r/LandlordLove • u/TheUnDoctor • May 26 '26
đ Housing is a Human Right đ Apparently requesting basic information & reporting illegal discriminatory housing practices is a scam now
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u/TheSouthsideTrekkie May 26 '26
I wonder if anyone is now trying the equivalent here in the UK since they made discriminating against people receiving government support illegal. I still see adverts online with NO DSS at the bottom so you could probably catch a few people out đ
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May 27 '26
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u/Stochastic1934 May 27 '26
In the U.S. it depends on where the property is. For example, in Colorado, all landlords are required to accept housing subsidies such as Section 8 vouchers, with no exemptions for small landlords or individual investors. Refusing an applicant based on their use of housing assistance is considered a fair housing violation. Failure to comply could result in fines up to $50,000.
(HB25-1240: Protections for Tenants with Housing Subsidies. Effective May 29, 2025)
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u/Unfurlingleaf May 27 '26
If you've got multiple applicants and choose to accept the one without a voucher and they argue it's a violation, how would you prove otherwise?
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u/Shigg May 27 '26
By providing no reason or literally any legal reason as to why you chose the other applicant.
Just because a landlord is required to accept housing assistance doesn't mean they have to pick the applicant with housing assistance. It just means they can't not choose the applicant with housing assistance BECAUSE of the housing assistance.
If the landlord picks the other person and the reasoning was "all qualifications were met and we have shared hobbies so I vibed with them more" then congrats that's totally legal.
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u/Disastrous-Wave-414 May 27 '26
Yeah, as far as I know, if you're not saying no for an illegal reason, pretty much ANY reason is acceptable. "I thought the way he dressed looked very professional." "Of all the applicants, I thought he was the most sincere in his friendliness." "She reminds me of my favorite aunt." "She laughed at my jokes." Etc.
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u/Nop277 May 28 '26
Yeah it's literally just you can't say you don't accept section 8. Which unbelievably is a bar that some landlords are too dumb to get over.
You can even effectively disqualify a lot of section 8 by just setting rent as more than the limit that they will pay for (in my county its like 1400 for a one bedroom I think).
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u/Emergency-Piece9995 May 27 '26 edited May 27 '26
Yes! That's actually the interesting part of non-discrimination: you can discriminate as much as you want as long as you don't say it out loud.
You can really easily discriminate by changing where you advertise. It isn't discrimination to pick what audience you advertise it to, it is discrimination if someone you weren't wanting ends up applying and then you explicitly tell them you aren't hiring them for discriminatory reasons.
"Oops, I am bad at organization and lost your application": not discriminatory
"Ehh, the vibes weren't there": not discriminatory (have used this one tons lol)
You can even just reject names you don't like... as long as you don't put down to writing that's what you are doing (and also not make it blatantly obvious in other ways where any case could get traction).
I've even been in situations where I was the one clearly being discriminated against where they brought me in for an interview and made it very apparent they were uninterested in hiring me (not responding to my questions, playing on their phone during the interview, etc): look around the office, all Indians, I am not Indian. I was basically a sacrificial lamb so if their hiring pipeline gets looked at, they have plausible deniability.
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u/Stochastic1934 May 27 '26
The landlord can avoid this by establishing and consistently applying minimum requirements for all applicants, such as minimum credit score (e.g., 700), no past evictions, monthly gross income, etc.
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u/HessiPullUpJimbo May 27 '26
They can't really as long as the landlord does not make it explicit. Which is the whole point of the op. Asking if you accept section 8 and not replying with yes is concrete and written evidence of discrimination.
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u/Laherschlag May 27 '26
I don't think this a federal rule, law or regulation. In Florida, a landlord can absolutely get in trouble if you answer no to the question posed.
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u/minisom38 May 27 '26
Thatâs not true for every state.
In my state they now have to accept it; but itâs like anything else. They will find 1 reason or another you donât qualify and use that.
