Evicting section 8 tenant

[Emily Chen]

So I bought a rental property last year in Columbus and inherited the tenants. Fast forward, this year, I gave them a 60 day notice. I said I would consider keeping them if they could raise the rent, but I never guaranteed anything. they have been on month to month lease for years. Now we are going to eviction court, the tenant continues to harass me and sends me unwanted texts/calls. The tenant is telling me that I can't terminate the contract with section 8. Anyone in this situation before? Is the court in Columbus landlord friendly? Specifically Franklin County?

[James Mc Ree]

You should have copies of the landlord-tenant lease and Section 8 lease. Those are your governing documents. You should be able to request a copy from the local Section 8 office. Follow the lease termination procedures in those docs.

Section 8 requires a 60 day written notice. You can't evict them until that time elapses and they are still there. It should be easier after 60 days because they no longer have a lease. You have a major power over the tenant at this point: an eviction or leaving the property owing you money could result in the tenant losing their Section 8 voucher and having to wait years to get a new one. Your Section 8 case manager might be able to help explain that to your tenant to move them along.

You can make a request to Section 8 to raise the rent. Talk with your case manager about that. Evaluate your local market to determine fair market rent for your property. Look up what Section 8 thinks is fair market rent and make a request. Section 8 will then approve something after talking with the tenant to see what they can afford. You can decide to keep it or not.