Loans Answers

Section 8 – What is it?

Question: As a landlord advertising a home for rent, I am frequently asked it I accept Section 8. I know that Section 8 refers to a plan whereby the government (Federal? State?) pays a portion of the tenant’s rent. But that’s all I know.

What’s the story with Section 8? What are the pros and cons of participating? Am I likely to get a lower quality tenant if I allow Section 8?

Answer: Section 8 is a federal program, administered locally. It is a rent subsidy, usually paying a portion of the subsidized tenants rent directly to the landlord.

In my experience, Section 8 tenants are as good and as bad as those who pay full freight. Some of my best tenants have been on Section 8, and most of them were in transition, after an accident or divorce or something.

In many states it is illegal to discriminate against Section 8 recipients ONLY on the basis of Section 8 recipiency. It is in Massachusetts.

The pros are you get most of your rent from the gov’t. The cons are you have to use their lease and keep your apt. up to their standards. I am very surprised by Mr. Rotherberg’s experience with Section 8. He must either have really bad properties or not screen his tennants very well. My experience is just the opposite of his.

In my very nice properties in a nice section of town, I don’t accept tennants that have any type of blemish on their credit record, neither smokers nor pets are acceptable. If two applicants are equally qualified, the one with the smaller number of children is the one I choose. I have never had any problem with these properties in several years, the rent is always on time or earlier, and the houses are spotless when vacated.

In average neighborhoods, I accept tennants with small credit problems and have minimal problems with them. Almost always the houses are in great shape when vacated. There is an occasional exception.

In the bad part of the city, a credit report becomes almost meaningless since almost all applicants have bad credit. More damage by tennants and late rent payments are more common here.

On the bottom of the heap, are the Section 8 tennants. Only when extremely desperate to fill a vacancy will I willingly choose a Section 8 tennant. They appear to be the scum of the earth.

One nice thing about Section 8 is that the rent comes from the government which means checks don’t bounce and almost always on time (don’t forget that it is a large bureaucracy and a foul-up can take a month to straighten out). Another nice feature is that the Section 8 office will reimburse the landlord for damage after the tennant leaves, up to one months rent. Unfortunately, this is usually about half of the amount required to repair their damage.

It is truly amazing to watch how fast the Section 8 tennants can destroy your property. I believe most damage is caused by the unsupervised children, but none of the Section 8 children I have seen have ever been supervised (remember that usually their parents and grandparents have also been on Section 8). There is no concept of hygiene or sanitation among these tennants. You will always have roach infestation problems within a month of them moving in. Many of them tend to have violent boyfriends. Often this violence is taken out on your house (doors, windows, walls, etc.). Many of the boyfriends have been in jail often. There is no sense of aesthetics in the Section 8 tennants: I told one tennant that I would drive her to the store to pick out her choice of window coverings for the kitchen window, but she did not have time for it. Later, I discovered she had used an old ragged towel nailed on with 12 penny nails. Another tennant apparantly thought the new counter top I just installed needed a tortilla drying rack and manufactured one from an old rusty bar-b-que grill and nailed it to the new counter top. I could continue for a long time with these stories, but you get the picture.

Advice to potential Section 8 landlords:

Don’t allow a Section 8 tennant to move into a nice house, they will quickly destroy it.

Don’t install a new refrigerator or stove, they will be stolen. Get ones in the $200 or less range. Sometimes it is cheaper to replace them than to clean them after the tennants get done with them.

Don’t use expensive screen doors or screens, they will always need replacing.

Don’t accept a tennant that is currently living with parents or friends. It usually means they were evicted from a previous residence by an extremely unhappy landlord and will do the same to you.

Inspect your property frequently. Count the children to ensure only the ones listed on the lease are living there. (One tennant should have had 2 but actually had 10 children)

Report any violation to the Section 8 office immediately.

Don’t pay much attention to anything the tennant tells you. There is very little incentive for her to tell you the truth. (was the door really kicked in by a burglar or was it a mad boyfriend?).

Don’t even think about collecting any damages from the tennants themselves, they have nothing of value and the Section 8 people will be of no help.

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Filed under: Bad Credit