tenant power over you and you have just lost all control; however, you really don't want to loose this person, she is a perfect fit for your house.

Oh by way, this house has a detached 2 car garage. hmmm.

Many Landlords in my area often charge extra for use of a garage. Seems a little low life to me, but to each their own.

What would happen if you would strictly write up this girls month to month lease stating, lease does not include use of the garage and make sure Section 8 is aware of it and has it documented also. Now mom comes along and wants to use this nice big garage. You then write up a separate lease to mom charging $150 per month. You don't care if mom, let's her daughter use the garage too, right? All receipts are written out to the mother and the daughter as far as you know, gives those receipts to mom.

Comments, Complaints?