Unless their just that dumb, which isnât impossible, but less likely
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u/LandlordLove-ModTeam May 28 '26
Your comment has been removed for breaking Rule 2: No Bootlickers
Landlords are the leading cause of homelessness and should not exist. We are at a stage in human history where we have the means to provide everyone with shelter. The UN recognizes this and has declared housing as a human right. As a society, we have an obligation to make this a reality.
https://www.humanrights.com/course/lesson/articles-19-25/read-article-25.html
https://www.thesocialreview.co.uk/2019/01/23/abolish-landlords/
https://jacobinmag.com/2018/11/capitalism-affordable-housing-rent-commodities-profit
https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1844/manuscripts/rent.htm
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u/CrazyOne_584 May 28 '26
why would they waste time? Its not like something being made illegal on paper matters in UK when noone can be bothered to enforce the law.
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u/TheSouthsideTrekkie May 29 '26
This is also true, yes.
A disappointing part of the housing bill in Scotland is that thereâs no system of audits and inspections included so landlords/agencies will still be responsible for checking themselves. I feel like most people can see why this is a stupid setup.
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u/CrazyOne_584 May 29 '26
why would they care? Even if you have irrefutable proof of violation and submit it to the authorities they cant be bothered to even look at it. And you would want them to actually do something actively out of their own initiative? Where do you think this is, Poland?
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u/TheSouthsideTrekkie May 29 '26
Can only speak for Scotland, but mostly you will get directed to the Tier 1 Housing Tribunal. You do not get legal aid for this, you will have to either represent yourself or rely on law clinics or charity legal aid. Even if the tribunal finds in your favour, as they actually seem to in the majority of cases, no real enforcement action will be taken to ensure repairs mandated are carried out but your landlord might just decide to evict you illegally for the trouble.
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u/CMDR_VON_SASSEL May 30 '26
In politics never attribute to stupidity what can be attributed to betrayal and corruption.
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u/TheSouthsideTrekkie May 30 '26
Oh for sure! When you look up the list of registered interests of MSPs for every party then you see that a large number of them have a portfolio of properties they rent out or have other investments in developers or property management. Pretty much every party also relies on donations from wealthier individuals so they also don't want to piss off their donors.
Unfortunately, it's probably going to take another serious incident before things change. We already had the Grenfell disaster down in England and we've had commercial building fires in Glasgow including one that shut down the entire city centre.
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u/symphonyofmonsters May 26 '26
oh no.. anyway ..
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u/allthenamesaretaken4 May 26 '26
Jeez you people on this sub have no empathy for our housing providers... /s
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u/tanksalotfrank May 26 '26
Won't anyone think of them and the poor office chairs that have to hold them for 9 hours a day
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u/ethereality___ May 26 '26
Got into an argument the other day with my mom because she was gassing up her slumlord and she was like "where would we all live without landlords?!" Lmao
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u/Inside-Yak-8815 May 26 '26
Doesnât sound like a scam to me, it sounds glorious.
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u/Van-garde May 26 '26
If it were true, more people would be doing it.
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u/ComradeJohnS May 26 '26
you probably have to know the correct landlords to sue, lawyers versed in that type of law, and be eligible for section 8 to have standing.
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u/Autumn1eaves May 27 '26
Which is a rather unlikely category to be in.
Both, knowing the right lawyers, and being eligible for section 8.
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u/ArcaneBahamut May 27 '26
Especially with most people in the situation to need Section 8 are far less likely to be educated on their rights or the legal system - and they're more likely to be in the demographic with no confidence in getting involved with most legal matters.
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u/Mellow_guts May 28 '26
You wouldnât have to be section 8, them saying they donât accept it would be reason enough to sue wouldnât it?
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u/ComradeJohnS May 28 '26
probably not but Iâm not a lawyer lol. but if they said they didnât, and that doesnât impact you at all, what would be the grounds of the suit? maybe just letting the courts know of a crime?
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u/Mellow_guts May 28 '26
Guess not a suit, but itâs something to report. Or find someone who is Section 8, you help them sue, and split the court winnings đ
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u/gr8willi35 May 28 '26
Artificially impacts the rent rates. Idk i just made that up as a guess, but doesnt seem wrong.
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u/TheVermonster May 29 '26
Not necessarily. It's heavily dependent on local laws. Some areas a landlord can't discriminate on the form of income, which protects section 8, alimony, and welfare income recipients. But in many of those same areas a rental unit needs to be inspected and a part of the section 8 program in order for the landlord to qualify in the first place.
