Section 8 tenant not paying her rent

[Anonymous]

Op. Why did you do no research on this beforehand. This is why so many people are reluctant to rent to section 8 tenants. Either way, being a landlord in DC takes blls. I know it because I am a DC landlord. This is probably the most tenant slanted city in the nation. I can’t believe you chose to take on a section 8 tenant without understanding or reading about the program. Were you trying to be a do-gooder? What was your motivation? All the hoops you’re going to have to jump through our insane. And you’re not going to be able to evict your tenant in the middle of a pandemic either.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"without any cause"? Lady/duuude, it's a pandemic out there. Folks are having trouble putting food on the table. If you're rich enough to have an investment property, why don't you sit on your hands a minute and see if you can squeeze out a little empathy for people who don't have a savings.

DCUM has a chronic empathy deficit.

It is not have an empathy deficit. It has a reality slanted mentality. I hate when people with no skin in the game put forth ideas not grounded in reality. You do know landlords have to pay mortgages on these properties? If they cant collect rent that’s on them and they can go into default and go bankrupt.

[Anonymous]

Good luck weeding out section 8 tenants as a landlord in DC or nationwide these days. There’s a huge movement to prevent people from discriminating against those with vouchers. Whether it’s to try and end the use of credit score rating in screening applicants or removing their names from any applications so there’s no name bias, it will get very hard for landlords in DC, or much harder, to simply screen out tenants they don’t want without being accused of discrimination.

It’ll get to the point where you have to interview everyone, and then you’ll be scared you’ll go to court if for some reason the person with the section 8 voucher doesn’t get the house or the apartment you’re trying to rent. It sucks people want just won’t let the market work the way it should. I do understand racism is a terrible thing and name discrimination and racial discrimination definitely exists in the rental market. However, forcing people to take on section 8 tenants and they otherwise would not do so isn’t fair. Also, how is it fair to working people for someone to get a voucher in the first place? Why do some people get vouchers another stone? What is vouchers pay for so much? Is it crazy to wonder why people should be able to have their pick up housing in the central parts of the city when others have to move out to the suburbs to afford something?

Essentially, being a landlord in DC is tough. Automated systems for listing your property online may now make it harder because of the Biden ministration’s new rules regarding housing policy and rentals. 74% of landlords are small time landlords. It’s very annoying how hard they have to make it in the name of promoting racial justice and all this other stuff. Not everyone wants to rent to section 8 tenants and they shouldn’t be forced to if they don’t want to.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s probably too late to advise you not to buy rental properties in DC becaus renter’s rights....

Give them 30 days notice to pay you the back rent or you’ll start the eviction process.

Can't start the process. In DC right now, because of COVID, you can't kick someone out. Quite frankly, you should be happy that you are getting the 80%. I know people who are renting at market and people are paying rent. We have a friend whose tenant is stiffing them on $3500 per month and they also have a job. They work for the state department and are using this as an opportunity to get over.

I would be reporting this to the state department,

+1 We have a military contractor pulling this crap. It took a little work but I have her CO's number now in my speed dial. If she is late or calls with a sob story one more time then I'm calling the CO. I don't care what happens to her clearance. She is paying for private school but she can't pay her rent? C'mon now.

A lot of people are taking advantage of the pandemic. Liars and cheaters are gonna lie and cheat, and I'm gonna expose the lies and cheats every single time. We worked hard to afford to buy the rental and it is part of our retirement plan. I have a responsibility to my family first and I'm not going to stand still and be robbed by someone who doesn't have a moral code.

+1. But you should have called the CO yesterday.

This is why I prefer my virginia rentals. 2 of no rent weeks and the sheriff is at your door with guns and it’s either you leave or you’re forcibly removed.

Nice... says a person who's been through a physical eviction confrontation with multiple sheriffs. Lessons learned, all good.

Next time pay your rent or move.

[Anonymous]

I have the same problem, but am in Maryland.
The yearly lease expired and I even agreed to lower the rent. Obviously the tenant only paid the first months rent after that and now for 2 months has not paid their share.
I am not wealthy and not even in a position to financially support my adult daughter, never mind support the life style of a stranger.
There is nothing stopping the tenant from moving out and finding a smaller, cheaper place to live, like what everyone else does when they need to live within their means.
I sent a notice to end the lease and expect to file a tenant holdover in a few weeks

Fingers crossed.

[Anonymous]

I get that this landlord said they already had a section 8 tenant in the property when they bought it. But as far as future landlords, aren’t there specific inspection requirements, etc to have the house qualified to be section 8 housing. So can’t the landlord just decline to go through the inspection process and therefore doesn’t qualify to be a section 8 landlord?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s probably too late to advise you not to buy rental properties in DC becaus renter’s rights....

