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

[sidenorna]

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.

In Florida the 5.6%~ of population at large uses illegal or or controlled substances. When the government mandated that people be drug tested in order to get any state welfare, even if you count the ones that did not bother taking the test it was less than half that.As I recall it was 2.2%. Poor people do less drugs. Also note http://kottke.org/13/08/mcdonalds-pr...n-minimum-wage

[cherb]

This one time I saw a video about these bad tenants who were Jewish so now I'll never rent to a Jew.

Oh, I see what I did there.

Yea I saw a Mexican tear up an apartment once, so I'd NEVER rent to a hispanic person.

[oblivionx]

Friend rented out a house to a section 8. Even though the government was paying the bulk of the bill the guy ended up not paying utilities or his portion of the rent, eviction was met with a grievance claim... By the time he had the house back, all the wiring was stripped, pipes, appliances, and the condition of the property was similar to the video op linked.

Brother has a condo he's been looking to sell for a couple years now, biggest issue was an apartment building down the street had went section 8 rentals a couple years earlier... Other than the cars in the neighborhood being vandalized, broken into, a friend of his' girlfriend had a cock carved into the hood of her car and a litany of other issues. Finally after the drug dealing on the street got out of hand and the section 8 building was closed down, it was absolutely wrecked. They had been throwing dirty diapers out the back and littering the small communal yard... By the time they got them all out the building had to be condemned, and now instead of a drug building it's a derelict building with gutted out windows and yellow tape across it's entrance.

I know of half a dozen other tales of horror regarding Section 8.

But those don't matter, as the lefty posters will attack and condemn any showing of the great failing of government assistance.

But nearly every single one involved the landlord not being able to get the person out of the property and a grievance being filed.

[Mifuyne]

I can only see what's right infront of my nose so I'm just going to hate everyone that has anything to do with "insert random thing here".
So, you have a problem with some? Take it to the government instead of blatantly hating and most likely ignoring future tenants that could be nicer than anyone you ever met. It's understandable that you are pissed of but you are only fueling the fire and not looking in the direction that you should be looking at; the government.

[sidenorna]

No, but these people who live off the government know every nook and cranny of the welfare laws and purposely do stuff like that to continue living the way they are. She knew exactly when to file bankruptcy and that doing so would let her live there longer rent free.

So, how much do you pay to use roads?How much did primary school cost you or your parents?How about the food testers,or anti warlord taxes, or shit removers, or any number of welfare activities that everyone in the country uses ? Name a company or person that doesn't gain benefits from public works. Or do you only care about welfare issues when it comes to one on one interactions?

[Shennanigans]

My husband and I own several houses we rent out, we always do a criminal and credit history investigation. It's fairly easy to weed out ppl you don't want as tenants that way.

[djprada]

I felt as a realtor I had to leave a comment on this. This video summons up most of Section 8 tenants. None wants to work with them because they never pay a realtor fee and landlords don't want to rent to them because they completely trash properties.
I learned my lesson trying to help Section 8 client to find an apartment in Boston. Since then I never return calls to those clients or whoever might have a section 8 voucher. I know if I get caught by a Government refusing to rent or to work with Section 8 I will lose my real estate licensee but the majority of realtors will agree with me here.
Its better to turn away a Section 8 client then lose a landlord with multiple rental properties.

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Being a land lord sucks.

His lease agreement was probably poorly written. Most states he could have had her removed from the property in a matter of days for the interior damages. I wonder why he wasn't doing inspections regularly?

The eviction process might take up to 2 weeks, specially with the government section 8 voucher

[Edge-]

My aunt runs a cleaning company and cleans a ton of different buildings (various apartments and businesses, homes etc.) and the worst buildings that her employees deal with? Student housing at CAL Berkeley (college). The students are routinely being evicted for destroying the apartment complex (the most recent group destroyed the balconies on 3 floors in addition to a number of other things) and they absolutely wreck the common areas, not to mention their rooms which the company does not clean.

And the best part? These are rich kids. These are kids who have parents that can afford the high rent prices in the apartment complex and buy them nice cars (I've seen the parking lot and there's not a car older than 5 years in there), and should be able to behave themselves. But no, they don't.

Shitty tenants come from all walks of life.

[Celista]

My mother does property management. I help her collect rent and do other errands sometimes. Many of her low-income, assisted tenants are older people who just need some help, and are better than average tenants. Even the ones who are shittier than average are no where near this shitty.

Besides, it being section 8 housing is actually a boon in this case. There is a backer for the damages if you follow the proper channels. A 'normal' poor tenant could just skip out, and even if you find them and sue them, if they have very limited income they are likely collections proof.


This post, and video, are just old-school "Welfare Queen" poor-hating.

This. You should be PREFERRING section 8 tenants, if anything, you get a tax break for developing housing that is designed for low-income individuals.

