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How to Become a Section 8 Landlord: Steps, Inspections and Rent

By KPCB StaffCombined Expertise In The Low Income Housing Space For 10 Years · How we write our guides

To become a Section 8 landlord, you contact your local public housing agency (PHA), pick a tenant who already holds a Housing Choice Voucher, and fill out the tenant's Request for Tenancy Approval with them. The PHA then inspects the unit, checks that your rent is reasonable, and signs a Housing Assistance Payments (HAP) contract with you. After that, the PHA pays its share of the rent to you each month and the tenant pays the rest.

HUD says landlord participation is free. You don't pay to sign up or to stay in the program, although some PHAs charge a fee for a reinspection after a unit fails.

How the program works for landlords

Section 8 is the common name for HUD's Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) program. HUD funds it, but local PHAs run it, so the details (paperwork, inspection schedule, payment standards, how you list a unit) vary from one agency to the next.

There are three agreements in every voucher tenancy:

  • Your lease with the tenant, which must include HUD's tenancy addendum word for word.
  • The HAP contract between you and the PHA (form HUD-52641). Its term is the same as the lease term.
  • The tenant's voucher, which is between the family and the PHA.

The family usually pays about 30% of its monthly adjusted income toward rent and utilities, and the PHA's housing assistance payment covers the rest of the approved rent. When the family's income changes, the PHA adjusts both shares, so the total you receive stays the same.

Your duties are the ones you'd have with any tenant, plus a few program rules. You screen and choose the tenant, keep the unit up to HUD's housing quality standards, collect the tenant's share and any security deposit, enforce the lease, and send the PHA the information the HAP contract asks for.

Steps to become a Section 8 landlord

1. Contact your local PHA

Find the agency that covers your property on HUD's PHA contact directory. Some areas have more than one PHA. Ask each one how it wants vacancies posted and what owner paperwork it needs. Some PHAs also help advertise units or offer landlord incentive payments, but not all do.

2. Advertise and screen like you normally would

You choose your tenant. The PHA decides whether a family is eligible for a voucher, but screening for suitability as a renter is your job. The PHA has to tell you that before it approves the tenancy.

Federal rules let you look at a family's history of:

  • paying rent and utility bills
  • taking care of a unit
  • respecting neighbors' right to peaceful enjoyment
  • drug-related or other criminal activity that threatens others' health, safety or property
  • following other important lease terms

The PHA must give you the family's current and prior addresses and the names of their current and prior landlords if it has them. It may share other tenancy information too, as long as it treats all owners the same way. Use the same screening standards you use for every applicant. Being a victim of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault or stalking is not a valid reason to deny an otherwise qualified applicant.

For what the PHA checks on its side, see our guide to what Section 8 looks for in a background check.

3. Complete the Request for Tenancy Approval

Once you and a voucher holder agree on a unit, you fill out the family's Request for Tenancy Approval (RFTA) together and the family submits it to the PHA with a copy of the proposed lease. The family has to submit it before their voucher expires.

The lease must be in writing and list the owner and tenant names, the unit address, the lease term, the monthly rent, and which utilities and appliances you supply versus the tenant. If you use a standard lease for your other tenants, you must use that same form, plus the HUD tenancy addendum. The initial lease term is usually at least one year, though a PHA can approve a shorter term in some markets.

4. Pass the inspection

The PHA inspects the unit before the lease starts. If the PHA has 1,250 or fewer vouchers, it must inspect and tell you the result within 15 days of getting the RFTA. Larger PHAs must act "within a reasonable time," and within 15 days where practicable. The clock pauses if the unit isn't available to inspect.

Two optional rules can speed this up, if your PHA has adopted them. Under one, a unit with only non-life-threatening problems can be approved and start receiving payments while you fix them. Under the other, the PHA can accept a qualifying inspection done in the past 24 months. Ask your PHA whether either applies.

5. Sign the HAP contract and the lease

The PHA approves the tenancy only after the unit passes inspection, the lease includes the tenancy addendum, and your rent is found reasonable. You and the tenant sign the lease, you and the PHA sign the HAP contract, and payments begin.

Inspections: HQS now, NSPIRE by February 2027

HUD is replacing the old Housing Quality Standards (HQS) checklist with the National Standards for the Physical Inspection of Real Estate (NSPIRE). For voucher units, HUD has pushed the compliance date back to February 1, 2027. Until then, your PHA can keep inspecting under the old HQS or switch to NSPIRE early, and it must tell owners about the change and when it takes effect. Ask your PHA which standard it uses.

A few points from HUD's July 2026 guidance (Notice PIH 2026-18) matter most to owners:

  • The old "site and neighborhood" item is gone under NSPIRE, and so are subjective calls about housekeeping and cosmetic looks.
  • Every PHA must already enforce the carbon monoxide alarm rules, and smoke alarms must now be hardwired or sealed 10-year battery units. These apply under either standard.
  • An unvented, fuel-burning space heater is a life-threatening failure that you must fix within 24 hours.
  • In buildings built before 1978 where a child under 6 lives or will live, inspectors look for deteriorated paint, and federal lead-safe housing rules apply.
  • Voucher inspections are pass or fail. They aren't scored the way public housing inspections are.

HUD posts the NSPIRE standards and an HCV inspection checklist so you can check a unit before the inspector comes.

Repair deadlines

When the PHA notifies you of a failed item, you must fix life-threatening deficiencies within 24 hours. Other deficiencies must be fixed within 30 days, or within a longer period the PHA approves.

After the initial inspection, the PHA must inspect at least every two years (every three years at small rural PHAs). It also inspects when a tenant or a government official reports a problem: within 24 hours for a possible life-threatening issue and within 15 days for anything else.

