Renting to a Housing Choice Voucher (Section 8) Tenant in Las Vegas

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Housing Choice Vouchers, From the Owner’s Side

A program you can choose, with its own lease addendum, inspection and rent check

The short answer: in Nevada, whether you accept a Housing Choice Voucher is your decision as the owner. If you do, you still screen and choose the tenant yourself. The home has to pass the housing authority’s inspection before the tenant moves in, the housing authority must agree the rent is reasonable compared with similar homes, and you sign a contract with the housing authority and add HUD’s tenancy addendum to your lease. The housing authority then pays its share of the rent to you directly and the tenant pays the rest. In return you accept the program’s rules on rent increases, repairs and ending the tenancy.

Who Runs the Program Here

The Housing Choice Voucher program is funded and regulated by HUD and run locally by housing authorities. Here it is the Southern Nevada Regional Housing Authority (SNRHA), whose jurisdiction covers Clark County, including Las Vegas and Henderson. SNRHA says qualified families pay approximately 30% of their adjusted income for rent and SNRHA pays the other portion directly to the landlord. A family may also use a voucher to stay in the home it already rents, if the home meets the program’s requirements (SNRHA program overview).

Nevada Does Not Require You to Take Part

Nevada’s housing discrimination statute, NRS 118.100, protects race, religious creed, color, national origin, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, ancestry, familial status and sex. Source of income is not on that list (read 11 November 2026). Whatever you decide, apply it the same way to every applicant, and remember that fair housing law still applies to a voucher holder in every other respect; see fair housing compliance for Nevada landlords.

The Steps to a Voucher Tenancy

SNRHA describes the process for a new landlord partner like this (SNRHA, New Landlords; Current Landlords):

1. The voucher holder finds your listing and applies. You screen them as you would anyone else.
2. You register with SNRHA’s RentCafe landlord portal, and you and the tenant complete the Request for Tenancy Approval (RFTA).
3. SNRHA schedules an inspection of the home. It has to pass before the lease is signed and before SNRHA signs the contract or pays any rent.
4. SNRHA works out the tenant’s share of the rent and its own housing assistance payment, and the Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) contract is signed.
5. You and the tenant sign the lease, you upload it to SNRHA, and the tenant moves in.

You Still Screen the Tenant

Federal rules put screening and selection on the owner. The housing authority has no responsibility to you for the family’s behaviour or suitability as tenants, and must tell you so (24 CFR 982.307(a)). You may consider the family’s history of paying rent and utilities, caring for a home, respecting neighbours, criminal activity that threatens health, safety or property, and keeping to the essential terms of a tenancy. The housing authority must give you the family’s current and prior address and, if it knows them, the names and addresses of their landlords there (982.307(b)). SNRHA’s own checks of income and background establish eligibility for the program; they do not replace your screening. Use the same written criteria for every applicant: see tenant screening criteria in Nevada.

The Lease and the Tenancy Addendum

• There must be a written lease signed by you and the tenant. If you use a standard lease for unassisted tenants, use the same form, with HUD’s tenancy addendum added word for word; where they conflict, the addendum prevails (24 CFR 982.308).
• The lease must name the owner and tenant, identify the unit, and state the term, the monthly rent and which utilities and appliances each side supplies. The lease still has to meet Nevada’s own requirements; see Nevada lease agreement requirements.
• Changes to the lease go to the housing authority in writing. A change to who supplies utilities or appliances, or to the lease term, needs a new approval and a new HAP contract.
• Tell the housing authority about a change in rent at least 60 days before it takes effect (982.308(g)(4)). SNRHA says increases are requested through the landlord portal, once a year, at least 60 days before the move-in anniversary. Nevada’s own 60-day notice to the tenant applies as well.

The Rent

The housing authority may not approve the lease until it decides the rent is reasonable compared with similar unassisted homes, considering location, quality, size, type, age, amenities, services, maintenance and utilities, and the rent may never exceed the most recent reasonable-rent figure (24 CFR 982.507). You certify, by accepting each payment, that you are not charging more than for comparable unassisted units. You may not ask the tenant for more than their share, and the tenant is not responsible for the housing authority’s share (24 CFR 982.451). A late or missed housing assistance payment is not a ground for ending the tenancy (982.310(b)).

The Deposit

You may collect a security deposit. The housing authority may prohibit deposits above private-market practice or above what you charge unassisted tenants, and at move-out you must give the tenant a written, itemised list and promptly refund the balance (24 CFR 982.313). Nevada’s three-month cap and 30-day deadline apply too; see Nevada security deposit rules.

Inspections and Repairs

The home is inspected before the tenancy starts and again while the tenant lives there; SNRHA’s landlord page describes follow-up inspections every two years. When an inspection finds a deficiency, a life-threatening one must be corrected within 24 hours of notification and others within 30 calendar days or an approved extension (24 CFR 982.404). SNRHA says it does not pay for the days a unit is in abatement. Deficiencies the tenant’s household caused can be put on the family instead. Nevada’s own repair deadlines still apply between inspections: see rental repairs in Nevada.

Ending the Tenancy

During the lease term you may end a voucher tenancy only for a serious or repeated lease violation, a violation of law connected with the tenancy, or other good cause. In the initial lease term, “other good cause” must rest on something the family did or failed to do; after that, it can include business reasons such as selling the home, renovating it or wanting to rent it at a higher rent (24 CFR 982.310). SNRHA asks for at least a 30-day notice to the participant, including when you sell. If you have started an eviction and the family is still in the home, the housing authority keeps paying until you have a court judgment (982.311(b)). Nevada’s notice rules apply as well: see ending a tenancy in Nevada.

One Restriction on Who You Rent To

The housing authority must not approve the home if you are the parent, child, grandparent, grandchild, sister or brother of a family member, unless approving it is a reasonable accommodation for a family member with a disability (24 CFR 982.306(d)).

Weighing It Up

What owners like: SNRHA pays its share by direct deposit, and there are voucher holders looking for homes. SNRHA also says its participants stay in privately owned rentals for 7 years on average.

What owners find harder: the inspection has to happen before move-in, the rent is capped at the reasonable-rent figure, increases go through the housing authority once a year, the addendum limits when you can end the tenancy during the lease, payments stop for days a unit is in abatement, and there is paperwork for every change.

Neither answer is wrong. It is your decision as the owner; for the homes we manage, we discuss it with you and follow your written instructions, and we apply the same screening criteria to every applicant either way.

Next Step

See how we screen applicants for the homes we manage, or call 702.278.4781 to talk about your rental.

Program rules on this page were read on 11 November 2026 from SNRHA’s landlord pages, HUD and 24 CFR part 982 on ecfr.gov, and Nevada law from leg.state.nv.us. SNRHA sets some policies in its own administrative plan and can change them; check with SNRHA’s landlord team before you rely on a detail. This is general information, not legal advice.