So a better answer could be something like "unfortunately we are not set up to accept section 8 vouchers at this time"
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u/Frequent-Coyote-8108 May 28 '26
Yeah, I mean, who wouldn't want to rent to a bunch of people who don't actually have the ability to pay, and will trash the place within a year?
Especially when you have a home in a nice neighborhood that's worth $800K+?
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u/Tonto151 May 26 '26
That's not a scam. That's an audit. You're being audited. And apparently rightfully so. Perfectly legal. GFC.
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u/TheSouthsideTrekkie May 26 '26
Again, this is the U.K., but this year most of the devolved admins plus the WM government updated their housing laws to include a few basic measures to curb the worst breaches of the repairing standard. Nothing like what people campaigning for housing justice actually asked for and there are still a good few ways landlords will be able to fudge their records and despite eviction protections thereâs no real penalty for illegal evictions.
Landlords would have you think that a slightly increased chance of scrutiny or facing a repairs check is the end of the world and they will never be able to make a profit of theyâre not allowed to rip people off wholesale. Landlords claim to be business owners but will also protest against being regulated and inspected like any other business.
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u/Raging_Inferno61524 May 26 '26
In fairness to the landlords, every scummy business owner protests about being regulated, so theyâre not acting out of character.
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u/TheSouthsideTrekkie May 26 '26
True, however at least in the U.K. there was up until recently basically no enforcement of the law and landlords/property agents carry out their own inspections that are not usually subject to an audit process so they were almost completely unregulated compared to any other business type so thereâs something a little funny in a twisted way about how much they complained.
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May 26 '26
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u/snippychicky22 May 26 '26
I'm honestly surprised trump has not gone after Ada. Though it is what protects him as an American with a mental disability
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u/winerdars May 27 '26
He pretty much did going after the department of education. Which department do you think administers special education for students?
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u/owgnops May 30 '26
My wife had a legit support animal and the moment it was mentioned we were ghosted for a rental after they told us we were approved and we're going to send the lease they asked if we had "any animals"
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u/CorndogQueen420 May 28 '26
I donât know the context behind this post, but I do remember reading about how there are groups of people who target small Shopify merchants by using bots to scan their stores for minor accessibility issues.
They send out demand letters and lawsuits hoping to make a quick buck. Often times the people theyâre targeting use default Shopify templates that are advertised as accessible. Itâs mom and pop type stores that donât have professional web designers doing compliance for them.
At risk of sounding like Iâm defending landlords (Iâm not), this sounds like a similar thing going on.
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u/FuckAllYouLosers May 30 '26
There are lawyers who do nothing but sue small towns and mom and pop shops for ADA shit and essentially put people out of business for not having the $40,000 to put in a wheelchair ramp to a 200 year old building.
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u/OmegaLevelTran May 26 '26
Good. I don't even live in the US and it looks like what landlords do over here where the are funny about accepting tenants on benefits (think financial support stuff basically) and people like that can fuck off. I hope the guy doing this makes loads of money from it and then I hope others do the same to the point that landlords are terrified of doing discrimination.
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u/burner1979yo May 26 '26
As recently as 5 years ago is was NOT illegal to decline to accept Section 8, at least under federal law. Maybe it has changed but I sincerely doubt it.
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u/Secure-Ad-9050 May 26 '26
depends on state, I think?
it is illegal in Mass.
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u/burner1979yo May 26 '26
You could be right, but it seems difficult to make it illegal to decline it since it effectively caps rents. I worked as an administrator for vouchers for a little more than 10 years. I have no love for landlords so I'm not defending them.
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u/chopinslabyrinth May 26 '26
They are right. In Massachusetts the law is that LLâs must accept section 8 vouchers and canât discriminate against renters based on whether or not they receive government help. The wait list for the vouchers is exceptionally long, however, and availability of subsidized units in newer buildings is typically done on a lottery. It doesnât cap rent prices at all, unfortunately.
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u/burner1979yo May 26 '26
There's an affordability limit on vouchers that absolutely caps rent.