The paperwork is an additional headache to deal with. You can't as easily get away with illegally raising rents with section 8 like some landlords try to get away with, but assuming you are not one of those people this is the only difference.

My aunt and uncle own multiple properties they manage, the only consistent types of individuals they hesitate to rent to are very young adults and college-aged kids (not saying they're justified for this, just that these are the type of renters they have had issues with in the past).

[djprada]

My aunt runs a cleaning company and cleans a ton of different buildings (various apartments and businesses, homes etc.) and the worst buildings that her employees deal with? Student housing at CAL Berkeley (college). The students are routinely being evicted for destroying the apartment complex (the most recent group destroyed the balconies on 3 floors in addition to a number of other things) and they absolutely wreck the common areas, not to mention their rooms which the company does not clean.

And the best part? These are rich kids. These are kids who have parents that can afford the high rent prices in the apartment complex and buy them nice cars (I've seen the parking lot and there's not a car older than 5 years in there), and should be able to behave themselves. But no, they don't.

Shitty tenants come from all walks of life.

You are absolutely right there. But in that case its landlords fault, students fall into a category who are not protected by a housing law. So landlord can simply refuse to rent without explaining why. ON the other hand, if landlord refuses to rent to a Section 8 client who has perfect rental and credit history, the government can take landlords rental privileges because Section 8 is protected by a housing law.

[Electromatt]

My aunt runs a cleaning company and cleans a ton of different buildings (various apartments and businesses, homes etc.) and the worst buildings that her employees deal with? Student housing at CAL Berkeley (college). The students are routinely being evicted for destroying the apartment complex (the most recent group destroyed the balconies on 3 floors in addition to a number of other things) and they absolutely wreck the common areas, not to mention their rooms which the company does not clean.

And the best part? These are rich kids. These are kids who have parents that can afford the high rent prices in the apartment complex and buy them nice cars (I've seen the parking lot and there's not a car older than 5 years in there), and should be able to behave themselves. But no, they don't.

Shitty tenants come from all walks of life.

What do rich kids and welfare people have in common? They both don't have to pay for anything out of their own pocket.

[Masark]

So, how much do you pay to use roads?How much did primary school cost you or your parents?How about the food testers,or anti warlord taxes, or shit removers, or any number of welfare activities that everyone in the country uses ? Name a company or person that doesn't gain benefits from public works. Or do you only care about welfare issues when it comes to one on one interactions?

Don't bother. He is a gifted genius and thus obviously didn't need that crap. He could have just yanked vigorously on his bootstraps to make his way up in defiance of those contemptible leftist laws of physics

[Roose]

And the best part? These are rich kids. These are kids who have parents that can afford the high rent prices in the apartment complex and buy them nice cars (I've seen the parking lot and there's not a car older than 5 years in there), and should be able to behave themselves. But no, they don't.

Exactly. These are rich kids. You have some place to get the money for all of the shit they tear up. Odds are that mom and dad are on the lease, at least that is how it is here. The kids know this and tear shit up. Landlords do not care because they get paid for damages, really well. They charge a ton to fix easy shit and it gets paid. They also can rent these places out for more because they are student rentals.

Better to live off mom and dad than uncle Sam when it comes to public costs. They are not better people, but they make more for better renters.

[Zenfoldor]

My aunt runs a cleaning company and cleans a ton of different buildings (various apartments and businesses, homes etc.) and the worst buildings that her employees deal with? Student housing at CAL Berkeley (college). The students are routinely being evicted for destroying the apartment complex (the most recent group destroyed the balconies on 3 floors in addition to a number of other things) and they absolutely wreck the common areas, not to mention their rooms which the company does not clean.

And the best part? These are rich kids. These are kids who have parents that can afford the high rent prices in the apartment complex and buy them nice cars (I've seen the parking lot and there's not a car older than 5 years in there), and should be able to behave themselves. But no, they don't.

Shitty tenants come from all walks of life.

So by your logic, one wouldn't want to rent to college kids taking their first taste of freedom. Why is it any better to discriminate against them than Section 8 housing folks?

Once again, doesn't have to do with personality. Section 8 housing folks don't have any money so if they ruin your house, you can't sue em.

You can sue rich kids.

You can't sue Section 8 people! And even if you can sue them, you garnish their wages or take their property. They are poor! Unless your assertion is that Section 8 housing people aren't poor, then it isn't a good idea to rent to them or anybody you can't sue and be made whole if and probably when they damage your property.

[Laize]

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.

Nice thing about being a landlord is that you're free to make your assumptions about me. I'll just rent to the next person in line. Who isn't Section8.

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I think the bigger problem is why people on benefits are getting such big payouts that they can afford a nice house like that in the first place.

