Section 8 - my story....
I purchased a 3-bedroom town home in a decent neighborhood nearly 10 years ago. The property was built in the 1970's and was in good condition. I lived there for approximately 4 years when the neighborhood and value of property took a sharp decline. Reason - mostly due to properties being rented to tenants who did not take care of the properties (most of them were section 
moving in the adjoining town homes. I stuck it out for another 3 years until the neighborhood was so bad I just couldn't take living there anymore. I was the only one on the block that actually had to get up every morning and go to a job to pay my rent. I love kids, but there were just so many unsupervised kids in this neighborhood that it was total chaos. The parents of course, were oblivious. They contributed to a lot of damage to the outside of my property during the day while I was at work and unable to stop anything from happening.
I tried selling for well over a year trying to get out of it just what I owed or to take a small loss. I couldn’t even keep the realtors for sale sign up in my front yard due to the kids ripping it apart. I purchased the property for 75k and today the value is under 50k - I still owe 60+, no one will touch it! My only option was rent through section 8 - I could not even find anyone without government assistance who would even consider renting the property… and this was at $600 a month, very good price for the size of the place.
Upon preparing the property for section 8, the place was in very good condition, several renovations, nice carpeting, hardwood floors, new roof etc., etc., all in compliance with section 8 regulations.
Fast forward 2 years - my property has had extensive damages above and beyond normal wear and tear. I have made countless costly repairs. Through section 8 inspections and whiney complaints from everything from light bulbs to 9 volt batteries to mildew on the caulk in the tub - I have had to make just about all of these repairs myself even if the tenant was responsible or I would not receive a check from section 8 to cover my mortgage payment. I have countless "nightmare" tenant stories. I am now in the process of trying to evict due to extensive damages. The tenant of course has free legal aid paid for by the state and or government along with the Total rent check and a $200 utility allowance. They are part of a tenant victim group that does nothing but complain how badly they are treated. They complain about everything, something’s wrong with the electric, water, gas, air conditioning, stove, refrigerator, washer and dryer (which by the way is cleary stated in the lease that I don’t support!) and the list goes on and on. I’m just tired of the complaining and the attitude of someone who has all expenses paid and does nothing but complain. All of the complaining is totally unfounded, I’ve had contractors come in and write letters to the effect that there was nothing abnormal or wrong with any of these. I lived there for all those years with none of these “ghost” problems. They have 3 kids legally - 4 additional that they are not claiming to be living there but I know for a fact are. I have replaced every single door knob in the house at least 2 times, the doors have all been kicked open, door jams/striker plates destroyed, large holes in walls, broken windows and many many other damages that they seriously think are NOT their fault! I have sent a letter of eviction and I have every reason to believe they will do tremendous damage to the property when they leave. I also fully suspect they will drag this through the court systems as long as possible since they are not paying one cent for legal representation and have nothing to lose. It is a tremendous burden on me to cover the mortgage payments during this time, and I’m not sure if I will even be able to. Not to mention the money I will spend in repairing whatever damages they cause to get ready for the next tenant.
Unfortunately, I am not in the position to throw money at this to remedy the problem. If I had the extra money, this would have been taken care of some time ago.
The other thing I discovered is that my mortgage insurance would not cover anything unless I was living there. I had to get rental insurance at a super high premium recently. Fortunately I was able to get this - this is my only saving grace. Does anyone have any advice when it comes to rental insurance? Claims process etc.,?
I hear some people say "if they mess up your place that severely, just take them to court". I do not have the time, money or resources to pursue legal matters that I know I would never collect one penny on. Then tenant has been living there for 2 years and has had most if not all of their rent check covered by the government along with utility allowances. They are not disabled in any way, just playing the system. They probably work harder playing the system than they would on a regular full time job. They have digital cable in the bedrooms, which I didn't even have cable run to the bedrooms when I was there! X-box, playstations, new computers, digital camera’s, TV in every room and then some, and many other luxuries that a lot of working folks don’t even have. They have to pay the water bill and have complained it was too high on EVERY statement, according to them; there must be something wrong with the pipes or water somewhere in the house.. This statement coming from not one drop water anywhere for evidence. Something else I have had verified from a professional.
I'm just sick of the overwhelming support for poor victim tenants who get away with murder and it seems that the landlords are just left hanging out to dry.
