Section 8 - What should I know?

[Sarah Humbargar]

We are under contract on a property with an existing tenant that has another 10 months on their lease with a HAP contract. I am unfamiliar with section 8 and we have never owned a property with a HAP contract, looking for some experts.

The seller has only provided us with the HAP contract and no additional lease. Is there supposed to a a separate lease in addition to the HAP contract? Would the lease define if we permitted to make changes to the property if the tenant is still occupying the property, if the tenant permitted to run a home business from the property, or is that all through the housing authority? I didn't get much information from the local housing authority and I'm needing some expertise, section 8 is new to us and we are planning to redevelop the property, rezone, etc and knowing that this lease has most of the year remaining, we need to know what to plan for. 

[Patti Robertson]

Hi @Sarah Humbargar.  If you sign an assignment of lease document with the seller, SEC 8 may let the current lease terms remain. If you don't have that, they will likely require you and the tenant sign another lease,  Since this will be your first lease term, it will have to be 12 months.  In the later example, this scenario will also give you an opportunity to change the rent amount, in the event you want to ask for a higher amount. I wrote a blog with lots of SEC 8 tips if you'd like to read it.  

https://www.biggerpockets.com/blogs/9232/55313-int...