Section 8 Tenant Not Willing to Leave Past Termination of Lease

[Zain B.]

Hello BP Community, 

I wanted to start by thanking all of the members of the BP family for helping me so much and answering all of my annoying questions. I have another classic tenant issue that I need guidance on. 

Brief background: Tenant has stayed at my parents property for the past two years. She is on disability and convinced the county to pay ~77% of her rent (~$906) with the tenant responsible for 22.6% or $265 per month. She paid all of her portion up until now (sometimes late, most of the times on time). There were a couple of instances where she was really late and we let it slide but I made it known that this was a one time exception for all of the good work she was doing maintaining the property. Beginning of this Spring, my parents decided to sell the property and I advised her of our intent to sell and gave her two months to find another spot. I even got a agent to show her another 1 bedroom apartment but she refused to move there claiming the apt unit which the agent showed her has 2 flights of stairs and she needs something on the ground floor level. Note my property also has 2 flights of stairs so not sure why she would complain. Once I let her know of our intention to sell the property, she started dodging my calls. She initially agreed to move out and said that she will start packing her stuff and put it in storage but has constantly requested extensions. I provided her with one extension which was for the month of May but than miraculously on May 31st, she advised me that the roof was leaking and the ceiling in the kitchen came down crashing with water on the kitchen floor which resulted in a slip and fall on her behalf. Still not sure how this has anything to do with her moving out on May 31st or why she can't. She shared some pictures of the ceiling damaged but I couldn't tell if that was intentional damage on her part on May 31st or was just an excuse for another extension. If she was going to leave anyways on May 31st, not sure why a leaking ceiling would stop her from vacating the property but that's what she is claiming. I asked the condo association to fix the roof and take a look at the damage to determine if it was really a leaky roof but the condo association claims that they have not been able to contact her to schedule an inspection. Not sure why she is preventing the condo association from fixing the leak and assessing the damage but seems like she is delaying her exit. She has not paid her portion of the rent this month (June) but the housing authority has paid their share of the rent. I don't think she plans to pay her portion of the rent either as she is dodging my calls. I had my dad visit the property with our contractor last week to assess the interior damage due to the leaking roof and she said that she wasn't home and to schedule an appointment with her by giving her advance notice. We gave her advance notice this week but she never confirmed our appointment. My dad passed by the property (didn't enter) today anyways to inquire why she isn't answering her phone calls to schedule and to assess the damage from the rain. To our surprise, some random lady opened the door (who is not supposed to be there and was high as a kite)... asked my dad who he was and after introduction went inside to confirm discuss with our tenant... came back and said that the tenant was not home and to come back after 5pm. We think the tenant was there as her car was parked in her assigned parking spot, she claims she is handicapped and does not have a job. But that's just speculation. She has not answered my calls today. Seems to me that the situation is going south quickly

Apologies for that long winded background. 

Need advice: Below are the questions that I have for our community

1. Any creative way to get her to leave without going through an eviction process. She sorta cares about having an eviction attached to her name because she knows no one will actually rent to her once she has an eviction. 

2. I have never had to evict a tenant so any guidance you can provide to get the process started in the state of Maryland would be greatly appreciated

3. Do you think accepting the rent check from the housing authority disqualifies me from initiating the eviction process. The housing authority does not know of any of the mess that I am in and I don't think they care

4. What should I be aware of as I go through this process? How long does an eviction generally take?

5. Any recommendations for a good attorney in the Columbia, MD area to help me work through this process. 

Once again, thanks for all of your help. I am sure I am missing out so if you see if any red flags, please feel free to highlight. Feel free to ask any clarifying questions you have. 

Best regards,