Section 8 tenant I want to

[Zogana Sterjo]

Hi,

This is my first time posting here and it might be a bit of a long post, but I would appreciate everyone’s time for reading it and sharing your knowledge. My husband and I recently bought a side by side townhouse in Wisconsin. At the time we made our offer to purchase, there were tenants living on both sides of the property.  In the “Real Estate Condition Form” the sellers had checked the “NO” box that they weren’t aware of any lease or rental agreement binding the subsequent owner. So we thought the leases were month to month since the tenants were living there for 10+ years. The tenants on one side moved out one week before the closing day which was totally ok, but here come the obstacles for us. After we closed on the house, we approached the other tenant about increasing her rent (the rent she pays for 3 bedrooms is too low for our area). She told us she is in a program and gets rent assistance from the county. She said there is a lease between the county, her and the previous owners which ends in January 2020. We had no idea what this program was. I remember vaguely being told by our real estate agent that the county helps to pay for her rent, which I thought came in the form of a welfare check and didn’t question it (we are young, have no experience in real estate, and our real estate agent is also new in the field). After doing some research when she mentioned this program, I found out about Section 8.  

I told her I needed to see the lease, but she said she doesn’t have it and that I should call the county. I have been spending an entire month trying to get the current lease from the county’s housing agency with no leads (trying to get in touch with them has been a nightmare).  After numerous tries, they sent me an HAP contract that ended in 1/31/2013. When I questioned the case worker about it she said that’s the initial lease and they do half pages for renewals. She then sent me the half page which was basically a re-examination form of her income effective 2/1/19 -due for re-examination 2/1/20. She tried to sell that to me as the lease (no signatures or date on it). My understanding after doing my research is that there’s supposed to be an HAP contract between the PHA and the owner, and a lease between the owner and the tenant, but they refer to everything as the lease. I was able to contact the sellers who said they never offered the tenant a lease (it was always month to month), but that they sign a contract with the county every year (I will be getting this in writing as well). I questioned the county again and now the case worker told me the lease renews automatically every year unless the landlord decides to end it. I immediately called an attorney who said that under WI law a lease cannot automatically be renewed for over than one month, AND that the housing agency has no authority to renew the lease.

Now after buying the house we found out some other stuff about her. She has family members living in with her (confirmed with the county she’s supposed to be the only person living in the house), and one of them has a long list of criminal offenses. She has also tried to manipulate and bribe us in different ways to keep her there, so to wrap it up I just want to end her tenancy and start fresh. I feel bad if her assistance would be terminated though, so I don’t want to bring up the above plus I want to end things quietly. My question is would I be able to end her tenancy on the bases that there’s no lease specifically between the previous landlords and the tenant? Even if the county has a HAP contract, that is not a lease, is that correct? According to the short free consultation I had with the attorney over the phone, she cannot stay in the property by simply having this contract, she needs to have a lease, but she insists she can stay until January, 2020 (and actually wants until spring to vacate). She also says she has more rights under this program now because of her age and health problems. If somebody knows this program well, could you please explain what I’m allowed or not allowed to do! On a side note,  if you have experience with “a change in ownership“ when you rent to Section 8 tenants, I would like to know what your process was. From what I read on the county’s housing website, the new owners must agree in writing to bind by and comply with the HAP contract. If they don’t agree the contract is terminated with the previous owners and the lease is automatically terminated also. My husband and I never signed an agreement form with the county to have this contract assigned to us, so I have a feeling they are not following their protocol. 

Thank you in advance for dedicating your time to my post!