landlord's right to terminate lease

[quantcook]

Philadelphia, PA
I have a townhouse rented to section 8, lease going to end in Dec.
my property manager told me that if I terminate the lease in Dec, and if tenant hasn't found a new home yet, it will end up tenant still living in the house without paying anything. I can file an eviction, but will take a lenghty period of time without any compensation.
any good advice on let the tenant move out?
the tenant is creating quite some trouble, by always requesting me to fix some stuff in the house, although the house passed section 8 inspection. the tenant is not honest as well, being late with water bill and now just stop paying water bill.

~)~

 

[Gail in Georgia]

Are you responsible for paying the water bill or the tenant? If the tenant and the water is shut off, this should make the rental unit uninhabitable.

If you and the tenant is to reimburse you, contact his/her Section 8 case manager.

Are the requests to "fix some stuff in the house" reasonable requests?

This is what often happens when you deal with this program and these tenants.....and why many landlords avoid the program like avoiding poison ivy.

Gail

 

[HRZ]

In Philadelphia , as a LL you best study the rules and get every step 100% right down to spelling and punctuation and print size .....you have a right not to renew a lease ...I have not read the Sec 8 issues in a while ...they may impose added requirements .

As a practical matter many a tenant stops paying before the end , welcome to the real world....so you sue ...with limited real odds of collections ....but a tenant who doesn't pay sometimes has problems finding a new willing LL.

Sec 8 inspections can be tough....but a simple code violation you failed to address often can be an excuse in court favorable to tenant to force a do over on eviction ...even if tenant created the problem !!! Been there!

I am simply not current on water bill games in City of Brotherly Love ....but to not pay that bill seemed to pose few risks of water shut off any time soon .

DO NOT in any way participate in a water shut off...that's the legal equivalent of an illegal lockout ....and in some PA jurisdictions could result in loss of CO and threats of bringing entire building up to current codes.

 

[FarmerJ]

If your aware the water bill is not paid then send a notice to the tenant via certified mail telling them they are in breach of the lease by not paying it and they have x amount of time to pay it. If the city shuts the water off then get a copy of the disconnect notice and a copy of the un paid bill if possible and use the breach of the lease as a reason to take tenant to court to evict. This tenant of yours really shouldn't do anything to risk losing S8 most wont but if S8 refuses to pay the contracted portion of the rent your still going to have to evict the tenant unless the tenant is very fortunate in finding another place. ( if the tenant does clean up the water bill problem and your still planning on not renewing then get it over with early so the tenant has more than ample notice to begin looking for a new place.

 

[DeenaCA]

The rules for the housing choice voucher program ("Section 8") do permit the landlord to terminate tenancy without cause at the end of the lease term. However, some states and/or cities restrict no-cause terminations and those laws would prevail if applicable.

The tenant's failure to pay for tenant-paid utilities, if it results in a shutoff, is a breach of program obligations and is cause for termination of voucher assistance. I recommend that you notify the housing authority if this happens. The threat of losing assistance may motivate the client to resolve the issue. There is a 24-hour timeline for restoring running water (it's considered an emergency), so the housing authority should act quickly.

If you initiate an eviction, the housing authority is required to continue to pay rent until the process concludes. See 24 Code of Federal Regulations 982.311:

Termination of payment: When owner terminates the lease. Housing assistance payments terminate when the lease is terminated by the owner in accordance with the lease. However, if the owner has commenced the process to evict the tenant, and if the family continues to reside in the unit, the PHA must continue to make housing assistance payments to the owner in accordance with the HAP contract until the owner has obtained a court judgment or other process allowing the owner to evict the tenant. The PHA may continue such payments until the family moves from or is evicted from the unit.

In other words, the agency must pay until a judgment is entered and may pay until the tenant is physically out of the unit.

It is generally easier to terminate a Section 8 tenancy "for cause" than "just because." If you have a reason (lease violations, nonpayment of utilities, etc.) then cite it in the termination notice and send a copy to the housing authority. Some landlords hesitate to do this for fear of angering the tenant, but it can make the whole process more difficult if the housing authority and court think that the tenant has done nothing wrong and is being evicted for no reason.

 

[adjusterjack]

This is what often happens when you deal with this program and these tenants.....and why many landlords avoid the program like avoiding poison ivy.

That's why I always told people that I would have to be Section 8 to take Section 8.