Section 8 tenant refuses to pay her portion of the rent

[k23h9723]

What is the name of your state? CA

So for the last 2 years, the tenant has not paid anything on her portion of her section 8 rent. I know it's been too long to cry foul now but ever since she moved in, she had all kinds of lies and excuses for paying me - pretended illness, got laid off, miscarriage, family member accidents, etc. I have been more than patient waiting for her to catch up but this simply proved that she is taking me for a fool. I have made every attempt to collect rent but she simply lied, cheated and out right ignored my repeated notice to collect. Not only did she not paying her potion of the rent, she trashes the place and the annual inspection by the housing authority failed as a result, which cause the payment from the housing authority to be on hold for months till I paid someone to fix all damages - basically I am paying her to stay in my properties and this has to stop. Please help me as I need advice on how I should go about dealing with this tenant? I know I can report to the housing authority to remove her but what about the rent owed? Thank you in advance.

 

[STEPHAN]

No offense, but you should sell your property or get a property manager. Being a landlord is a job and you have no clue how to do it.

 

[LdiJ]

What is the name of your state? CA

So for the last 2 years, the tenant has not paid anything on her portion of her section 8 rent. I know it's been too long to cry foul now but ever since she moved in, she had all kinds of lies and excuses for paying me - pretended illness, got laid off, miscarriage, family member accidents, etc. I have been more than patient waiting for her to catch up but this simply proved that she is taking me for a fool. I have made every attempt to collect rent but she simply lied, cheated and out right ignored my repeated notice to collect. Not only did she not paying her potion of the rent, she trashes the place and the annual inspection by the housing authority failed as a result, which cause the payment from the housing authority to be on hold for months till I paid someone to fix all damages - basically I am paying her to stay in my properties and this has to stop. Please help me as I need advice on how I should go about dealing with this tenant? I know I can report to the housing authority to remove her but what about the rent owed? Thank you in advance.

She is a Section 8 recipient. That means she has absolutely no money. Suing her would get you a judgment, but it won't help you collect anything from her. Your goal should be to get her out of there.

 

[HRZ]

Not necessarily , a Section 8 tenant no doubt has limited income to qualify for the program ....and as a practical matter it may be difficult to collect a judgement if you do prevail on past amounts due .

In some limited situations the tenants private pay component may be so small as to make it unimportant to the overall rather safe rent flow from the public sector ....and it might make sense to suck up the loss....for some wacky reason , a while back the section 8 rents near me were well above the open market rates , and many a LL found same attractive. ..personally I found Section 8 issues not to my liking as a LL and avoided such involvement .

IF there is a serious amount of private pay due I think you need to give yourself the gold chump award and get started today with the required steps in CA to seek all rents due and to evict . IF you don't have the Moxie to follow the rules , hire legal counsel seasoned at evicting tenants. Tenants in CA have a pile of rights, and assume for now that the slightest glitch on you side of equation can be exploited by tenant to delay eviction ...get it right !

Your past delay in seeking rents is probably not a legal bar to winning a judgement for same ...but any large sum due from a person on Section 8 may be darn hard to ever collect.. But it's NOT necessarily just about you....sometimes a looming eviction and a judgement does impact the tenant and in some , perhaps few, cases the tenant takes steps to pay up and avoid eviction. An eviction can inhibit the tenants other options and might put them a bottom of a crowded line for future eligibility . I have not kept up on those details ..just I recall the there were long waiting lines for Section 8 around me

 

[Zigner]

She is a Section 8 recipient. That means she has absolutely no money. Suing her would get you a judgment, but it won't help you collect anything from her. Your goal should be to get her out of there.

The threat of losing future section 8 benefits because of an eviction may motivate the tenant to step up and pay what is owed.

 

[FarmerJ]

I agree with Zigner , this tenant of yours for all you know could have some of the cash saved from not paying you stashed away SO follow thru and evict based on non payment and stand your grounds , you want to be paid or tenant must get out. Tenants who participate in S8 already have a hard enough time finding places to live and If your tenant already knows how hard it will be in their future to find places to live with a UD on file it may motivate her to pay up , ALSO bill her for her damages NOW she likely already knows she is supposed to pay for tenant damage. DO keep us posted as to your progress with her BUT no backing down, you want to be paid or court can order her out.

 

[not2cleverRed]

She is a Section 8 recipient. That means she has absolutely no money. Suing her would get you a judgment, but it won't help you collect anything from her. Your goal should be to get her out of there.

No. It does not mean that she has "absolutely no money". It means that she has very little money. And if OP is going to try and evict her for non-payment of rent, then OP might as well try and get a judgement for past due rent as well. It does not hurt.

Furthermore, would you also say that people in section 8 housing shouldn't have to pay child support? How is this at all different?

I agree with Zigner , this tenant of yours for all you know could have some of the cash saved from not paying you stashed away SO follow thru and evict based on non payment and stand your grounds , you want to be paid or tenant must get out. Tenants who participate in S8 already have a hard enough time finding places to live and If your tenant already knows how hard it will be in their future to find places to live with a UD on file it may motivate her to pay up , ALSO bill her for her damages NOW she likely already knows she is supposed to pay for tenant damage. DO keep us posted as to your progress with her BUT no backing down, you want to be paid or court can order her out.

Doubtful.

