Landlord Question and Answer Forum

my tenant appears to want a person to stay with her but she is on section 8 and is not allowed to have an unauthorized person to stay. There is a clause that housing authority say "I can't collect any additional rent even if I modified the lease.

You can send the tenant an unauthorized tenant notice, which would be best for documentating the situation. If the person does not vacate, then I guess you could proceed with eviction. Its really entirely up to you... if the tenant is a good one, and you are getting paid by sec 8 you have to weigh your positives and negatives.

Posted by karen s, WI on Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Is the second person on section 8? I don't see why you can't simply draft a separate lease exclusive to the new tenant for the amount you would like the increase rent and leave the original lease alone. It would mean that you could only evict one of them at a time with a given eviction action, but you could reasonably collect a new security deposit, and it's preferable to not collecting rent.

Posted by Matthew P, TN on Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Section 8 has very specific rules and has all of their clients sign a very detailed contract. There is more than likely a provision in there that states that their lease is for specific people only and any unauthorized tenants will be a violation, just like the lease that they have with you. In North Dakota and Minnesota, if you are aware of a violation such as this, you should notify Section 8..not only will they contact the tenant and let them know that they are aware of the situation but you can as well. I've only had one tenant in 5 years not take care of this situation after their housing assistance threatened to end because of it.

Posted by Angela T, ND on Thursday, February 28, 2013

Section 8 will only allow other individual on the lease after landlord approval and letting Section 8 aware of the impending occupant. If she is just letting someone stay there she will lose her Section 8 real fast once the State or agent is made aware of the infraction.

Posted by Richard E, MI on Sunday, March 3, 2013