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What happens When a Section 8 Tenant Wants to Move?’
I had the opportunity to spend some time in the field with two of our property managers as they performed a Section 8 Move Out Inspection.
This happens when a Section 8 tenant puts a notice in that they would like to move.
Moving is a normal part of managing rental property…but because a tenant is in the Section 8 program, they must follow certain rules and regulations.
The following is the transcript of an interview I conducted in the car with Wayne McGinnis who happens to be an ex-Section 8 Inspector with the Birmingham Housing Authority.
Spencer: We’re out looking at some different houses. I wanted to come along with them today because they were conducting a Section 8 pre-move out inspection. Or what we call ‘walk through’.
So about a week ago one of our Section 8 tenants put in a notice that she would like to move. In order for that to happen, we need to inspect the property and sign off that this tenant is good to move.
In other words that the house is in a good condition or satisfactory condition and we’re okay with them moving.
So, walking through the house was really interesting.
We couldn’t really film inside the house but I wanted to tell you a little bit about that process and I’ll ask Wayne to fill in wherever I may need his expert opinion.
Section 8 Moving Process:
- The tenant turns in a move out notice
- Our team schedules a walkthrough of the property
- We look for any damage to the house that is out of the ordinary or beyond normal ‘wear and tear’
- Our team informs the tenant on our findings and let them know if we can or can’t sign off on their move
We went out there and Wayne walked the entire house with a pen and a paper in order to make note of any out of the ordinary damage.
Really, he’s looking for any kind of issues with the home that is beyond normal wear and tear.
Is that right, Wayne?
Wayne: Yes
Spencer: As we were walking through this particular house, we see holes in the wall. The carpet is not clean like it was 12 months ago.
Wayne: It is worn well beyond normal wear vs a year ago.
So that would be something they would be charged off for beyond normal wear and tear issues.
Spencer: Okay. So, we walked through the house and not only were there a few holes in the wall, there were light fixtures that were missing.
They had also replaced an interior door in the home and had not installed a doorknob. So it wasn’t really a door because you couldn’t lock it.
And then, of course, the carpet like Wayne mentioned, the carpet was a bit messed up more than normal wear and tear. We let the tenant know that we could not approve her request to move until these things were taken care of.
And so what that means is, she can either find a reputable company to fix and repair those damaged areas and then we would sign off on it. Or she could have us do it and pay gkhoues for the repairs.
We have our own maintenance department to repair those things. Is there another option? So we either fix it, she finds somebody to fix it, or she made a suggestion. What was that, Wayne?
Estimate
Wayne: That we create an estimate of everything we saw beyond normal and tear.
And we can definitely do that but we couldn’t do it today. She had too much in the house and against the walls. She will need to move everything to the center of the room (in all of the rooms). We have to be able to see those areas and make sure there’s no further damage.
Because once we do this itemized estimate, we will be sending it to Section 8 as well as the tenant. These items must be resolved before she moves out. She must have a zero balance before she can move.
Part of paying for the damage can also come out of her security deposit.
We want to make sure we have the money to cover all the repairs beyond normal wear and tear. There are a lot of things that were normal wear and tear. These things were not in her control that we will not be adding to the list.
But for these items, we will charge her and turn that list into Section 8. She cannot move until this is taken care of. This is something we do to protect our owners.
Normal Wear and Tear
Spencer: Right, so essentially she wanted us to come back with an estimate of all things over normal wear and tear. Then she will pay for that work to be done.
Now, the interesting thing is once we have those funds, we could go ahead and sign off on her move documents for Section 8. This would allow her to move and much easier for us to take care of those items.
We will also handle anything else that the owner wants to take care of before the house markets again.
Matthew is the CEO of Evernest. He is a student of the book Good to Great and is passionate about building the best property management company on the planet (and maybe even the universe if Elon Musk will hurry up). You can usually find Matthew at the baseball field with his son, at a dance recital with his daughter, or at his favorite restaurant with his wife, when he’s not in the office. And if you can’t find him in any of those places, it probably means he’s traveling.