Give them 30 days notice to pay you the back rent or you’ll start the eviction process.

Can't start the process. In DC right now, because of COVID, you can't kick someone out. Quite frankly, you should be happy that you are getting the 80%. I know people who are renting at market and people are paying rent. We have a friend whose tenant is stiffing them on $3500 per month and they also have a job. They work for the state department and are using this as an opportunity to get over.

I would be reporting this to the state department,

+1 We have a military contractor pulling this crap. It took a little work but I have her CO's number now in my speed dial. If she is late or calls with a sob story one more time then I'm calling the CO. I don't care what happens to her clearance. She is paying for private school but she can't pay her rent? C'mon now.

A lot of people are taking advantage of the pandemic. Liars and cheaters are gonna lie and cheat, and I'm gonna expose the lies and cheats every single time. We worked hard to afford to buy the rental and it is part of our retirement plan. I have a responsibility to my family first and I'm not going to stand still and be robbed by someone who doesn't have a moral code.

+1. But you should have called the CO yesterday.

This is why I prefer my virginia rentals. 2 of no rent weeks and the sheriff is at your door with guns and it’s either you leave or you’re forcibly removed.

Nice... says a person who's been through a physical eviction confrontation with multiple sheriffs. Lessons learned, all good.

Next time pay your rent or move.

+1 I'm the poster with the military contractor tenant. It is actually my parents' property and I am managing it now along with some others they have. My military dad has a soft heart. Me, not so much when we're talking about part of my folks' retirement income. Anyway, the poster who said I should have called yesterday is right and I -finally- got my dad to agree that enough is enough. Mr. Nice Guy has passed the baton to his B daughter. Be aware!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I get that this landlord said they already had a section 8 tenant in the property when they bought it. But as far as future landlords, aren’t there specific inspection requirements, etc to have the house qualified to be section 8 housing. So can’t the landlord just decline to go through the inspection process and therefore doesn’t qualify to be a section 8 landlord?

Who knows. I know people who have been sued by the district for saying they don’t take housing vouchers. They city is cracking down now. It’s all in the name of fairness or some BS. Essentially if you were some small time person trying to run out your house on craigslist because you need to move and someone emails you and says hey do you take vouchers and you say no you are fair game to be sued by the city. It costs thousands of dollars to fight these lawsuits all because you are a gentrifying, heartless piece of sht who doesn’t want to rent your row house to some family of 10 from EOTR who has a massive section 8 voucher, but a history of putting out cigarette butts on cornice molding and ripping our copper piping. Just take anyone! Just do it! Right? It’s only your stupid house. You should be forced to put anyone up. You are such a bad person if you don’t.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I get that this landlord said they already had a section 8 tenant in the property when they bought it. But as far as future landlords, aren’t there specific inspection requirements, etc to have the house qualified to be section 8 housing. So can’t the landlord just decline to go through the inspection process and therefore doesn’t qualify to be a section 8 landlord?

Who knows. I know people who have been sued by the district for saying they don’t take housing vouchers. They city is cracking down now. It’s all in the name of fairness or some BS. Essentially if you were some small time person trying to run out your house on craigslist because you need to move and someone emails you and says hey do you take vouchers and you say no you are fair game to be sued by the city. It costs thousands of dollars to fight these lawsuits all because you are a gentrifying, heartless piece of sht who doesn’t want to rent your row house to some family of 10 from EOTR who has a massive section 8 voucher, but a history of putting out cigarette butts on cornice molding and ripping our copper piping. Just take anyone! Just do it! Right? It’s only your stupid house. You should be forced to put anyone up. You are such a bad person if you don’t.

Trying to “rent” not run.

What I mean is that I am a liberal, but also being a landlord, and having seen so much poverty in DC and so much damage done by section 8 tenants that it’s very hard to be pro social justice, and anti-poverty, and want to rent my properties to section 8 tenant. These people have no investment in the property. Many of them just don’t care. It’s not hyperbole to say that cigarettes will get smoked in your house. There will be yelling and drugs and who knows what. There is lying about how many people will actually live in the unit often times. Again, even saying things with truth to them these days, and are painful to hear will have you branded racist or worse. We are now entering a time period in history where critical thinking is being canceled. That sounds like complete Tucker Carlson nonsense, but it’s true.

[Anonymous]

My neighbor had multiple low income properties. Please don’t laugh he had an actor follow up on late payments.

Extremely scary looking guy who looked like a hit man from the sopranos.

He was harmless and only asked for the money by x date to landlord or he would come back.

