Landlords What You Need to Do Differently to Rent to a Section 8 Tenant

As a landlord, you may wonder what you should do differently if you rent a Section 8 tenants receive rent assistance.

Here is a summary of the key differences:

Property Directions: You must apply to the city's public Housing Authority (PHA) to get your property to begin the eligibility process.

Inspections: In addition to a city inspection for building code is a special inspection called Housing Quality Standards (HQ) inspection. This is performed (a) prior to tenant move-in, (b) each year thereafter, and (c) random. This is to ensure that housing assisted by the program is decent, safe and sanitary.

Tenant Application: The application requires an application if you need everyone to complete one.

Rent Payer: landlords of tenants receiving § 8 housing can receive a portion of the rent payment from the tenant. The remainder of the agreed rental amount (indicated in the lease) will be covered by the § 8 program.

Hire Level: landlords of properties can charge anything they want the tenant is willing to pay. For Section 8 renters, however, the program sets an upper limit for "rent reasonableness" based on (a) the number of rooms and (b) utilities included (or not) in this lease.

Property Damage: No matter what the tenant is responsible for damage beyond normal wear and tear. So there is really no difference. Section 8 tenants may not have anything to lose if you sue them for these injuries, but they may lose their rental assistance.