Can Maryland Landlords Refuse Section 8 Tenants?

Can landlords refuse to rent to Section eight tenants in Maryland? I'm Jenny Utts with UTTS Property Management, Maryland's number one property management company. Well, the quick answer is no. Refusing solely based on a voucher is illegal. There's a statewide protection and it's under the Maryland Home act of from October 2020. Refusing a tenant because they receive a housing voucher or government assistance is illegal. This is considered part of the source of income and that's discrimination. But what you can do is still screen fair. You can reject voucher holders for legitimate reasons such as bad credit, eviction history, criminal record, those types of things. The lease is another thing that we want to talk about. We want to make sure that between the lease and the advertising, we're not saying that we will not allow section 8 so your advertisement can't say no section 8 or treat section 8 applicants differently. Why does this matter? Well, it's your responsibility to allow Section 8 tenants, but it doesn't obligate you to accept everyone. As long as you're treating them equally and fairly under the same criteria that you do every other tenant or applicant, you should be fine. What this allows though is you're expanding the pool of potential applicants for your rental property, hopefully allowing it to get rented quicker. With vouchers back, tenants are representing about 68% of the recipients across nationally. So opening that up is reducing your vacancies and bringing stable income. Let's talk about an action plan for investors on how you can make sure you stay in legal terms and above water when it comes to allowing Section 8 tenants. 1. Review your lease and your ads. Remove any language that disallows vouchers. You want to ensure all advertising uses neutral terms. Never say no section 8 and then you want to update your rental criteria. You want to make sure that it is consistent screening process across the board no matter who is applying from credit income, rental history, identity, all of those things you can still screen for and you should screen for. You just need to make sure your screening process is set. I would recommend having a standard operating procedure when it comes to that and then do it across the board for every single applicant. Then make sure your property is prepared for the inspections that HUD will require. I would also suggest that if your property doesn't meet those minimum requirements, you should reevaluate what it looks like to have your property in rent ready condition. We should also calculate rent Compare with the U.S. department of Housing and Urban Developments. Fair market rent is those limits with market rent for similar properties. You want to factor in the inspection, repairs and any potential administrative delays that may occur. And so you just want to be ready for that. Another thing to do is expand your network. Partner with local housing advocates to access reliable Section 8 tenants and streamline that leasing process. Allowing Section 8 tenants without discrimination is the legal requirement, but it's also smart business. You're getting that access to larger, more secure pure tenant pool. Think about this. Section 8 tenants are locked into not only your lease agreement that they have to follow, but also their section 8 contract. If they do anything to violate that, they are at risk and jeopardy of losing their housing voucher. That is very important to these tenants. So basically these tenants in a double backed contract is easier on our investors and then potential for lower vacancies. These properties won't sit as long you're adding the stability of government backed rent payments. Like I said, a ton of renters are using Section 8 right now, which is opening up that pool. So last tip, just be sure you are screening equally and that you're maintaining the property standards the way that you should across the board. As a savvy investor, evaluate the financials compared to that market, leasing and happy investing.