Section 8 has very few requirements as to where you can live. They'll pay up to $2000 on their part last I checked.

As long as the unit you're renting is comparable to others in your area (that is, the rent can't be $2000 when every comp is $1000) and the landlord accepts Section 8, you're set.

[Kalyyn]

You're right to do so, OP. "It's wrong to stereotype them! You should be glad to help poor people!" Now I'm not saying every poor person trashes the place their living in, but most of them do. And when it's your investment they are destroying, it's not worth the risk. So all you uptight moral-twats can scream and rage your bleeding hearts out all you want, but I guarantee you'd be singing a different tune if it was your rental property they were all but burning down.

[Laize]

Being a land lord sucks.

His lease agreement was probably poorly written. Most states he could have had her removed from the property in a matter of days for the interior damages. I wonder why he wasn't doing inspections regularly?

It varies from state to state, but generally inspections are viewed as undesirable things by the tenants and very desirable by the landlord and usually the state as well.

That said in some states (California) the landlord is expressly forbidden from performing interior inspections unless the tenant consents. I'm not sure what Georgia is. Annual inspections (in the fall, before pipes bursting becomes a potential issue) are written into my leases and I give tenants 14, 7, and day-prior advance notice before inspection. It's important to note that, as a landlord, I don't give a good god damn how messy the house is. I care that you follow the lease agreement and haven't been abusing my property. That's it. I honest to god don't care if you have a bag of weed sitting on the table (Though if you're potentially dealing from my property, that will be an issue) as long as I can verify that the interior of the house is up to code and that you haven't been, say, burning holes in my carpet or hiding a pet.

[Jtbrig7390]

Section 8 has very few requirements as to where you can live. They'll pay up to $2000 on their part last I checked.

As long as the unit you're renting is comparable to others in your area (that is, the rent can't be $2000 when every comp is $1000) and the landlord accepts Section 8, you're set.

I have lived on Section 8 for quite some time so let me shed some light on the matter.

First off each year even tho the cost of living go's up section 8 normally pay's a little less in rent.

2nd: each year one time a year they send someone out to inspect the house making sure its up to code and meet there own requirements.

3rd: it takes awhile to get on section 8 and it can take up to 10 years before finally getting on it if you do.

4th: Section 8 a lot of times dose not pay full rent its normally around 50%-70% and when they do they send out a check to whoever the landlord is.

5th There is rules that both the Landlord and the tenants must obey and if ether breaks said rules they will be removed from the section 8 program.

6th Only people added to the section 8 lease/program can live in the house. For example lets say "Mom" and the kids are on the lease only they can live in the house she can not let her BF live in the house or other family members if they do and section 8 finds out she will be removed from the section 8 program.

7th If you work or anyone in your house works they will wight that vs how much they will pay for rent and anytime you get a raise or new job where you get payed more you have to turn all of that in to them if you do not they will do a cut in how much rent they pay and may remove you from the program.

This is all what I learned while living on section 8 and like I said there is a lot of rules/guidelines you must fallow and obey. Every single house I have lived in that was section 8 we have taken care of it both on the inside and out.

Not all tenants are bad and bad tenants come from all walks of life but in my personally opinion unless you have lived on section 8 and have learned what rules/guide lines you must fallow as a section 8 tenant you have no right to comment about the program itself even more so when all you have to go on is someones youtube video or web story.

[Dezerte]

Nice thing about being a landlord is that you're free to make your assumptions about me. I'll just rent to the next person in line. Who isn't Section8.

No disagreements there, just pointing out the bias & generalizations.

[Lynarii]

You're right to do so, OP. "It's wrong to stereotype them! You should be glad to help poor people!" Now I'm not saying every poor person trashes the place their living in, but most of them do. And when it's your investment they are destroying, it's not worth the risk. So all you uptight moral-twats can scream and rage your bleeding hearts out all you want, but I guarantee you'd be singing a different tune if it was your rental property they were all but burning down.

It /is/ wrong to stereotype them. It means you're small minded and stupid and have no problem punishing innocent people out of a sense of revenge for the actions of a completely different guilty person. The solution to the problems that landlords have with section 8 is not to be stupid about it yourselves, it's to work to get the laws improved so that your investments are fairly protected. Nobody here is saying that it's okay when someone trashes your property, or that you should be forced to suck it up 'just because'. You shouldn't be. You should be able to get rid of a person who is actively damaging the place. You should be properly reimbursed for damages caused. But direct your anger where your anger should be directed. It's not 'everyone on section 8' that is the problem, it's the system that is failing you that is the problem. You should have a reasonable guarantee that, NO MATTER WHO RENTS FROM YOU, you are capable of collecting a fair value in rent and that the property will be returned at the end in a condition worse no more than normal wear and tear for the time elapsed.

Fix the system that abandons you.