Renting to Section 8 Tenants

[Raylor G.]

BP,

In multi-family properties, how has your experiences been in renting to Section 8 tenants? I know an upside is that rent is pretty much guaranteed being the government covers most of it. However has anyone had any horror stories? If you have Section 8 tenants who aren't keeping your place up to standards is it hard to evict them being they're Section 8? Are they a protected class?

[Marcia Maynard]

Originally posted by @Raylor G.:

BP,

In multi-family properties, how has your experiences been in renting to Section 8 tenants? I know an upside is that rent is pretty much guaranteed being the government covers most of it. However has anyone had any horror stories? If you have Section 8 tenants who aren't keeping your place up to standards is it hard to evict them being they're Section 8? Are they a protected class?

We have an 8-plex and at one time half the units were rented to tenants with Section 8 housing vouchers. Our experience with S8 is good. The S8 tenants are no different than our other tenants and their rental agreement is the same. If we have difficulty with a S8 tenant (only happened once in 20 years) we give notice to the tenant and a copy of the notice to their S8 case manager. The case manager talks to the tenant and so do we, within no time the tenant comes back into compliance with the rental agreement and this saves the tenancy. Our local Housing Authority is efficient and responsive. Unfortunately not all are, so the experience landlords have with S8 really vary, primarily due to how well the S8 program is administered in any given area and how well landlords do their tenant screening.