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How
to Handle Section 8 Rent and Tenant Eviction
Section 8 Landlords Guide
Do you know
how Section 8 landlords should handle their rent payments and tenant
eviction? Learn what are the best ways to deal with your Section 8 rent
and evict nasty tenants with our Section 8 landlord guide.
How
do You Collect, Charge or Increase the Rent for a Section 8 Tenant?
Once you
join the Section 8 housing program, your rent payments will actually
come
from 2 different places - The public housing authority and your Section
8 renter.
Let's
begin with the quick and easy portion first. The bulk of your rent
payments (60 to 70%) will be paid by your public housing authority
every month. You can usually expect a check from them on the
first day of each month.
This
effortless, guaranteed rent collection is the one priceless benefit of
being Section 8 landlords. As long as your tenant remains in
the Section 8 housing program and your property meets the Section 8 inspection
standards, you will be paid like clockwork for the entire
rental period.
The remaining portion (30 to 40%) of the rent
will have to be collected from your tenant just like a normal landlord.
Common methods for collecting rent include cash payments, mail-in
checks and online methods such as Paypal. For more tried and tested
tips, Click here for our
guide on collecting Section 8 rent from your tenants
painlessly.
What about
the amount of rent that you can charge a Section 8 renter?
Well
nothing is perfect and in exchange for guaranteed rent payments, you
are not allowed to freely decide on your rent charges. Instead you will
have to set it according to the fair market rents FMR stated
by the
government.
The government arrives at this fair market rents FMR
figure by comparing the asking rent and utility bills
for private apartments in different areas. The average rent charges
plus utilities will then be sorted by area and number of bedrooms to
arrive the fair market rent figure for your rental property.
If you want to raise the rent for a Section 8 tenant, you can submit a
rent increase request form to housing authorities for approval 60 days
in advance. Remember you can only request for a rent increase after the
first 12 months of your Section lease and you will have to give your
tenant a copy of the request form as well.
Valid
Reasons for Evicting Section 8 Tenants and How You Can Evict Them
Remember that your section 8 lease is a 1 year fixed term tenancy
so you cannot end it as and when you like it by giving your tenant a
notice to quit in advance.
However if
your Section 8 renter turns out to be a total nightmare
and breaks the terms of your lease agreement with reckless
abandon, then you can take action to legally remove them
from your rental property.
Valid
and common reasons for tenant eviction by Section 8 landlords include
non-payment of rent, breaking of the lease terms, illegal use of the
rental
property and failure to make property repairs caused by tenant abuse /
neglect. Be sure to keep
all written records as evidence for the eviction lawsuit.
Before you are allowed to evict any tenant, you will have to hand him a
written notice to quit
which will give him one last chance to clean up his act. This warning
usually works for pretty well for Section 8 tenants since the
last
thing they will want to do is to chalk a bad record and risk losing
their precious housing subsidies.
If your tenant refuses to make amends or leave, you can then go ahead
to file an eviction lawsuit after 3 to 7 days
(depending on your state laws). As the eviction process can be complex
and time consuming affair for section 8 landlords, Click here for our step by
step guide on how to evict a tenant.
Do you want to learn MORE must-know facts on being a
Section 8 landlord?
Return
from
this Section 8 Landlords page to our What
is Section 8 Housing guide
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