Check out HUD’s Housing Choice Voucher Myth-Busting and Benefits fact sheet.

When you rent to someone receiving rental assistance, some portion of their rent will be paid by the New York State Housing Trust Fund – by direct deposit into your bank account, every month!

Annual inspections to ensure units meet Housing Quality Standards help keep your property consistently maintained, which helps ensure both its appeal to prospective tenants when a family moves out and its resale value.

Most importantly, the HCV Program helps ALL people in our community by helping our neighbors afford decent, quality housing. Section 8 has positive effects on participants’ physical and mental health, their children’s educational outcomes, and more. Section 8 also helps take pressure off of emergency housing programs, nursing homes, and institutional living programs by helping folks afford a place to live independently even if their economic situation changes, they become disabled, or their retirement savings can’t keep up with inflation.

You rent to someone who receives Section 8!

In other words, participants in the HCV Program can rent from anyone (except a relative) who has a decent home to rent, just like anyone else. There is no list of property owners who are the only approved landlords for the program.

However, if you are interested in renting to people receiving assistance, we encourage you to reach out to us if and when you have any open units. We will gladly pass on your information to participants who are seeking new places to live!

To learn more about what happens when a Section 8 participant wants to rent from you, check out HUD’s flow chart of the process.

No, it is your responsibility to screen your tenants.

Upon request, we can provide you with the participant’s current and prior address (according to our records) and the name and address of their current and former landlords (if known by ORHA).

When screening tenants, you may consider a family’s background with respect to such factors as:

• Payment of rent and utility bills
• Caring for a unit and premises
• Respecting the rights of others to the peaceful enjoyment of their housing
• Drug related criminal activity or other criminal activity that is a threat to the life, safety, or property of others.
• Compliance with other essential conditions of tenancy.

You may not deny a family’s application for a rental unit based on a past legal conflict with a landlord, such as suing a previous landlord to make needed repairs. If a landlord rejects a family after using a tenant screening service report containing prior landlord-tenant cases or relies on review of those records themselves, the law assumes the family was rejected because of this history. The landlord may have to pay a fine between $500 to $1,000 to the State if they cannot give a good reason for the denial.

Check out HUD’s Housing Choice Voucher Program flowchart of the lease-up process.

When you are about to lease your property to someone participating in Section 8, a few things have to happen before we can start assisting them with their rent.

1. Your (prospective) tenant has a packet of forms (called the Request for Tenancy Approval packet) that you two will need to go through together. Many of the forms require both of your signatures.
   This packet also includes an IRS Form W-9 and a Direct Deposit Authorization Form, which require some personal information. Every form in the packet needs to be returned, but if you are concerned about your privacy, they can be sent to us separately, or the tenant can complete their portions and allow you to privately complete the rest and send the whole thing back to us.
2. Once we receive the Request for Tenancy Approval, an inspector from our office will set up a time with you or the tenant to inspect the unit to ensure it meets HUD’s minimum Housing Quality Standards. We try to complete inspections promptly.
   If the unit fails, deficiencies will have to be corrected before any assistance can begin.
3. Once a unit passes inspection and ORHA determines the rent is reasonable, we will mail you the lease, tenancy addendum, and Housing Assistance Payments (HAP) contract.
   ORHA provides a standard lease for all of our program participants to use, and the tenancy addendum is a HUD-mandated addition to all Section 8 leases. The lease will have a term of one year at first. These are contracts between you and the tenant.
   The HAP contract, however, is a contract between ORHA and you. This contract stipulates the terms in which we agree to make housing assistance payments on behalf of the participant household.
   You must return all three to us with your signature.
4. Rental assistance can begin! Assistance will begin on either the 1st of the month or the 15th of the month. If payments begin the 15th, the first payment will be for half of one month’s rent.

First, you should know that the same laws that apply to tenants who don’t receive Section 8 also apply to those who do.

If you wish to increase the rent by more than 5% or to not renew a tenant’s lease, you must provide advanced written notice based on how long the tenant has resided in that unit.

• If they have lived in the unit for more than 1 year but less than 2 years or they have a lease term of at least one year, you must give them 60 days’ notice.
• If they have lived in the unit for more than 2 years, you must give them 90 days’ notice.

All other rent increases or non-renewals ordinarily require at least 30 days’ written notice, but there are special rules for the Section 8 program.

For all Section 8 tenants, you must provide ORHA written notice of the rent increase at least 60 days before it takes effect. This notice must be signed by the tenant so that we know they have agreed to stay and pay the higher rent instead of moving.

These additional requirements also apply:

• We will only process rent increase requests once per year, generally on the annual renewal date of the tenant’s lease.
• The rent must meet HUD “rent reasonableness” requirements, and it cannot be more than any other comparable units on the same premises.

All rent increases must be conducted through our office. Under no circumstances may a property owner attempt to collect from a tenant any additional rent above what we have determined is a tenant’s portion of the contract rent. This is a serious violation of the HAP contract.

You must notify ORHA (in writing) of any changes you and your tenant agree to make to the lease. You cannot make any changes to the Tenancy Addendum, and any changes to the lease must be in accordance with the terms of the Tenancy Addendum.

In the following circumstances, we must execute a new lease and HAP contract, and you must therefore contact us before making any changes:

• You want to change who is responsible for any utilities or appliances
• You want to change the term of the lease
• The tenant wants to move into a different unit you own, even if it is in the same building

Please contact our office to discuss what you will need to do and when.

It will include completing a Change of Ownership Form and having the buyer complete a Form W-9 and a Direct Deposit Authorization Form (unless they have already submitted one to us for a different property).

If you do not contact us ahead of time, you could end up needing to refund extra rent payments to the NYS Housing Trust Fund. Save yourself the hassle – tell us early!

You can see a detailed checklist from HUD here.

This HUD publication, A Good Place to Live!, also covers what is required to pass inspection.

NYS HCR has also implemented these requirements for all inspections:

• In homes with a fuel-burning appliance or attached garage, carbon monoxide detectors must be operational and installed within 15 feet of all sleeping rooms and within 15 feet of the fuel-burning source
• Smoke detectors must be operational and installed in every sleeping room, within 21 feet of sleeping rooms, and on every level of the home, including the basement
• Self-closing doors: All buildings with 3 or more units are subject to the requirements of section 28-315.10 of the City of New York, which HCR has adopted for statewide use in inspections. All doors providing access to interior corridors or stairs must be equipped with a device that will ensure the door, when opened and released, returns to the closed position and self-latches shut.

Any failing issue with these HCR requirements must be fixed within 24 hours by the responsible party.

You and the tenant will be notified by an inspector if the unit has failed any part of the Housing Quality Standards inspection.

Emergency deficiencies must be fixed within 24 hours of notification, and non-emergency problems must be fixed within 30 days. We will inform you of the deadline for making repairs.

Property owners are responsible for all deficiencies except:

• Tenant-paid utilities not in service
• Tenant’s failure to provide or maintain tenant-supplied appliances
• Damage to the unit or premises caused by a household member or guest beyond normal wear and tear. “Normal wear and tear” is defined as items which could not be charged against the tenant’s security deposit under state law or court practice.

If repairs are not made by the necessary deadline, we will suspend payment of ORHA’s portion of the contract rent. The tenant does not become responsible for this portion.

Once repairs are completed and we have reinspected the unit, payments may resume. You will not receive retroactive payment.

In the case of certain extenuating circumstances, we may be able to grant you an extension to complete the repairs, rather than suspending payment. Your best recourse is to communicate with us about the cause of any delays.