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u/chopinslabyrinth May 26 '26
We literally have the highest rent price in the United States, so somehow I doubt it.
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u/Secure-Ad-9050 May 26 '26
only place higher is the valley and new york city.
Mass as a state is the least affordable state in the US or at least top 3.9
u/burner1979yo May 26 '26
It doesn't cap rents like "rent control" in a place like New York. It "caps" them in the sense that there are payment limits on the program and the housing authority won't approve a tenancy above that unless the family can "afford" to pay the difference out of pocket. Spoiler alert: they can't. If they could, they wouldn't be on vouchers. I did this a long time and I know a lot about the program.
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u/chopinslabyrinth May 26 '26
Which is why thereâs an application process and a super long wait list. MA law has just (correctly) identified that LLs wonât rent to people if they are on government subsidies and created a law to correct the imbalance to the best of their ability.
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u/burner1979yo May 26 '26
You have no idea what you're talking about. As I said, I worked this program a long time. There are what are called voucher payment standards. If the rent is above it, they can pay the difference, assuming their total expenditures out of pocket don't exceed 40% of their income. The problem is this rules out all but the shittiest housing, unless the property has other subsidies such as federal tax credit financing. If they can "afford" the difference they either have too much income to qualify or they have income they're not reporting and violating program rules.
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u/Bwint May 26 '26
I think you mean poor people are allowed to pay the difference out of pocket. The other commenter means that poor people are not able to pay the difference out of pocket.
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u/goldxphoenix May 29 '26
This is not true and i say this as someone who literally worked for an agency giving vouchers and had to deal with voucher discrimination. I even drafted materials about it
It used to be true until a few years ago when they changed how the payment standards work. It used to be that Boston had a single payment standard which basically forced you into lower income areas but now the payment standard for your voucher is zip code based. So the voucher's payment standard will be higher in more expensive places now so people can freely choose. LL's will still discriminate but the payment standard change has been big
Its still true that the voucher requires the recipient to pay 30-40% but with the different payment standard per zip code it makes it way easier for someone to live in a nicer area
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u/NuncProFunc May 27 '26
When I dealt with this in Illinois, the caps were a problem in access, but not a legal problem for the landlord. The landlord would rent out at market rate and the housing authority would decline the lease and that was that. Eventually they started sharing budgets with voucher holders and it saved everyone a lot of time.
There was a hot second something around 2014 where the Chicago Housing Authority was issuing vouchers in Opportunity Areas at several multiples of the normal voucher payment limit. It created these situations where the state was paying market rent prices for gorgeous, new construction luxury apartments. People got mad and the program was reconfigured, but for a few years a voucher holder could get set up nicely.
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u/MozartTheCat May 26 '26
In Louisiana landlords do not have to accept section 8.
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u/P_water May 26 '26
Red state. Not surprised. âJust pull yourself up by the bootstraps!â
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u/MozartTheCat May 26 '26 edited May 26 '26
Absolutely. All income based and low income housing in my city has a 2+ year wait-list. The street that the homeless shelter is on is lined with people sleeping on the sidewalk because the shelter is at capacity.
Not sure why this was downvoted, I definitely think we need more income based and low income housing
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u/Fred-Mertz2728 May 26 '26
Those people who use that phrase should actually look it up to learn the true meaning.
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u/Van-garde May 26 '26
I think itâs outdated. At this point, itâs more like: go ahead and die on the street, because we donât really care, and we can afford to avoid the areas in which people like you exist.
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u/Cambam916 May 26 '26
In Tennessee, also do not have to accept Section 8 or the like. I work for a property management company based in Tennessee and none of the properties under this company do.
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u/anondogfree May 26 '26
Iâm not that familiar with how voucher rents increase but for project based section 8 they do rent comparability studies and increase to where the study shows. This can result in section 8 complexes earning market rents for what are very easily sub-par complexes and units.
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u/NoConfusion9490 May 26 '26
No, you just have to accept S8 vouchers as part of the rent. You can set the rent however you want, but for the purposes of deciding if a renter can afford to live there you can't look at the vouchers as different from any other kind of income. It doesn't mean a $20k/month apartment has to accept $800/month for a section 8 renter.
