<p>I found that too, but they are trainable, although not completely. </p>
<p>We had to accept section 8 voucher at some point when the real estate was booming and everyone was buying homes. At first, we would repair everything they broke without saying a word, but at some point I said, enough is enough. How come my kids don’t through stuff in the toilet, don’t draw on the walls, don’t brake refrigerator shelves, etc. </p>
<p>So, we told them that we are not repairing anything that is not normal tear and wear. If we fail inspection, they can move out. At first they resisted, some moved out. But now, I have long term renters who usually don’t break stuff and if they do, they pay for the repairs. Don’t get me wrong, they are still ungrateful. So, when Section 8 renters move out, now I replace them with non Section 8.</p>
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<p>I am not so sure, because I’ve been paid late fees before when HUD did not process paperwork on time or when we had government shutdown in our state. </p>
<p>It is not worth to me to sue the government if I EVENTUALLY get paid.</p>
<p>Do Section 8 tenants usually qualify for food stamps? Does this ungratefulness you mention permeate show up in all environments? If you don’t get payment from the government, can you evict them?</p>
<p>For example, they demand new carpets, new cabinets, everything new and then, when you give it to them, they ruin it and act like this is normal. They always say, it is the kids who did it and dismiss our complaints. </p>
<p>They think it is OK to call at 10 pm to complain about minor things that could wait until tomorrow. They think it is OK to demand emergency (same day service) repairs for something that could wait a day or two until we find the handy man. The list goes on and on. </p>
<p>In our state you can apply for emergency assistance once a year. It will pay for 2 months rent, utility bills and maybe something else, I am not sure. Every year, right on a clock, the make me fill out emergency assistance form for them. I get this feeling that they don’t really need emergency assistance, but since they can get, they apply for it and act like it is a g-d given right.</p>
<p>I’ve never had these kind of problems with non-section 8 tenants.</p>
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<p>I don’t think I can evict them and it is not really a right thing to do, because it is not their fault that the payment was not made. However, I believe, after government fails to pay, I can give them a 30 days notice to move out and if they do not, then I can evict them.</p>
<p>What I have yet to figure out with section 8 renters is the practice of writing on the walls. Yes, I am sure every family with a small child has had one who wrote on the walls and then was told not to do that again. With section 8 renters I have seen the amount of writing and the number of walls usually shows the mother thinks it is ok for kids to write on wall and that it is a normal thing. </p>
<p>The other thing I have seen with section 8 renters is that it is always a mother with children who swears there will be no one else living with her but after two or three weeks there is a man in the house and often even more family, none of whom are on the lease. Maybe the shutdown will stop any new landlords from getting section 8 renters.</p>
<p>We had good experiences with several Section 8 tenants. One good thing is that we always got paid, at least for the Section 8 amount. And most of them were actually really good about their small portion they owed, right on time with it. I think we probably had 5 or 6 of them in the six years we were running rental properties as part of an estate I was involved with. They were no worse than our other tenants, and better than some.</p>
<p>No renters now, though, so no impact from that.</p>
<p>On the amended tax return issue, I mailed it in (has to be paper, as someone said above) about 3 weeks ago. So I am pretty sure they have it in the system at this point… just a question on when the money will come. :(</p>
<p>Just checked to see if the passport renewal website was ‘open’. Seems to be. In that case, so far absolutely no discernible effect. </p>
<p>As for section 8 tenants…never, ever, never, ever again. We’d sooner rent below market than every take a section 8 tenant again. Even if the actual tenant is reasonable, having to deal with the governmental department is not worth the effort.</p>
<p>intparent, even before the shutdown, the IRS was running 12-20 weeks for amended returns. My clients that sent amended returns in June had not received their refunds yet, so I would be patient.</p>
<p>A great deal of amended returns have bee flooding the agency since the regulations regarding same sex marriage came down last month. I processed several amendments and when I was calling the IRS they said that they were swamped with inquiries.</p>
<p>My relatives have rentals that they charge very little for. They screen tenants VERY carefully and have been happy with them, from all accounts. I believe they’ve accepted a few section 8 tenants with stellar references. </p>
<p>Sad to read about bad experiences here. We have delegated rentals to our property manager and generally have been content with that. The tenants stay for years and decades and are grateful for the low rent and decent place to live.</p>
<p>I am so happy that I got my kids’ passport renewed back in August (we travel in December) and finally filled our tax returns early in September (I am such a procrastinator, usually I file October 15th, but this time I need it filed sooner - see below). </p>
<p>We are now in a process of applying for a mortgage to remodel the house we bought with proceeds of sales of our house this summer. It is government product, so it is on hold now. We still did not finalized the drawings and budget, so at this moment I am just supplying the financial documents to the mortgage broker, but if shutdown continues through the end of October I think we will be affected by this too.</p>
<p>H applied for a new life insurance policy and the company wants our tax returns to prove our income. He faxed the form to the IRS yesterday, which did go through. Let’s see how long it takes before the insurance company gets the info they need.</p>
<p>We were just about go go get our passports for our honeymoon, and near as I can tell the passport offices are still open so long as they are not in another type of federal building that may be closed-- apparently it has something to do with passports being part of national security. I googled it yesterday and I thought that’s what I read but I haven’t figured out where we actually need to go yet to see if they’re open… fingers crossed. I do have some time but if they’re closed I fear a backlog.</p>
<p>Yes, no idea how the processing is going with shutdown. At the time we got ours, we were concerned about reports of large backlogs and long waits for passports so paid rush fee for D and got it in under a week, to our surprise.</p>
<p>Looks like passport processing are unaffected (so far):
[url=<a href=“U.S. Passports”>U.S. Passports]Passports[/url</a>]
•In the event of a lapse in appropriations, the Department of State will continue passport and visa operations as well as provide critical services to U.S. citizens overseas.
•Processing time for passport applications remain at four weeks or less for routine service and two weeks door-to-door for expedited service.
•Customers planning to travel within two weeks or requiring passports to obtain foreign visas should make an appointment at the nearest passport agency.
•Please check back for updates to the situation.</p>
<p>In Houston, the passport offices were being closed before the shutdown for whatever reason (renovation?) and handed off to post offices. We filed for one on 18th in a post office and it showed up on 27th last month, without any travel listed or fast processing fees.</p>
<p>So if the online process works, the post office also should work.</p>
<p>We did not pay a fee and I think it took under two weeks to get my kids’ passports. It was back in August and we already knew about about possibility of government shutdown, but did not put two and two together. </p>
<p>We should have, though. When we had state government shutdown, DMV was closed and no one could get their tabs renewed and get their driving licenses. </p>
<p>DIL’s green card arrived on Saturday. Hurrah! Was approved 9/23, notice was mailed 9/24, green card was mailed 10/3. Would assume that since this is a fee-supported department, that’s why it came through despite the shutdown.</p>
<p>It has never taken us as long as the passport office says it takes to get/renew passports. Two weeks, start to finish, without paying expedited fees. </p>
<p>DH is supposed to fly to Seoul for work on 9/19. Wonder if he has a visa yet? His agency generally handles that for business travel. Of course, if things are still shut down, the issue will be moot.</p>