Section 8 - "failure to pay...is not a violation of the lease"?

[Tom Raddatz]

This is question is for those of you with The Section 8 experience. If there is a post or article already addressing this, please be so kind as to share the link.

The agreement I'm looking at says: "failure to pay the housing assistance payment to the owner is not a violation of the lease".

How do you deal with this? How does it work out in reality? This is my first Section 8 application (I'm a landlord with 2 duplexes). In my mind the lease is a contract and part of the contract is for the tenant to pay the rent. The application releases the tenant from responsibility for public housing authority's (PHA) portion of the rent money.

Could someone please explain the intent behind this clause and if you have had problems or not with getting rent from the PHA?

Also, in these Covid times, my attorney has recommended month-to-month rather than annual terms. Does Section 8 even allow for MTM terms? What is your experience with this? Perhaps with Section 8 it isn't an issue as with someone who may be at risk losing their primary income from a job.

Thanks in advance!

-Tom

[Greg Scott]

In my experience each Section 8 housing authority operates a bit differently, so yours may not be exactly the same.

The ones I have dealt with, require a 12 month lease followed by MtM beyond that.  If you want a rent increase after 12 months, you can petition the housing authority for an increase.  We had good luck getting increases.  Some times they increased the amount they paid and the amount they required the resident to pay but then told us they don't mind if we later reduced the total so that the resident could remain at their same out of pocket. (Strange, I know)

I suspect the language around "failure to pay" is related to how section 8 housing authorities typically work.  For example, you should be required to have annual inspections.  If you fail on any item, they typically stop paying the rent until you can get it re-inspected and pass.  Once passed all the prior rent is paid.   That gets a bit goofy when the resident caused the damage. 
   "You must fix that cracked window"
   "I have pictures that the window was fine when the resident moved in, so they must have caused it"
  "We don't know who caused it but you won't get paid until it is fixed and we can re-inspect"
I've had things like that happen a few times.