When renting to a Section 8 tenant with the Housing Authority of Philadelphia (PHA), be advised that any of the following may occur during the process: 

The process may take up to three months for PHA to process the Application, complete the property inspection, execute the Contract, approve the tenant to move in and begin actual rent payments. The exact amount of the rent you will receive may NOT be determined until the Contract is executed, which is towards the end of the process.

After the application has been submitted, the property has been inspected and has passed, only then can rent determination begin. At that time, if you are not happy with the amount of rent granted and decline that amount, the entire process of finding a tenant will have to start all over again.

The time-frame between the property passing inspection and the Contract being executed can be a month or longer. This means it could be another month or longer before the tenant will be allowed to move in and when rent will begin being paid, even after the unit passes the inspection. 

Please note that while the tenant is living in the unit, the tenant’s voucher can be revoked by PHA, at any time, for reasons that will not be disclosed by PHA. This may result in rent payments stopping and it will then be your responsibility to get the tenant out of the unit. This process is the normal Eviction process and can take up to three months to complete.

If the Tenant does not pay their portion of the rent, PHA will not offer any further assistance. If you wish to remove the tenant for non-payment of rent, you will need to go through the normal Eviction process and can take up to three months to complete. Even after a Judgment is obtained against the tenant for non-payment of rent, PHA may still move them into another Section 8 assisted unit. 

As the Owner, be advised any of the above circumstances may occur and be prepared to accept any of these circumstances and still move forward with a placement a Section 8 tenant.