Section 8 Setup | HUD and Other Subsidized Housing

If you have a property that accepts Section 8 rent payments, HUD payments, or other subsidized housing assistance as part of the total monthly rent for a property, Rentec offers an easy way to track both the charges and income received separately from your tenant charges and payments. For this article we will use the example of Section 8 payments but the instructions are universal for any type of subsidized payment received. 

Before you are able to track these payments and charges, you will first need to create a new income category. More information can be found here:  Setting up Categories | Chart of Accounts

Create a Section 8 Income Category


Create Subsidized Payment Ledger

Now that you have your new income category created for Section 8 payments, you will want to establish the rent division between Section 8 and the tenant.  To do this, the program has you create a roommate scenario for this property, with one roommate being the actual tenant and the other roommate being Section 8.  This will track rent charges and income received separately in individual ledgers yet reflect both payments in one property ledger. You will also be able to pull delinquency reports and know if the tenant or the Section 8 portion of rent has been paid and income reports to see how much income is subsidized.  
In your Rentec Direct account: 
  1. Move the actual tenant into a property. Be sure that the Security Deposit, Additional Deposit, Late Fees, and Rent Amount are only the portion the tenant is responsible to pay.

    Instructions for adding a tenant to a property can be found here:  Place Tenant Into a Property
  2. Once you've added your tenant to the property, you will want to add Section 8 as the roommate. Follow the steps you did above for placing a new tenant. You will be presented with two options because the property is already occupied. Choose Option 2 - Keep Separate. 

    Add a Roommate or Section 8 Ledger
  3. Then, enter information related to Section 8 only. Be sure that the Security Deposit, Additional Deposit, Late Fees, and Rent Amount are only the portion applicable to the subsidized ledger.

    Note: When creating this ledger it is recommend that you include the words (Section 8) after the last name in the Last Name field. This will make it easy to find both the original tenant and the Section 8 account on the Tenant List
  4. Click Place Tenant when finished. 

Receiving Subsidized Payments

When you receive rent payments, be sure to enter the payments received separately into the appropriate tenant ledger and select the corresponding income category.

Section 8 Posting Payment Received


System Note: If you already created the tenant with the full rent amount and need to adjust to just their portion, you would do that in Recurring Transactions in your Settings. Be sure to only change the Rental Amount field in that setting so as to not accidentally adjust any other system defaults.


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