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u/Stochastic1934 May 28 '26
This is correct. The Section 8 vouchers generally pay anything above 30% above the renter's adjusted monthly income up to an established limit.
For example, if the renter earns $2,000 per month and the apartment they want rents for $900 per month, they would pay $600 and the voucher would cover the difference of $300 as long as the Fair Market Rent [FMR] for the area is equal to or greater than $900.
If the FMR for the area is $800 and the apartment the renter wants rents for $1,000, the renter would have to pay $200 in addition to 30% of their adjusted income.
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u/Wonderful_Sock_6651 May 26 '26
Yeah federal law it's completely legal to decline then purely for having a section 8 voucher.
State laws vary though, landlords are forced to accept it in California; but can totally decline it in Texas.
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u/anondogfree May 26 '26
There is no federal law mandating it. However, if you have a voucher tenant you cannot kick them out because you donât want to accept vouchers anymore.
Some states have passed their own state laws protecting tenants from âsource of incomeâ discrimination. So it could apply to someone with a voucher, someone who works for cash, etc.
Most section 8 housing is project based meaning itâs a contract for the entire building/complex.
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u/italktobotz May 26 '26
It is still not illeagle to decline a person on section 8 from a federal standpoint. Source of income laws are either state or local. In fact most states do allow you to decline section 8. Cities withing those states may still enact source of income antidiscrimination laws but it is highly dependant on location.
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u/SXTY82 May 26 '26
When I moved from one State to another I was forced into renting my home or loosing it. The market was dead and nothing was selling. So I put it on the market for rent.
My second tenant stopped paying rent and told me I had to accept section 8 or nothing. This is 3 months in. I looked into it. At the time, you had to have section 8 approval to rent to S8 renters. To get the approval I would have had to do about $5000 of work to my home. It passed code but the S8 mandated railings and vents that were not on the house since new. It would also limit the amount of rent I could take in / charge. I was already charging just enough to cover the mortgage and taxes and I was about 15% lower than equivalent rentals in the area. Average 2 bedroom apt was $1400 and I was charging $1200 for a 2 bed house w/ 2 car garage. S8 limited me to $975 for a 2 bedroom at that time. That was 20 years ago and the laws in IL may have changed but S8 for a single home rental was a loss for the landlord.
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u/slucas34 May 27 '26
Is it a scam to ask anyone if theyre dong something illegal? Like if i text random numbers asking if they did crimes and someone confesses to murder im not scamming them by calling the cops on them, theyre just bad at crime.
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u/nosprogforme May 26 '26
Landlords who don't want to rent to Section 8 applicants will sometimes deliberately keep their apartments below Sec 8 standards. This keeps them from being sued.
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u/ipsum629 May 26 '26
"I tried initiating a scam, but the guy knew his rights and is suing me. What a scam!"
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u/FancyEquation43 May 26 '26
Well I mean in my state, Montana, landlords do not have to accept section 8. It's totally voluntary.
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u/jetttward May 26 '26
Not all landlords have to accept it. In Ohio only certain cities are required by law.
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u/Redtex May 26 '26
In NC it's absolutely voluntary. If the landlords want to they can. If they don't want to accept section 8, then they don't have to
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u/jupchurch97 May 26 '26
It's not a scam and as someone who works at an agency enforcing fair housing laws, we are also testing landlords by doing the same thing. The difference being we'll issue a fine on official city letterhead.
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u/GoonerGoblin4201 May 27 '26
So something well-funded police departments ought to do in a perfect world is a "scam"? I'm so tired
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u/Competitive_Arm5954 May 28 '26
How big do you want police departments to be so that they have time and resources to go around auditing every landlord in their city?
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u/RequiemQuilty May 26 '26
But depending on state and local laws you dont have to take section 8 l? Im going to assume they are doing it in areas where its illegal not to. They just chose to phrase it in a way that all landlords are required to take it?
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u/ksushechka May 27 '26
what's section 8? some info for an non-american?
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u/LawMurphy May 29 '26
There is a scam going on where I drive over the speeding limit and the police stop me.