Worked 95 percent of time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My neighbor had multiple low income properties. Please don’t laugh he had an actor follow up on late payments.

Extremely scary looking guy who looked like a hit man from the sopranos.

He was harmless and only asked for the money by x date to landlord or he would come back.

Worked 95 percent of time.

LOL. That's great. I would be worried about some whacko pulling a gun on the actor these days but what a creative way to try to get his rent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I get that this landlord said they already had a section 8 tenant in the property when they bought it. But as far as future landlords, aren’t there specific inspection requirements, etc to have the house qualified to be section 8 housing. So can’t the landlord just decline to go through the inspection process and therefore doesn’t qualify to be a section 8 landlord?

Who knows. I know people who have been sued by the district for saying they don’t take housing vouchers. They city is cracking down now. It’s all in the name of fairness or some BS. Essentially if you were some small time person trying to run out your house on craigslist because you need to move and someone emails you and says hey do you take vouchers and you say no you are fair game to be sued by the city. It costs thousands of dollars to fight these lawsuits all because you are a gentrifying, heartless piece of sht who doesn’t want to rent your row house to some family of 10 from EOTR who has a massive section 8 voucher, but a history of putting out cigarette butts on cornice molding and ripping our copper piping. Just take anyone! Just do it! Right? It’s only your stupid house. You should be forced to put anyone up. You are such a bad person if you don’t.

you don't have to say anything, but if you have payment schedules that section 8 vouchers can't comply with, you don't have to waive them

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You're getting a lot of bad advice here, OP.

You can't file for an eviction in DC now. You can't send a notice to quit. You can ask for mediation with DCHA (email Khalilah Payne [e-mail]) but they can't make her pay, can't evict her, and are unlikely to pull her voucher (and you don't want them to because then you're going to get nothing and you can't evict her). If her income went down she could recertify and DCHA could pay more, but if it hasn't that's not an option.

You can't apply for most of the relief at https://coronavirus.dc.gov/rent --section 8 and rapid rehousing providers are excluded--but look into each one and see if your tenant might be able to apply for any of them. Your tenant, or maybe even you, could contact your councilmembers (including the at-large ones) and see if they can pay out of their constituent service funds--not all of them have one and they vary widely in their size and rules.

Your tenant could apply for a transfer voucher if she wanted to move, but it doesn't seem like she does and it takes a few months to get approved for the transfer and then she'd have to find a new place. And DCHA won't approve the move unless she's current on rent (or current on a payment agreement you set up with her) so tenants don't have much incentive to move.

But mostly you are stuck. You can talk to a landlord-tenant lawyer about this (Eddie Cordone, Emilie Fairbanks, Stephen Hessler, etc. basically you want someone who is in landlord-tenant court so much that they have their own office there...this is not an exaggeration; there are literally lawyers who have their own spaces in the courthouse to do negotiations and the like) but they aren't going to be able to get your tenant out--they can't even get out squatters, people selling drugs, tenants who scream all night or damage the property--nonpayment is the least of the city's concerns. And honestly, if they did get your tenant out you probably aren't going to find someone for a while. Be happy with the 80% you're getting. See if your mortgage lender will reduce your rate or give you some other relief.

--Section 8 landlord in a very similar position. And nonpayment is far from the worst of the tenant's behavior. But financially I'm doing fine with the DCHA portion.

+1 to all of this advice. Been there done that. Learned to be strict with our Section 8 renters and satisfied with the DCHA portion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Be sure you can evict before you complain to DCHA. They can pull the voucher and you'd still have a nonpaying tenant you can't evict!

Definitely check this. It is a fantasy that you will get the rent and legal costs from a section 8 tenant who has not been paying. She will never pay again and you will probably eventually have to evict, but at least keep getting the 80% until the eviction moratorium is lifted. As soon as you start eviction proceedings, she may destroy your property, because she will lose her section 8 voucher which is A Really Big Deal. (and again, you will never get a dime in compensation for the damages.)

Does a tenant lose section 8 voucher if they are evicted for non-payment of rent?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Be sure you can evict before you complain to DCHA. They can pull the voucher and you'd still have a nonpaying tenant you can't evict!

Definitely check this. It is a fantasy that you will get the rent and legal costs from a section 8 tenant who has not been paying. She will never pay again and you will probably eventually have to evict, but at least keep getting the 80% until the eviction moratorium is lifted. As soon as you start eviction proceedings, she may destroy your property, because she will lose her section 8 voucher which is A Really Big Deal. (and again, you will never get a dime in compensation for the damages.)

Does a tenant lose section 8 voucher if they are evicted for non-payment of rent?

Generally yes, but there are programs to help out with eviction funds, at least in MD.