WHY SMALL HOMEOWNERS SHOULD NOT RENT TO PROGRAM TENANTS
By Keith L. Forest

I recently read a blog where a landlord of a small 3 family home was questioning whether or not he should rent his apartment to a section 8 recipient. His gut feeling told him he shouldn’t. However, many of his real estate agent colleagues strongly suggest he should take advantage of the “Free money.” However, I wanted to forewarn any small homeowner who reads this article about the hazards and danger of renting to a program recipient. The perks are quite enticing – direct payment for the Government (often state); cash incentives for signing up, and 3 months rent paid in advance. This obviously appears to be a lucrative win-win situation. However, the risk to a small homeowner out weights the rewards.

Not only do you subjecting your property, home and family to an unsavory stranger whom you know very little about and in most cases will not value or take care of the property in which you entrust to them, but in New York you risk the chance of spending an agonizing, laborious amount of time fighting an antiquated court system that – by any means necessary – will always favors a tenant if by chance your have to take them to court for back rent or eviction. Even though you may have a lease that most states adhere and uphold as legally binding instrument and an insurmountable amount of evidence proving that the tenant has fractured several clauses, New York Tenant Court often will overlooks the stipulations stated in such a document and adhere to their own tenant favored rules and laws.

There are countless New York reports that paint a grim picture of program recipients, especially those who were formally homeless, having a poor housing retention rate. Since the majority of homeless rental recipients have emotional and substance abuse issues they often require supportive housing environment where they can get counseling and other resources to help them sustain their housing. However, with New York shrinking housing stock, and with the recent trend in most public housing complexes either going cooperative and condo or being completely destroyed, agencies such as Department of Homeless Services (DHS) are targeting small homeowners offering a variety of incentives and even larger bonuses to real estate agents (who target these small homeowners) to rent to DHS clients. DHS goal being to house its growing population of homeless tenants by any means necessary. However, not providing them the skills and training they need to sustain residency. Although DHS know in advance that the majority of these clients have six (6) month rental retention and are unable to keep an apartment over a one year span of time and in most cases are career tenants who know how to manipulate the court system for their own personal gain, the majority of the programs requires a small homeowner to make a 2 year commitment.

Once the tenant enter a home under section 8 or a DHS program which in most cases have guidelines which requires them to pays a fraction of their rent (DHS Housing Plus requires a tenant to take on up to 50% of the rental income after the first year), the tenant immediately stop paying their portion and the court system here in New York will do absolutely nothing to get them to honor their agreement. Instead, they revert back to the lease which states the amount that Section 8 or the program recipient as the only amount of money you are able to collect regardless of any legal documentation or contract you and the tenant entered in. In most cases, especially here in New York, the rent stated on the lease falls way below the market value of the property, leaving the landlord with lost revenue.

Entering the court system to petition for payment can be and is an intimidating juggernaut. There are a dozen of forms to fill out and legal terminology and protocol to learn. The court always advises one to use a lawyer which in most cases is well seasoned and knows the system. However, the majority of the lawyers are jaded by the system rendering them useless in protecting and upholding a small homeowner’s best interest. It is always best to go it on ones own. However, the paperwork can be extremely taxing and daunting. To make matters worse, if by any chance any information is missing, omitted or filled out wrong, the small homeowner is penalized by having either the case immediately thrown out affording the tenant an additional rent free month leaving the small homeowner the expense and drudgery of starting the process all over again.

Since most career tenants are aware and quite familiar with Landlord Tenant laws, they are able to use it against small homeowners and simply wreck havoc on a home. There are far too many cases of tenants deliberately damaging and destroying a small homeowner’s property in an effort to keep the case in litigation, while withholding rent as a demand for the tenant to fix the damage they created. This method can easily be silenced by owners who have multi unit buildings and numerous resources and funding to handle such a case. However, for a small homeowner who in most cases depends on the rental income to help pay the mortgage, it can be mentally and financially frustrating. Not only are they being denied their rent, but are forced to pay for additional damages and destruction.

In New York Landlord Tenant Court, the first stop in the court system is Part F in which the small homeowner and tenant are technically required to work out a solution. A court appointed attorney draft up the agreement into a stipulation. In the case of a Demand for Rent Payment, the stipulation clearly states when the tenant is to pay. In a holdover case, the stipulation usually states the expected date as to when the tenant is to move. However, once again this is done in the tenant’s favor and most judges give a tenant a minimum of 3 – 6 months to move.

For a Demand for Rent Payment case, the judge gives the tenant 5 – 10 business days to pay. If the tenant does not pay by then, it requires that a Marshal’s notice be serviced by mail which takes 6 business days before the eviction can be executed. However, most tenants know the court system and once the eviction is executed they immediately run down to court and get an “Order to Show Cause (OSC)” - a legal document which a judge signs off on demanding the landlord appear in court. This prevents the eviction from happening and confirms a court date for a court appearance.

In my case, I was fighting to have a solvent tenant (solvent at this time is the nicest phrase I can make about this unsavory, demented, psycho path) removed from my home. In my attempt to justifiably do so, I have served the tenant to date with over seven marshal’s notices for failure to pay in an attempt in securing payment by a court ordered deadline. However, she has post over seven (7) and counting “Order to Show Cause” (OSC) preventing this justifiable eviction from taking place. Each time she posts an OSC, I have to take a day off from work to appear before the judge. If I, the small struggling homeowner, fail to show in court, the case is automatically dismissed and the tenant stays. However, in my case the tenant did not show up more then once and still was able to prevent the eviction for taking place. This has forced me to take time off my job far too many times to defend the fact that “the tenant has not paid, does not have the money or resources to pay and therefore should be evicted.” However, the judge time and time again continued to grant the tenant a10 days window to pay and another 6 (business days) before I am able to re-serve notice via a Marshal (an expense) equaling an additional month of tenancy before we start the process all over again.