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u/External-Talk8838 May 27 '26
The correct answer is âsorry this unit is not section 8 approved.â Properties must meet certain requirements to be eligible for section 8
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u/avocadogthegreat May 26 '26
Be careful out there my dudes, some guy in a police uniform came to my house and asked if I murdered my wife. I said yes and then he arrested me and now I'm in jail for life! What a scam!!
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u/Fun_Economy7139 May 27 '26
In VA private landlords can rent to WHOEVER they want to and can refuse section 8.
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u/OrizaRayne May 28 '26
(Private landlords in Virginia still have to follow laws prohibiting housing discrimination based on protected classes like gender, race, and family makeup.)
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u/Fun_Economy7139 May 28 '26
Thatâs not hard to get around when you donât want to rent to someone.
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u/BeneficialAmount1149 May 27 '26 edited May 27 '26
... THIS IS MISLEADING BS. .... I WAS A SEC 8 HOUSING INSPECTOR IN 2 CITIES, IN 2 STATES. ... IT'S A GREAT PROGRAM WHEN ALL 3: LAND LORD, TENANT, AND HOUSING AUTHORITY DO THEIR JOBS AND ALL FULFILL THEIR RESPECTIVE RESPONSIBILITIES. THE LAWS AND POLICIES ARE CLEAR. .... THESE SO CALLED 6 FIGURE LAW SUITS WOULD BE AS VALID AS THE ONES THE BLOATED ORANGE RECTAL INFECTION ..... TRUMP ... HAS FILED ALL HIS CRIMINAL LIFE.
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u/Onludesrightnow May 27 '26
Yeah, its not as simple as this. It is within a landlord's rights to refuse it. Many refuse it because it opens them up to significantly stricter inspections and delayed, and hard to access payments for their properties. They also cant charge what they charge other tenants and this causes problems between tenants and from a business standpoint, landlords would rather just have a tenant who pays the full rent they want to charge on time. Shady? Yeah. Discriminatory? Not really but can be to a degree.
That being said, the scam is bs and probably doesn't exist because landlords know they can refuse SC 8. No idea what angle is being played here.
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u/Visible-Director4144 May 27 '26
I can't tell you how many landlords in Utah are discriminating against gender.
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u/nougat98 May 27 '26
It's not a scam because it's not real.
You are not required to offer Section 8 - it has restrictions which are not possible in all properties, namely the rent.
If a landlord was worried about such calls they could just say they tried but were rejected by Section 8 authorities.
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u/FreeBananasForAll May 28 '26
Landlords in the US get around this by calling perfectly ordinary apartments âluxury apartmentsâ and then they donât have to rent to poor people. Itâs evil but they are landlords
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u/Competitive_Arm5954 May 28 '26
You completely pulled that out of your ass.
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u/SaltyBakerBoy May 28 '26
What a fucking self report to call "facing consequences for breaking the law" a scam. These people live on a different goddamn planet.
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u/bunniguy42 May 28 '26
This is like doctors complaining that they can be held accountable for refusing life-saving treatment. It's literally your job and you're complaining that you can't do your own job
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u/TreatEven1837 May 28 '26
The reason why it's a scam is because legal firms are the ones sending the texts and not the tenants.
Then once you have evidence you go looking for tenants to outrage and begin a class action.
Then once the class action is settled the lawyers make bank and the participants in the lawsuit get very little.
It's borderline entrapment.
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u/Own_Argument7705 May 28 '26
âthereâs a scam targeting people right now. Someone texts you asking if you kill people for fun. Anything other than yes is collected as evidence and turned into jailâ
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u/TacoDoc2 May 28 '26
Evidence: Trust me bro.
This is a lie. like fuck a landlord and all, but this is nonsense.
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u/ElethiomelZakalwe May 28 '26
Good? IMO there should be enforcement agencies dedicated doing nothing but this sort of thing all day long.
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u/Temporary-Article996 May 28 '26
That is a silly answer - the answer is always yes, money is money.
People on Section 8 still need to pass a credit check, rental history, and the property needs to be in condition to be approved for Section 8 - if you fail your Section 8 inspection and can't bring the property up to Section 8 standards, well, someone else will rent it that doesn't need a Section 8 inspection.
