Why, as a landlord, I will never rent to Section 8 tenants

[Semihage]

I know a section 8 tenant. Never missed a payment. Keeps the property clean and tidy. It all comes down to, make sure his/her reference is solid before renting out to them. Section 8 tenants have A LOT to lose once they get evicted, because in essence they will most likely lose the government assistance (yes there is a long line up for that as well).. That's a lot of money gone.

[Orange Joe]

Well as I've said, I've had shitty tenants and don't take Section 8. I've had people trash my houses to be sure, but welfare recipients are statistically more likely to do so.

Links please

[Skippy88]

Well, the first problem is becoming a landlord in the first place. That's a bit of a snarky statement but it's also true. I don't doubt you could make quite a bit of money by doing so but is it really worth it? All it takes is to have that one tenant come in and make your life a living hell. As much as you try to weed bad tenants out eventually someone will slip through the cracks.

[schwank05]

When I started College I bought a house and rented 2 rooms out to some friends, one who is still a great friends and now works for me was excellent he was a neat freak just like me so we were able for 2 years to keep the house spotless. Then enter the other friend, he was a total slob never cleaned up after himself, ate all our food, and even made pot brownies and tried smoking pot in my new house. If I didn't need the money he would have been kicked out after 1 week, but unfortunately it destroyed our friendship.

O and BTW what exactly is a Section 8 tenant?

[Spectral]

If I were to sink to the same level as OP in this matter, I'd want to generalize all landlords as being assholes & creeps because I've heard of so many bad cases (and to some extent, that could include the OP as well).

But I don't. I realize that you never hear about the good landlords or tenants because it isn't newsworthy, so I reject my selection bias.

I've been around the business enough to have seen both. I sympathize with tenants and landlords to a certain extent, but not all that much. The vast bulk of problems are caused by a lack of due diligence in terms of researching the landlord or tenant. Many landlords are cowards about using evictions, and instead act in passive-aggressive fashion towards bad tenants; this helps no one involved.

I saw some spectacularly scummy behavior from tenants though. Landlords, in some cases, will behave badly for profit, but the shit tenants do is just beyond imagining.

[smelltheglove]

it kind of depends on the state involved. when we went to live in england my mom rented out her house while we were gone. the agency in charge was specifically told not to do section 8, but they did any way. every tenant we had was incredibly destructive, and every appliance and the water heater and ac unit were taken. the rental agency refused to file a complaint with the state (state is responsible for covering section 8 damages and theft, to a point) because the state would then "black ball" the rental company. the real difference between section 8 and self covered is who you can go after to cover these types of things. also with section 8... no deposit

[Lovecrafts]

Good for you! Section 8 bottom-feeders do nothing but ruin the apartment complexes they live in. When I just had finished college I moved into an apartment complex that originally didn't take Section 8. It was primarily young couples and college kids living there. The place was clean, the people were friendly, and it felt safe. 2 years later, we get new management who decides to allow section 8.

Within a year we had a mess of Somalis who left garbage everywhere, Mexican wanna-be drug dealers, gang member impersonators, the whole damn place turned into a shithole, people started having their apartments broken into, etc etc.

Thank you for taking a stand, and not being an enabler for a program that attracts criminals and losers!

[Austilias]

I was fortunate enough to to get a fixed contract/rental agreement on my home just before the Credit Crunch and subsequent housing crisis/price hike. This means that I continue to rent for £200 a month; much to the chagrin of the landlord who could easily be getting £450+ in this climate, but a contract's a contract and I keep to my end of it. In my experience however, particularly where I live, those people who receive government support are not exactly beacons of humanity; my neighbour for one, likes to use their entire garden as a trash can, resulting in some pretty awful smells during Summer which I was only rid of due to not being able to take it anymore, and have my borough council come to clean it up.

[Deleted]

So someone on section 8 housing is automatically indicative of someone being a bad tenant?

It's a risk assessment basis.

[Elegiac]

It's a risk assessment basis.

And the conclusion reached stems from faulty premises, rendering it invalid.

Even if it were more likely that Section 8 tenants are "bad tenants", the number of Section 8 tenants in terms of the total population of tenants is rather low; meaning that there are probably numerically more "bad tenants' amongst the non-Section 8 sector. So statistically speaking, you're equally as likely if not more likely to get a bad tenant from the non Section 8 crowd.

Basically, tenants need to be assessed individually, because "bad tenants" are an individual problem pertaining to the landlord, not a social problem.

[Sturmgewehr86]

Hm i always thought Section 8 is for labeling crazy ppl in the usa army

[Reeve]

If all you care about is dat money, sure. If you care about the property people on welfare (outside of those temporary ones who truly need the assistance, lost job, death, illness, etc) are much more likely to trash the place. I can almost guarantee if you ask any landlord what his "horrid" demo's are he'll have them. Some people it's Section 8 renters, some it's those older people, etc.

Can you support that assertion? Sure there are gonna be some nasty tenants, and some of those tenants are gonna be section 8. Is there any evidence to show that they statistically trash properties more than other tenants?

This is anecdotal of course (same as the OP's story), but my sister's Section 8 tenants have actually been improving the property, and have been maintaining it very well.

