Section 8 Tenants and Landlords (CA) (apartments, lease, tenant, evictions)

[EastCoaterinSoCal]

I have a section 8 certificate or voucher as they now call it. Most affordable places I've seen in SoCal, that meet market rate standards set by HUD and state Housing agencies, do not meet all the health and building codes required before a prospective tenant with a voucher would be allowed to move in. I've seen properties in my area I know I could not move into go through a year or two with cycles of tenants who posses no vouchers moving in and out, taking in stray roommates, midnight moves, evictions, and on and on.

What is it some people have against bringing their property up to code and then renting to responsible sec8 voucher tenants?

[nightlysparrow]

Many landlords don't want government breathing down their necks.

A 1-year lease is required for section 8. Leases favor tenants. Landlords sometimes like to raise rents more frequently.

There is a $2,200. ceiling for Section 8. Many houses and better apartments in good areas rent for more.

[EastCoaterinSoCal]

Originally Posted by nightlysparrow

Many landlords don't want government breathing down their necks.

Government would be breathing down a landlord's neck? Government builds the roads we use. You see where we could go with this? But I am curious why you addressed or offered no salient or meaningful points. Do you think owning property is outside the purview of government? Buy a nice home and let an abutter put in a pig sty and who would you call to complain?

Specifically, can you lay out any particulars of any beef you'd have with any contract, any lease with a voucher holder and the government? What about the contract or lease would be different than a lease with a non government voucher?

[nightlysparrow]

"One of the reasons that some landlords don’t like Section 8 is the government regulation involved. They don’t want the government involved with their rental properties. The government puts regulation on all Section 8 properties. The regulation includes a safety inspection when the tenant moves in and ongoing inspections at least annually.

After the inspection process, you’ll need to fix every item on their list before the tenant is approved for move-in. The inspection criteria is more stringent than most landlords expect, so the expense can be costly.

Because Section 8 is a government subsidized housing program, you can expect the process to move very slowly. The Section 8 workers are always under-staffed and over-worked. They are not able to provide the level of service you’d expect. This results in a slow process of getting through the inspections, the contracts, tenants moving in, and waiting for your first check to arrive."

Read more: Section 8 Rentals - The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

[EastCoaterinSoCal]

Originally Posted by nightlysparrow

"One of the reasons that some landlords don’t like Section 8 is the government regulation involved. They don’t want the government involved with their rental properties. The government puts regulation on all Section 8 properties. The regulation includes a safety inspection when the tenant moves in and ongoing inspections at least annually.

After the inspection process, you’ll need to fix every item on their list before the tenant is approved for move-in. The inspection criteria is more stringent than most landlords expect, so the expense can be costly.

Because Section 8 is a government subsidized housing program, you can expect the process to move very slowly. The Section 8 workers are always under-staffed and over-worked. They are not able to provide the level of service you’d expect. This results in a slow process of getting through the inspections, the contracts, tenants moving in, and waiting for your first check to arrive."

Read more: [URL="http://www.creonline.com/blog/section-8-rentals-the-good-the-bad-the-ugly/#ixzz2U92RZs8K"]Section 8 Rentals - The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly[/URL]

You are saying some landlords cannot bring their properties up to code.

As a former manager of property and now a voucher recipient I can say with authority that your list of items about the program are a worst case scenario.

I sign a lease for April1, I move on April 1. Unless of course the property was unable to meet code. What is so extra stringent about any code criteria listed on any sec 8 program site for any housing agency that is available for all the world to see?

The programs are understaffed and overworked? So they always say. Most housing agencies are slow with the voucher holders and not the landlords. Many have express areas for property holders.

Check payments are guaranteed.

What level of service are you speaking about exactly?

btw, I've never met a responsible and honest property owner who dealt with HUD Vouchers that ever had serious complaints outside of personality conflicts between inspectors and managers/owners of property. All government housing programs come with the equivalent of a rule book any educated person could understand. The HUD affiliated housing agencies usually bend over backwards, or should, to get good and decent property owners into their programs, unless of course those properties want to raise rents as high as possible and help destabilize a neighborhood by making it more transient by the nature of frequent movings in and out of tenants

[nightlysparrow]

I provided a number of reasons why some landlords don't like Section 8. You seem to want to ventilate and argue that these landlords are wrong/stupid/illogical for being the way they are. Perhaps you can find what you want from another poster. No animosity implied.

[EastCoaterinSoCal]

Originally Posted by nightlysparrow

I provided a number of reasons why some landlords don't like Section 8. You seem to want to ventilate and argue that these landlords are wrong/stupid/illogical for being the way they are. Perhaps you can find what you want from another poster. No animosity implied.

You provided generalizations, some of which I see as worst case scenarios not representative of the whole.

I do not want to argue that some landlords are wrong/stupid/illogical since it is only right/smart/logical to assume some are and some are not.

My experiences on different sides of the HUD program is an interesting one. I remember in tough times when landlords could not fill apts with rents they needed to pay off mortgages and upkeep of property they got in over their heads on, they flooded HUD programs while building up their properties to code. HUD payments kept many from losing all they ever worked for (or inherited).

I have many other stories and views on this, many very helpfully to anyone who truly needs stable and reliable tenants, but part of the deal for people would be learning how to screen people (social skills) and how to manage a property without letting these crazy management companies rip them off.

I sometimes think of starting a management company out here that does it all, but I find many property owners out here to be stupid and greedy. A deadly combination. See many sleeping in cars and storing their own belongings in autos or sheds.

Huge swaths of SoCal are nothing but a mix of Ghetto and Potemkin Village - in my opinion and observation

[johnrex62]

I was told of an instance where the inspector insisted handicap grab bars and wheelchair ramps be retrofitted into a garage apartment under section 8 housing even though the tenant was not handicapped and did not use a wheel chair. This was because the main house had been rented prior to the landlord's purchase and subsequent move in as the primary resident. Due to the official classification of the property as a multiple tenant resident, it qualified for the commercial property treatment as if it were a hotel or public building in terms of accessibility.

That is an example of government regulation that many landlords do not wish to deal with.

One of the frequent complaints I heard from landlords was that many section 8 applicants do not treat the properties they rent with respect or care and tend to cause more damage and leave more mess when vacating a property than do "full price" tenants. This is not true of all section 8 tenants, but the perception was the wrong type of tenant was much more likely that the good type.

In my area, it was more common for run down properties to be enrolled in the HUD section 8 program than midprice or higher end properties. Our higher end properties were often still under the rental caps for the program so it was not a property qualification issue as much as it was a perception issue.

[EastCoaterinSoCal]

and btw, I've reported people in the HUD programs for violations, mostly tenants. I wish more people would help to clean it up more,

[Gentoo]

Originally Posted by EastCoaterinSoCal

Government would be breathing down a landlord's neck? Government builds the roads we use. You see where we could go with this? But I am curious why you addressed or offered no salient or meaningful points. Do you think owning property is outside the purview of government? Buy a nice home and let an abutter put in a pig sty and who would you call to complain?

Specifically, can you lay out any particulars of any beef you'd have with any contract, any lease with a voucher holder and the government? What about the contract or lease would be different than a lease with a non government voucher?

It has to do with many landlords just not wanting to deal with the inspections. Those codes they have to follow can get a little nit picky so even though a landlord is pretty much guaranteed their rent with section 8, they'd rather take their chances even though a section 8 tenant cannot have random people room with them as they can lose their plan. those inspections must be holy hell for a landlord to give up the rest of the peace of mind.