Someone asked if I accept Section 8

[Jacob Phillips]

I’m advertising my second unit and almost immediately I was hit with the “will you accept Section 8?” question. I really have no idea how to navigate that question so I’ve tabled my reply and I’m curious what you guys have to say about that. I honestly wouldn’t know the first thing about accepting section 8 tenants, but I’m not sure how to turn that down without getting myself in trouble. Any suggestions?

[Jennifer T.]

Another thing to be careful of if you decide to accept S8 tenants is the potential tenant needs to already HAVE their voucher.

I had a potential tenant that wanted to rent a 2bd/1ba from me, including giving me the deposit for it to "hold" it.  According to her, she just needed to give her case worker a copy of her son's birth certificate and she'd get her voucher.  That this would all happen over the next week.  I even called her case worker and verified that was true.  BUT, thankfully, I told her I could not accept her deposit until her voucher was completed and would continue to show the unit in the meantime.  I don't know what happened with all of that, but she didn't get her actual voucher until about TWO MONTHS later!

In addition, make sure the number of bedrooms on the voucher matches the number of bedrooms on your unit.  If your unit has three bedrooms, but the tenant's voucher is only two bedrooms, S8 will base their rental offer on the market rent for a 2-bedroom.  Which might still be an acceptable amount to you, but now you're skirting with a decent chance it won't be.  Especially considering you won't know the rent S8 will offer until you are far into the process and the inspection is done and passed.  At least that is how all of that works where I live.

And I run into this ALL the time!  I even put it in my ads that I accept S8 for vouchers that have at least X bedrooms.  But still.  About half the S8 people who contact me have a voucher that's is for less bedrooms than in my ad.