My section 8 tenant, one of 19 in an apartment complex decided after 9 months of tenancy that they needed a new coat of paint. Their children had put their finger prints on the walls making black stains.
I gave this tenant special wipes, Fantastic and 409 spray to clean up their walls. No way I was going to repaint a unit after only 9 months.
Section 8 Stopped paying their portion of the rent. Ordered me to paint the entire apartment. I refused and began an eviction. That's after giving the tenant the mandatory 90 day notice and telling section 8 i was cancelling the contract.
The day in eviction court section 8 showed up to protest. They classified me as a slumlord, but continued to pay the other 18 units rent.
I tired to enplane to the judge that section 8 was going to loose their 25% commission for cutting rent check each month and this had nothing to do with the condition of the unit, but loss of income for the City.
I got my chance to speak. I told the court that the damage to the walls was children's finger prints. The judge said I couldn't prove that the makings were the tenants children's prints and had to re-paint.
I then called in my expert witness. A police Sargent located in an adjacent building. He was a long term hand-prints expert who I had come into the unit and examine the fingerprints.
He testified that the marking on the walls were the tenants children's fingerprints.
The judge responded, so did section 8, "So What". Well the City Section 8 guide line says that the tenant shall be responsible for cleaning fingerprints from the walls. This tenant refused to do any house keeping even when I provided the spray, wipes and paper towels.
So the judge had to rule in my favor, the eviction went through. I got no rent from section 8 for 4 months since I cancelled the contract. After the eviction I filed a case against section 8, Housing and the City. They settled out of court if I dropped the case. They didn't want other landlords to see a recovery was possible. Like 1 in 100 landlords will win a case against them.
At the next landlord convention here on the West Coast, I stood by the Section 8 Booth and handed out fliers that taking on a section 8 tenant is about the craziest bad idea a landlord could make here in Los Angeles and West Hollywood -- only if a landlord doesn't mind loosing control over their investment.
--47.156.xx.xx