Re: Side agreement and section 8 - Landlord Forum thread 360150

Re: Side agreement and section 8 by Garry on January 9, 2020 @00:29

Sorry I didn't get back to you earlier, Ellie. Been very busy lately. Sec 8 does not like "side" agreements. Having a Sec 8 tenant with a "side" agreement with a LL, usually means the T and LL were trying to hide something from Sec 8.

Tell your "soon to be former" tenant, that you will NOT give her any money back. Tell her if she still insists on getting it back, you will contact Sec 8 about it, and see what they say. Tell her that if Sec 8 never OKed the "side" agreement, she runs the risk of maybe having to pay Sec 8 back a certain percentage of that $60/month and/or possibly losing her current/future Sec 8 status.

You are not at fault here. You have never had a Sec 8 tenant before, and you inherited this one and all the leases/agreements, too. When you became the new LL, she could have said something at that time about the "side" agreement---she did not. She is just trying to "shake you down" for more money before she leaves. Besides, it's her OPINION that she was paying too much. You could argue she wasn't paying enough.
Another line of thought would be that the written agreement for the $60/ month is a legally binding document. She kept paying it, even after you took over as the new LL. If she never tried to stop paying the $60, then that says she always agreed that the "side" agreement was legally binding, and the $60 was a fair price for whatever she was getting out of it.

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