How To Structure A Section8 Tenant Lease?
What does one highlight in the lease and things to make the tenant responsible for and things like that. I need a full breakdown, because I am going to get a property to rent to a section8 tenant and need to know how to structure a lease that will be fair to the tenant and myself as well. Also guarding me against unnessary repairs and reduce property management hassles to a minimum.
Any input is needed.
Thanks
Owen
The Housing Authority will have an agreement with you that becomes part of the lease agreement with your tenant. I personally prefer long and strong lease agreements. You might contact local property management companies and get copies of their leases so you can cherry pick the terms that you want and create your own lease.
So does this mean that with a section8 tenant I can only expect to fix everything that goes bad and cannot make them or the goverment responsible in the lease?
My experience is somewhat different. I have had section 8 tenants pay for repairs and make them themselves. The leases on the properties directly managed by me have a condition that states that any payment received is applied to other outstanding obligations before being applied to the rent. If the bill is not paid, then there is a short fall in the rent and I can serve pay or quit notices on unreceived rent. I would suggest not rolling over and playing dead on repairs just because your tenant is section 8.
I guess the best thing will be to make any payments be applied to whatever is damaged first and the rest to the rent. Also I think one would need to schedule and actually visit the property regularly to see or highlight any damages. How often should one go inspect the property, and what should one look for?
I thank you very much for your reply. I alway learn something new on this site. If I am not asking too much, can you send me a copy of your lease agreement, I think it will help me in structuring mine.
I use the same lease for Section 8 and non-Section 8 tenants.
Brenda
Having all leases the same does not seem to be a necessity. If so, I am in trouble. I have inherited a number of leases that were in place when I purchased certain properties and they certainly are not the same. What I am currently trying to do is to place an addendum on some leases using wording from others in order to strengthen them where needed. None of the leases discriminate against any group.
My section 8 tenants have variety in leases and tenancy conditions mostly from the variation in adminstration from the various Housing Authorities. For example in one area, because of budget cuts, the maximum allowable rent for a given class of housing has been lowered. Another area is keeping the rent the same but are throwing people out of the program that have had certain criminal histories.[ Edited by edmeyer on Date 10/04/2006 ]
Getting Section 8 tenant to pay for repairs is absolutely dependent on the area you are renting in. EDMeyers is from California ... very different ball game than an inner city in NY. I have properties in both California and NY and they are like owning in two different countries. I have been able to get repair payment from my CA tenants but my NY Section 8 tenants ... fogetta bout it.
I highly recommend talking to several rental owners in your area that have both non-Section 8 and Section 8. Talk to more than one though (go to Section 8 and look at their "for rent"postings and call a few of the landlords). This will help educate you about your area.
But I would not treat Section 8 leasers differently. That only spells discrimination with a capital "D"
Thank you guy very much for your replies. No discrimination was intended on my part, just trying to get the facts straight. I take it that I will have to find out the experiences of section 8 tenant landlords in my area to have a few for how things are done. Just in case, is there any landlord from Baltimore MD on this site with experience with section 8 tenants? You input is needed.