Question about the legality surrounding Section 8 and inspections

[Account Closed]

Just wanted to poll the audience about something that was brought up in a recent episode of the podcast (ep. 356).

The guest mentioned that, as part of his extensive Section 8 application process, he conducts an inspection of the prospective tenant's current residence to get a feel for how they take care of their dwelling. My question is, are doing these sorts of inspections actually legal?  Somebody in another thread mentioned that this might be a violation of Fair Housing regulations.

[Lynn Andersen]

@Misha

Hi,

What I do with all my prospective tenants is to give them an application when they view a home that I am renting. I put my phone number on the application that also has a list of docs that I need to process said application.

Needless to say they don’t have all the copies of all the docs that I need. I then tell them that I will “gladly stop by their home to get copies of needed docs, and go over the application to make sure that it is complete”.

What that does is makes it easy for them to have me stop by to finish up the application process and I sit down with them, in their current home.

What you see in there home now is what your place will look like in 6 months. Make sure you like what you see!

[Frank Geiger]

Not 100% sure but I imagine if it is part of his standard application process and performs this inspection to all potential candidates, then it is okay. 

[Patricia Steiner]

Section 8 Tenants should be treated exactly as non-8 Tenants. If you do quarterly inspections of your rentals, you should do quarterly inspections of those occupied by Section 8 Tenants. The criteria should be the same and you should be able to produce documentation as to the advance notice of inspection given (per state law), the condition, and the reason for the inspection (regularly scheduled, repair request, etc.).  Section 8 Tenants are as good as your screening criteria. Fair Housing comes into play when you apply rules/sanctions/conditions that are not applied across the board.  If the Podcast suggested that Section 8 Tenants need more frequent inspections, then that's not only a violation of Fair Housing - but stupid (nothing quite like admitting your illegal act in a public forum).  

Hard to overcome stupid...

[Lynn Andersen]

@Misha

Hi,

What I do with all my prospective tenants is to give them an application when they view a home that I am renting. I put my phone number on the application that also has a list of docs that I need to process said application.

Needless to say they don’t have all the copies of all the docs that I need. I then tell them that I will “gladly stop by their home to get copies of needed docs, and go over the application to make sure that it is complete”.

What that does is makes it easy for them to have me stop by to finish up the application process and I sit down with them, in their current home.

What you see in there home now is what your place will look like in 6 months. Make sure you like what you see!