[Deleted]

Eh, i suppose you can liken my family to using section 8 i suppose.

We receive assistance from the government to pay our rent (Due to me not working at the moment, before it was tight even then) We got a contract where we pay around 340 a month for a 4 bedroom house in a quiet neighborhood.

The house itself was in shit shape when we got there, and we ended up paying to make it more liveable - all out of our pocket.

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I understand that the good people claiming housing assistance are a rarity somewhat as those in "Poverty" if you could even call it that, are often in terrible situations - Ergo committing crimes, and being anti-social.

But reading this thread, i'm seeing a lot of people who are just being plain unfair - I worked at a shitty supermarket for a year or so because i left school in a fucked up situation, i'm re-attending thankfully this September - completely voluntarily at age 18, i will however be claiming "assistance" and in some peoples views this puts me as subhuman almost.

[Elegiac]

Can you support that assertion? Sure there are gonna be some nasty tenants, and some of those tenants are gonna be section 8. Is there any evidence to show that they statistically trash properties more than other tenants?

This is anecdotal of course (same as the OP's story), but my sister's Section 8 tenants have actually been improving the property, and have been maintaining it very well.

That has been my experience as well. We have a lot of subsidized housing blocks (owing to Washington's policy of putting them up near affluent areas) and the tenants seem to be simply grateful to have a nice home and are doing a bang up job of keeping them pristine.

[Roose]

In Tuscaloosa right now we have a surplus of apartments. They all expect student population to blow up, and it will eventually. In the meantime, many complexes have made the mistake of allowing section 8 vouchers to fill vacancy. Huge mistake. They will never get their community back to what it was before allowing section 8.

Hard to talk about section 8 without sounding like a huge racist.

Anyways, in my experience, section 8 tenants are mostly nightmares. Sure there are some really nice people in the program that honestly need the assistance, but most are straight up degenerates. The only reason why we ever rent to them is because we like the checks to come in w/o hassles. It is almost certain that the place will need a ton of work when they leave, but you can get lucky and have them in there for a while and it is worth the renovation costs at that point.

Section 8 requires strict codes to rent as well. You must pass inspection before and during the rental term. My house could not pass section 8 inspection. It is ridiculous. So on top of the huge risk of leasing to someone on section 8, you also have to jump through hoops for the check, which makes renting out section 8 even less appealing.

Yes, all tenants are different, but it would be stupid to ignore experience. Section 8 renters, in my experience, do not care about your property. So all of you that have no experience in property management can judge me all you want, but you have no idea wtf you are talking about. There is a good damned reason why so many refuse to accept section 8 vouchers.

[Archangel Tyrael]

And the conclusion reached stems from faulty premises, rendering it invalid.

Even if it were more likely that Section 8 tenants are "bad tenants", the number of Section 8 tenants in terms of the total population of tenants is rather low; meaning that there are probably numerically more "bad tenants' amongst the non-Section 8 sector. So statistically speaking, you're equally as likely if not more likely to get a bad tenant from the non Section 8 crowd.

Basically, tenants need to be assessed individually, because "bad tenants" are an individual problem pertaining to the landlord, not a social problem.

Tell me something - Do you think poverty is related to crime?
If you think it is, then you're contradicting yourself.

Let me know, please.

[Elegiac]

Yes, all tenants are different, but it would be stupid to ignore experience. Section 8 renters, in my experience, do not care about your property. So all of you that have no experience in property management can judge me all you want, but you have no idea wtf you are talking about. There is a good damned reason why so many refuse to accept section 8 vouchers.

And the experience of many others has been exactly the opposite. In lieu of an anecdotal consensus, there enters statistics; and logically speaking, you're as or more likely to get a crap tenant that isn't a Section 8er.

- - - Updated - - -

Tell me something - Do you think poverty is related to crime?
If you think it is, then you're contradicting yourself.

Let me know, please.

Crime is a social problem. "Bad tenants" are an individual problem. There is no contradiction unless you're silly enough to conflate the two.

[Roose]

And the experience of many others has been exactly the opposite. In lieu of an anecdotal consensus, there enters statistics; and logically speaking, you're as or more likely to get a crap tenant that isn't a Section 8er.

Again, I just go by personal experience. This is about 15 years of property management that I am going off of. The program surely varies state by state, and even city by city. In my town, putting section 8 in your rentals is a huge gamble. That is a fact, and you could ask anyone around here in the business. Logically it may be just as risky as anyone else, but experience dictates otherwise.

[xinjun]

I have some welfare tennants currently. As of this moment, they owe us over $800, their house is a complete pig sty (including the unspayed female dog blood everywhere, not joking) and they actually ask us to give them things like food and toilet paper and rides to the store. And here I am paying my mortgage, caring for my own family, and working for a living like a sucker.

[Deleted]

53 bucks for a house like that, are you fucking serious ?

I mean really, FIFTY dollars ?

I pay over 200 for 16²m and a room resembling a prison cell.

People have it easy and still trash the place, what utter scum.
No need to generalize; but would like to see some statistics for evictions depending on the tennants status, to see if more are evicted "harshly" (not just couldn't make rent) and on bad terms if they are under Section 8.