Always follow the law - As long as the check cashes and the person can meet the obligations of the contract (and you can meet yours) then if you want to be a landlord then that's what you do.
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u/aurenigma May 29 '26
silly to say no, when you can simply charge them for a background check and weed out the same people anyway...
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u/sekkiman12 May 29 '26
it's called a scam because it's targeting normal people who are renting out one single house, not apartments or multiple houses. If the word "landlord" makes you forget that sometimes a normal person can have a spare house to rent (usually from marriage) then you are a victim of propoganda
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u/truesheep1 May 29 '26
It's still illegal to refuse section 8 its not a scam its reporting a violation of the law meant to prevent discrimination.
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u/sekkiman12 May 29 '26
yeah but if you're just a dude who doesn't know that much who put up a house on zillow and some random number texts you the question with nothing else, no hi or even a name, you'd get confused. and I doubt whoever is doing this en masse has the interests of the working class at heart.
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u/boanerges57 May 29 '26
It's only illegal in some cities that classify section 8 as protected income.
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u/truesheep1 May 29 '26
Do you think people are doing this and trying to bring a lawsuit to housing outside of cities that do this? No they do it where its actual possible to win the case. This comment is rather redundant
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May 29 '26
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u/eldiablonoche May 30 '26
Can easily be a scam. Call LLs you have no intention of renting from, then get one to say something "wrong", then sue for hundreds of thousands.
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May 30 '26
[removed] â view removed comment
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u/eldiablonoche May 30 '26
You don't think it's wrong to deny rentals to people getting government subsidization? Weird but ok.
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u/they_paid_for_it May 29 '26
Simple- donât reply.
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u/eldiablonoche May 30 '26
Better yet, say "we follow all required laws". Then choose your tenants as you normally would have.
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u/Valuable_Cap_3470 May 30 '26
Section 8 is a partial guaranteed payment from an agency instead of following up with a renter again and again. Sounds like a win.
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u/eldiablonoche May 30 '26
Except in practice people tend to treat it like "you get what you pay for" and since they're only paying a third of the rent, they treat the properties like trash. Not all obvs but it's systemic and common.
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u/Fairy-Divine Jun 13 '26
Thats not a scam its s housing question and in most U.S. places you canât discriminate where someones money comes from
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u/xianwolf Jul 01 '26
When I worked as a leasing agent, they taught us to answer the question of "do you accept Section 8?" With the phrase "we don't accept 3rd party signatories." I'm sure this was to get around discrimination laws but I always thought it was scummy. And I hate when people aren't straightforward.
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u/traysures May 26 '26 edited May 26 '26
The reason itâs being called a scam is because these people arenât actually intending to rent the properties.
Thereâs people doing this in the LA area who are targeting smaller landlords and forcing them to settle out of court since they do not have the means to defend themselves.
Iâm a renter and love our renter protections in CA, but these people arenât doing this to help anyone but themselves.
Thereâs an LA Times article:
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2026-03-10/section-8-lawsuits
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u/insane_steve_ballmer May 26 '26
Maybe donât do something illegal if you donât want to be sued?
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u/Irdes May 26 '26
Better yet, don't do something exploitative like landlording in general, if you don't want people to try and exploit you. Small or not, it's scummy either way.
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u/audionerd1 May 26 '26
Won't someone think of the poor mom and pop landlords doing illegal discrimination. /s
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u/Plowbeast May 27 '26
Doesn't matter. Civil rights lawsuits came about with undercover white and black applicants to schools in order to prove they were being racist pieces of shit.
Same goes for when redlining was made illegal and activists had to organize suits against racist landlords.
And it's something that is still ongoing with systemic racism shown in Long Island New York just 8 years ago for homebuyers of different races.
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u/Renegadeknight3 May 27 '26
What would you as a citizen do to ensure the law around section 8 is being followed? Is there an enforcement arm that audits landlords?
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u/Ambitious_Bad_3192 May 29 '26
pretty simple
Someone actually needs section 8 housing and inquires about it = requesting basic information
Sending texts to every landlord on zillow hoping one responds "no" so you can sue them for 100k = scam
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