Section 8 rent for landlords: collecting the tenant portion

When you rent to a household with a Housing Choice Voucher, the rent comes from two places. The housing agency pays its share directly to you, and the tenant pays the rest. The agency's part tends to arrive on its own; the tenant's part is the one you actually have to collect. Here is how landlords can bill the tenant's portion cleanly, keep the agency's payment on the books, and stay inside the rules of the HAP contract.

How the rent splits

The Housing Choice Voucher program, often called Section 8, is run locally. According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition's 2025 Advocates' Guide, it serves about 2.3 million households and is administered by roughly 2,100 public housing agencies. Each agency has its own staff, forms, and payment schedule, so the details of your arrangement come from your agency and your contract, not from a national rulebook you can look up once.

The basic structure is the same everywhere:

• Contract rent is the total rent for the unit, set in your HAP (housing assistance payments) contract with the agency.
• The HAP is the part the agency pays directly to you.
• The tenant portion is the part the tenant pays to you.

You do not calculate the split yourself. The agency does, and tells you in writing. Here is an example with simple numbers:

The rule that matters most: never charge more than the tenant portion

The HAP contract generally prohibits charging the tenant anything above their portion of the rent for the unit. That includes side payments: an extra amount "to make up the difference," a separate charge to bring rent up to what you would get on the open market, or asking the tenant to cover the agency's share when its payment is late or withheld. The contract generally provides that the tenant is not responsible for the agency's share.

Read your own HAP contract and lease addendum, and ask your agency if anything is unclear, especially before you add any fee or charge. This is general information, not legal advice.

Bill only the tenant portion each month

The cleanest setup keeps the tenant's invoices limited to what the tenant actually owes.

1. Add the tenant to the property (units are optional).
2. Set up recurring monthly rent for the tenant portion only, using the amount on the agency's notice. In the example above, that is $350.
3. Use a description that says what it is, such as "Tenant portion of rent, per housing agency notice dated March 1".
4. Let invoices go out automatically, with email reminders before and after the due date.
5. Keep the agency's notice and the HAP contract in document storage, so the amount on the invoice always has a paper trail.

The tenant pays online by bank transfer or card from their phone, or can turn on autopay with a card. Many tenants still prefer money orders or cash; record those against the same invoice so the tenant's ledger is complete either way. The tenant sees only their own portion and their own payment history in the portal.

A note on payment fees

By default in RentMerchant, the tenant pays the online payment fee and you receive the full rent. With a voucher tenant, whether an added fee is allowed on top of the tenant portion is a question for your housing agency and your HAP contract. The simplest way to avoid the question is to absorb the fee yourself: the fee payer setting can be set to landlord, tenant, or split. That setting applies to your whole account, so think about your other tenants too. Either way, keep a no-fee way to pay, such as a money order you record by hand. The fees page lists the exact amounts, and our post on convenience fees for paying rent online covers the general picture.

Record the HAP so your books show the full rent

To be explicit: RentMerchant has no connection to housing agencies. It does not receive HAP payments, read agency notices, or file anything with your agency. The HAP keeps arriving the way your agency sends it today.

What you can do is record it, so your books reflect the full contract rent and not just the tenant's share. When the agency's deposit lands, add an entry in the Accounting area recording it as rental income for that property. Your profit and loss and reports then show the whole $1,400 for the month, while the tenant's ledger shows only the $350 the tenant owes and paid.

Keep the agency's share off the tenant's own invoices. An invoice to the tenant for the agency's amount would show the tenant a balance that is not theirs, and could let them pay it, which is exactly what the HAP contract is designed to prevent.

A simple monthly check helps you spot problems early:

When the portions change

The split is not fixed. Agencies re-examine household income on a regular schedule (recertification) and can also change the split between regular reviews when a household's circumstances change. Each time, the agency sends a notice with the new amounts and the date they take effect.

When a notice arrives:

• Replace the tenant's recurring rent with a new one at the new tenant portion, starting with the effective date on the notice, and pause or remove the old one.
• If an unpaid invoice already went out at the old amount for a month the change covers, delete it and issue a one-off invoice at the amount on the notice, so the tenant is billed exactly their new portion.
• File the notice in document storage with the earlier ones.

Changes to the contract rent itself generally go through the agency under the terms of your HAP contract, not through a notice to the tenant alone. Check your contract and your agency's process before raising rent.

If the agency's payment stops or is held

An agency payment can be delayed, reduced, or withheld for reasons that range from paperwork to a failed inspection. Whatever the cause, do not shift the missing amount onto the tenant's invoice. Contact the agency, read your HAP contract, and keep billing the tenant only their portion unless the agency tells you in writing that it has changed.

Inspections

Units in the program are inspected, before assistance begins and periodically after, under standards and on a schedule your agency sets. Your agency is the source for what is checked and when. A written maintenance trail helps: when tenants submit requests through the tenant portal, you have a dated record of what was reported and when it was fixed, and you can keep inspection reports in document storage next to the lease.

How RentMerchant fits

RentMerchant collects the tenant's portion: recurring invoices, email reminders, online payment by bank or card, receipts, recorded money orders and cash, and a ledger the tenant can see. It also gives you an Accounting area to record the agency's deposits, document storage for notices and contracts, and maintenance requests in writing. It does not handle HAP payments, agency paperwork, or program compliance. The Free plan covers up to three properties with unlimited units. See the affordable housing page for an overview, and create a free landlord account to set up your first tenant portion.