If you miss a repair deadline, the PHA can first withhold payments. If you make the repair within the cure period, it must pay you the withheld amount. If you don't, the PHA must abate (stop) the payments, and if the unit still doesn't pass within 60 days, or a longer period the PHA sets, it terminates the HAP contract. You cannot evict the tenant because the PHA withheld or abated payments.

If the tenant or a guest caused the damage beyond normal wear and tear, the PHA can waive your responsibility for the repair and hold the family responsible instead. Your payments can't be withheld or abated for a problem the PHA has waived.

How much rent you can charge

You set your asking rent, but the PHA can't approve the lease until it decides the rent is reasonable. It compares your unit with similar unassisted units, looking at location, quality, size, unit type, age, amenities, services, maintenance and the utilities you provide. Your rent also can't be higher than what you charge unassisted tenants for comparable units, and you certify that every time you accept a payment.

Two other numbers shape the deal:

  • Fair Market Rent (FMR). HUD sets FMRs every year for each metro area and nonmetro county. They take effect at the start of the federal fiscal year, generally October 1. You can look up your area on HUD's Fair Market Rents page.
  • Payment standard. Your PHA sets this, usually between 90% and 110% of the FMR. It caps how much assistance the PHA will pay. Two PHAs serving the same area can have different payment standards.

A rent above the payment standard isn't automatically denied, but the family pays the difference. At move-in, if the rent plus utilities is above the payment standard, the family's share can't be more than 40% of its monthly adjusted income. If your rent would push the family over that line, the PHA can't approve the unit at that rent.

Raising the rent

You can't raise the rent during the initial lease term. After that, give the PHA written notice at least 60 days before any increase. The PHA checks rent reasonableness again before approving it.

When and how you get paid

The PHA must pay its share promptly, monthly, at the beginning of each month, under the terms of the HAP contract. If the lease starts mid-month, the first payment is prorated. Ask your PHA how it sends payments and when a payment counts as received.

The PHA can't pay you anything until the HAP contract is signed. It's supposed to sign before the lease starts, and it must sign within 60 calendar days of the lease start. If it signs during that window, it pays you back to the lease start date. A HAP contract signed after 60 days is void unless HUD grants an extension. If your paperwork is stalled, call the PHA well before that deadline.

A few payment rules protect both sides:

  • You can't ask for or accept more than the tenant's share from the tenant. Any excess from the tenant or the PHA must be returned right away.
  • You can't evict a tenant because the PHA's payment didn't arrive.
  • The HAP contract can include late fees against the PHA after the first two months, but only if you charge the same late fees to your other tenants and the local market allows them.
  • If you start an eviction and the family stays in the unit, the PHA keeps paying until you get a court judgment.

Ending a tenancy

Section 8 tenants follow their leases like any other tenants. During the lease term you can end a tenancy only for serious or repeated lease violations (including not paying their share of rent), certain criminal activity, violations of law tied to the unit, or other good cause. During the first lease term, "other good cause" has to be something the family did or failed to do. Reasons like selling the property or wanting a higher rent wait until after the initial term.

You must give the tenant written notice of the grounds, send the PHA a copy of any eviction notice, and evict only through court action. State and local landlord-tenant law also applies. Our guide to landlord and tenant rental rights covers the basics, and free legal help for landlords and tenants is listed at LawHelp.org.

Do you have to accept vouchers?

That depends on where your property is. In 2024, HUD said more than half of voucher households live in states and localities that have laws against refusing tenants because they pay with a voucher. Check your state and city law, or ask your PHA, before you write "no Section 8" in an ad.

Where acceptance is voluntary, HUD says renting one unit to a voucher holder does not obligate you to rent your other units to voucher holders. Under the HAP contract, you can't discriminate based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, familial status or disability.

Common mistakes to avoid

  • Starting the lease before the PHA has inspected the unit and approved the tenancy.
  • Collecting a security deposit the PHA's rules don't allow. A PHA can bar deposits above market practice or above what you charge unassisted tenants.
  • Changing the lease without telling the PHA. Any change must be in writing with a copy to the PHA, and changes to the lease term or to who pays utilities need a new tenancy approval and a new HAP contract.

Frequently asked questions

Does it cost anything to become a Section 8 landlord?

No. HUD says landlord participation is free. The PHA can't charge you for the initial inspection or the first inspection during the tenancy, though it may charge a reasonable fee for some reinspections.

Can the PHA refuse to work with me?

Yes. A PHA must turn down an owner who is debarred or suspended from federal programs. It may also refuse owners who have violated a HAP contract, committed fraud in a federal housing program, have a history of not meeting housing quality standards or local housing codes, or haven't paid state or local property taxes. It can't approve a unit rented to the owner's parent, child, grandparent, grandchild, or sibling unless that's a reasonable accommodation for a family member with a disability.

How long until I get my first payment?

That depends on how fast your PHA inspects and processes paperwork. Federal rules require the HAP contract to be signed within 60 days of the lease start date, and the PHA then pays back to the start of the lease. Ask your PHA how long its process usually takes.

Will Section 8 pay the whole rent?

Usually not. The tenant pays a share, typically about 30% of adjusted monthly income, and the PHA pays the rest up to the approved amount. If the tenant's income drops, the PHA raises its payment so your total rent stays the same.

What happens if my tenant moves out?

You keep the PHA's payment for the month the family moves out, and payments stop after that. The family must notify you and the PHA before moving, and it can move to a new unit with continued assistance. Tenants can read about the process in our guides to the steps to Section 8 and transferring a voucher to another state.

Sources

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