Section 8 Tenant Evictions

[Yordano Alicea]

I purchased my first investment property in NJ back in 2020. It being my first property I decided to go all out and spend more money than I should have on the renovations. Once completed, I decided (at the behest of my then property manager), to rent to a section 8 tenant.

Since then, the tenant almost set fire to the basement when they had one of the children sleeping in the basement (they had been instructed not to have someone in the basement because it wasn’t a room by code and I actually failed two fire inspections as a result of this).

They have damaged the tub and required me to have it repaired twice, and most recently have caused substantial plumbing issues with a new bill for $10k.

After I expressed to the tenant that I would be increasing the rent, the tenant was on board with this. HUD did not approve this so I'm essentially out of luck with collecting the rent I'm asking for. Additionally, the tenants case worker instructed the tenant that they don't have to start looking for a new place to live.

The tenant wants to continue to live there and pay me the difference in rent under the table. I’m not okay with this. I need help otherwise I’ll be forced to sell the home against my wishes. Any advice will be helpful.