In the defense of such injustice the court system has told me since the tenants rent, which is now current after being non-existing for over a year, is paid, she is entitled to stay. My argument has been that they can keep the rent I rather have the tenant out! This is due to the numerous lease infractions she has caused and continues to cause and demand that her rears - (back rent) be paid. Since I had to carry her for over a year without the State of New York lifting a penny to pay, I have exhausted my savings and I am currently facing hardship. The court has taken no mercy to my plea and the tenant in this case continues to destroy my property, disturb my peace (she broke a new oven which for the life of me I still cannot figure out how she did that and tried to have me arrested more then once on false accounts of harassment and her most recent attempt for creating a hazardous environment– from the pictures attached it is quite obvious this tenant doesn’t know how to use any cleaning supplies and classified diluted Pine Soil as a harmful chemical. The sad part is that the attending officers supported her mayhem), and create a hostile environment at my expense.

Not only did the court system refuse to acknowledge the binding lease we have, they also refuse to allow me or anyone to collect the accumulated late charges owed on back rent. Even though basic legally binding leases states a late fee can be charged for rent not handed in on time, the New York Landlord Tenant court system will throw such charges out in a final judgment. Again, this is a gross injustice and miss appropriation that cripples homeowners from protecting their investment.

The tenant in question in this particular situation is not a section 8 tenant but a Rent Plus Program recipient who was in a welfare to work program and gainfully employed when she signed her lease. She fit the profile of an idea tenant – a single mother with a child - and she had all the right answers during her interview. However, within a week she turned out to be a destructive degenerate set on turning my dream home into her own dark nightmare.

In the case of most section 8 tenants, the State just as they have done in my case, will punish you the landlord before the punish the tenant, by cutting off your direct payments when a tenant is not in compliance with the agency. They then place the burden of back rent on the tenant, who was dependent on the supplement to help them make ends meet in the first place. In most cases Section 8 tenants are good, hard-working people who use the subsidy to their advantage. However, the court makes the landlord suffer by refusing to pay tying the landlord’s hands by preventing an eviction to take place.

Although New York City has long gotten out of the housing business and has no intentions on re-entering, there has not been a changing of the guards or cleansing of policies when it comes to land lord tenant issues. The original myriad of laws, restrictions and taxing legal protocol clearly put in place to protect those that were victimized, are forcing many New York City small home owners, who depend on rental income to meet their monthly mortgage, to loose their homes.

These unfair policies and unjust practices of New York Tenant Landlord Court MUST changed. This city has made a demand on its citizenry to become stake holders and invest in our communities. Since the housing stock in New York is multi family, the majority of those that adhered to this cry are not only fulfilling the American dream of home ownership but spreading their entrepreneurial wings and becoming landlord. Yet, the same government that encouraged us to take on the burden of homeownership refuses to protect our constitutional rights under the 14th amendment which gives small homeowners equal protection of the law. Instead it upholds us to the same standards as a large corporation denying our rights to freedom and liberty to live in peace and harmony.

Small homeowners are holding mortgages that clearly calculate the projected rental income as part of its overall equation and paying taxes on expected rental income. Yet, when tenants do not pay and in the case of Section 8 and other State and Local funding programs, it creates a domino affect which is causing far too many hard-working New Yorkers to loose their homes. A recent report by New York University Furman Center for Real Estate & Urban Policy stated that nearly 60% of New York City’s homes in foreclosure are small family homes. Over have of the properties are located in Brooklyn with the majority of them being rent occupied. Although the data does not support non paying tenants, it does show an alarming correlation between small homeowners and foreclosures.

As both property and individual tax payers, our tax dollars are being used to run and operate Tenant Landlord Courts giving us a voice in demanding that the same system that protects tenants rights uphold the rights of small homeowners by fostering fair practices that support our efforts in collecting rent from tenants in a timely matter. That the court system, in the face of this current foreclosure crises, uphold legal binding lease contracts and allow small homeowners the right to immediately reclaim possession of their property when non paying tenants refuse to pay their rent.

I have listened to far too many horror stories of tenant abuse from struggling homeowners. Some of which unfortunately, resulted in the homeowner loosing their homes. Yet, the sentiment is always the same – “That is just how the system is!” Well, the system must change and the only way to change it is by collectively and uniformly voicing our concerns. Bedford Stuyvesant is the largest community of homeowners per capita second to Chicago which makes us strong in numbers. Collectively we can demand that the court system and our elected officials level the playing field and adapt new policies that acknowledges and support small homeowners - fair policies that expedite eviction procedures and uphold legally binding lease agreements; policies that allow small homeowners the right to collect rent in a timely fashion; protect and uphold lease infractions in court; and provide a more expedient and less cumbersome process of reclaiming possession of property from non paying and abusive tenants.

I welcome any comment, concern and shared story.

Keith L. Forest is a freelance publicist, writer and proud Bedford-Stuyvesant home owner who lives and works in the beloved community. His current blog space mybedstuy.blogspot.com seeks to celebrate the people and places that make up this great community while addressing issues such as gentrification, predatory lending and other ill norms that seek to exploit, discredit and harm the area and its people.