Of course hindsight is 20/20, I should have dumped the place at the first sign of declining value, but it was my first purchase and this is my first rental.
I saw a suggestion on this board to videotape the pre inspection with the tenant in the taping. I will definitely be doing this for future tenants as well as having a strict lease with strict enforcement.
That’s my story in a nutshell; I hope this story will inform others of something to maybe watch out for in owning or renting a property. I’ve learned some valuable lessons the hard way; I hope others don’t have to.
Sad story...and pretty scary.
I actually have a property that I am considering renting to section 8 tenant if I cannot get rid of it.
I have a few questions if you don't mind.
How did the state determine how much the tenants would pay?
If I understand you correctly, the Section 8 uinspectors would make spot checks and then require you to fix things which they found unacceptable. Did you fund this from the deposit you collected? What happens if they go through the deposit and there are still repairs needed??
Is there any way (other than checking their previous rental history - and that isn't all that reliable) to find out which tenants are going to be deadbeats??
If you reported them for haveing more people living there, can you evict them or charge more rent??
Not all Section 8 tenants are bad. We have had three people come to our investing group to share this information. You can screen your tenants and get references done on them.
Quote:
On 2003-06-06 11:51, opinion8ted wrote:
Sad story...and pretty scary.
I actually have a property that I am considering renting to section 8 tenant if I cannot get rid of it.
I have a few questions if you don't mind.
How did the state determine how much the tenants would pay?
If I understand you correctly, the Section 8 uinspectors would make spot checks and then require you to fix things which they found unacceptable.
Did you fund this from the deposit you collected? What happens if they go through the deposit and there are still repairs needed??
Is there any way (other than checking their previous rental history - and that isn't all that reliable) to find out which tenants are going to be deadbeats??
If you reported them for haveing more people living there, can you evict them or charge more rent??
I'm not exactly sure how they come to that determination, but it is a form of welfare more or less. Depending on how many children they have, what income if any they have made in the past quarter etc., etc.,
Section 8 does an inspection once every year at the end of the lease. They can do spot inspections if they are notified of a violation like a neighbor complaining or they have reason to believe the family obligations or lease are being violated.
The inspector sites any violations and assigns either the owner or tenant responsible for the repair. I found this varies greatly depending on the inspector, for instance, one inspector actually held me responsible for replacing light bulbs and batteries in smoke detectors as well as cleaning the mold on the caulk in the bathtub, which had not been cleaned for an entire year. And many of the items they held the tenant responsible for, the tenant wouldn't lift a finger to fix so if it wasn't fixed and the re-inspection didn't pass I was the one who did not receive a check from them, it had no bearing on the tenant more or less.
The thing you have to realize is that section 8 does not have your best interest in mind; you are treated as a separate entity to them. If section 8 cuts off their benefits, then it is totally your responsibility to collect rent from them or go through the eviction process.
Another thing to watch out for is when they conduct the inspection, you should be there. I made the mistake of not being there once and the tenant of course was pointing out every little thing to the inspector, even things that were erroneous that I had to have looked at by a professional and they ended up writing a letter to the effect that nothing was wrong with what had been reported.
Yet another thing I made a costly mistake on. All of the things the tenant destroyed and I replaced/repaired I kept receipts on making the assumption that I could use these against their security deposit when their lease was up or they were evicted... this is not the case sadly. You can only deduct items that are destroyed or need to be replaced against the security deposit when they move out and you do the final walkthrough. You must send a letter stating what the damages are with the cost of the items AND if you don't do this within 45 day's the amount of the security deposit that you would owe them can be TRIPLED! The only good thing is that you can claim these items replaced on your taxes.
If the damages exceed the security deposit then your only course of action is to file a lawsuit.. and let me tell you, it is more trouble than it's worth and it's like getting blood out of a turnip is most cases. .
I was advised when interviewing potential tenants to go to where they are living and see what kind of conditions they are living in, unexpectantly of course. This is probably a good measure but not completely an accurate representation due to many different variables.
That is a violation and the section 8 office will investigate. It has to be brought to their attention to do so. If they are found in violation then their section 8 assistance terminates. Then YOU are responsible for evicting them. I don't know about charging more rent.
[ Edited by scrocer1 on Date 06/06/2003 ]