 

[LdiJ]

No. It does not mean that she has "absolutely no money". It means that she has very little money. And if OP is going to try and evict her for non-payment of rent, then OP might as well try and get a judgement for past due rent as well. It does not hurt.

Furthermore, would you also say that people in section 8 housing shouldn't have to pay child support? How is this at all different?



Doubtful.

Actually, if it were up to me I might suspend someone from paying child support while they are on state benefits. I would only consider a suspension, not a cancelation of support.

I have never known anyone on state benefits who did not live a very meager existence as far as cash is concerned. They eat decently, but TANF doesn't even usually cover their utilities let alone stuff that food stamps don't cover.

 

[DeenaCA]

The regulations for the housing choice voucher ("Section 8") program require the housing authority to terminate assistance if the tenant is evicted for cause, and permit termination for serious or repeated lease violations. See 24 Code of Federal Regulations 982.552.

The tenant has violated her program obligations repeatedly through nonpayment. It is not too late for you to report these violations to the housing authority. As noted above, the prospect of losing voucher assistance and being responsible for her own housing costs may motivate the tenant to comply.

I recommend that you serve the tenant with the required state notice (3-day notice to pay rent or quit), and send a copy to the housing authority. If the tenant does not pay, serve an eviction notice and again, send a copy to the housing authority. I'd also recommend that you contact the housing authority for assistance. Some agencies have a landlord liaison whose job is to assist with these issues.

It's not unheard-of for an HCV tenant with a low share of rent to expect the landlord to accept the housing assistance payment as the total rent. Continuing to allow this encourages the behavior.

 

[k23h9723]

Thank you all for the reply and advice. Currently the most pressing issue is I want her out, as far as the money she owed, I know it's a long shot and I don't have much hope to recover it anyway. Not that I can afford to loose the money, it's just at this point, I am trying to minimize the lost. What I am thinking of doing is send them a letter and demand paying back the rent owed since paying their portion of the rent is a requirement on the section 8 handbook for tenants in this county. I want to say "if you do not pay me the owed amount by this time, I would have no choice but to report you to the housing authority for non-payment on your part and request you to move out". I am hoping by reporting to the housing authority, I can start a eviction process. My question is - do I need a lawyer to send this letter or any port of this process? Would sending this letter in anyway put myself in a "wrong" way as far as the law concerned. CA is a pro tenant state and I have heard a lot of horror stories, so...

 

[Zigner]

Thank you all for the reply and advice. Currently the most pressing issue is I want her out, as far as the money she owed, I know it's a long shot and I don't have much hope to recover it anyway. Not that I can afford to loose the money, it's just at this point, I am trying to minimize the lost. What I am thinking of doing is send them a letter and demand paying back the rent owed since paying their portion of the rent is a requirement on the section 8 handbook for tenants in this county. I want to say "if you do not pay me the owed amount by this time, I would have no choice but to report you to the housing authority for non-payment on your part and request you to move out". I am hoping by reporting to the housing authority, I can start a eviction process. My question is - do I need a lawyer to send this letter or any port of this process? Would sending this letter in anyway put myself in a "wrong" way as far as the law concerned. CA is a pro tenant state and I have heard a lot of horror stories, so...

Yeesh! Did you not ready anything you were told above?

 

[Just Blue]

Yeesh! Did you not ready anything you were told above?

Apparently not...

 

[not2cleverRed]

Thank you all for the reply and advice. Currently the most pressing issue is I want her out, as far as the money she owed, I know it's a long shot and I don't have much hope to recover it anyway. Not that I can afford to loose the money, it's just at this point, I am trying to minimize the lost. What I am thinking of doing is send them a letter and demand paying back the rent owed since paying their portion of the rent is a requirement on the section 8 handbook for tenants in this county. I want to say "if you do not pay me the owed amount by this time, I would have no choice but to report you to the housing authority for non-payment on your part and request you to move out". I am hoping by reporting to the housing authority, I can start a eviction process. My question is - do I need a lawyer to send this letter or any port of this process? Would sending this letter in anyway put myself in a "wrong" way as far as the law concerned. CA is a pro tenant state and I have heard a lot of horror stories, so...

You need a lawyer.

Most people in your situation would not need a lawyer, but you have shown that you are not one of those people. Deena's advice was clearly written and relevant. There are templates for such letters. You will need professional legal help in finding and using such a template; writing directions that you can follow would require a post with a lexile measure far too low to make it worth doing for free.

 

[not2cleverRed]

Actually, if it were up to me I might suspend someone from paying child support while they are on state benefits. I would only consider a suspension, not a cancelation of support.

I have never known anyone on state benefits who did not live a very meager existence as far as cash is concerned. They eat decently, but TANF doesn't even usually cover their utilities let alone stuff that food stamps don't cover.

However, it is not up to you, and that is not the way it works in most states.

(In fact, in my state, even homeless parents have an obligation to pay some nominal amount of child support.)

When giving legal advice, we should consider the laws as they are, even though they differ from how things would be if we were (benevolent) dictators.

 

[FarmerJ]

Your free to demand all you want and until you turn blue in the face BUT I would bet you that your tenant has learned even more about working you like W on Broadway. DO the demand notice your state requires then when the tenant doesn't pay file for a eviction based on her non payment of her contracted portion she will know you mean business and if she values having section 8 she will either pay up or get out before court BUT if you don't start your states process your going to lose even more money with her there because she is likely going to string you along and work you hard to get more time out of you , look at what you let her do so far.