TikTok user Andrew (@medievalfilthcauldrons) called out a landlord’s practice of renting out “luxury amenities,” such as ceiling fans or dishwashers, on a monthly “subscription basis” in a viral video just a few days ago.
Andrew begins the video by stating, “Just watch, and I’ll be back.” He then plays a clip of a video by Thomas Cruz (@tcruznc), a landlord who makes TikToks about financial and real estate advice.
In the clipped video, Cruz says he makes extra income by purchasing low-cost ceiling fans and renting them out to his Section 8 tenants on a “subscription basis.”
After the clip ends, Andrew returns, confirms that the audience heard Cruz correctly, and elaborates. “If you’ve followed me for a while, you’ve probably seen a video or two featuring that guy, a landlord, who shares his wisdom about how to squeeze every dollar they can about tenants in Section 8 housing.”
Section 8 is the U.S.’s program to provide rental housing assistance to low-income Americans. In 2022, over 9 million people utilized housing vouchers via Section 8, per Yahoo! Finance, despite a total 38 million living in poverty.
Andrew then switches back to Cruz’s video, where Cruz shares that tenants also rent “food disposals, dishwashers, [and] other luxury amenities that aren’t required by the Section 8 program.”
“You heard that correctly,” Andrew cuts back in. “Things like dishwashers, garbage disposals, microwaves, are considered ‘luxury amenities.’”
Andrew summarizes the rest of Cruz’s video, explaining that Cruz does quarterly inspections, and takes down any renter-owned ceiling fans he finds.
“If you don’t wanna pay for the ‘subscription service’ for a ceiling fan, and you hang one of your own and they see it, not only will they fine you, I believe, but you’ll have to take it down. And if you don’t, they’ll evict you,” Andrew says.
While Cruz doesn’t explicitly mention fines in his video, he does state that he cites any tenants with ceiling fans he didn’t provide, and that if the tenant doesn’t comply, he evicts them.
“And you’d have to go find another property with an eviction on your history,” Cruz states. “Which is not ideal.”
Andrew expresses his frustration with Cruz’s practices. “Housing should not be a way for people to make money,” he states. “This person is the perfect example of why we’re in the situation that we currently are with this housing market.”
“That person owns, I think, a few hundred properties,” Andrew elaborates. “That’s how they’re all set up: basic amenities are considered ‘luxuries,’ and you have to pay a ‘subscription service’ to access something like a microwave or a ceiling fan.”
“It’s no wonder everything is on fire, and we’re all gonna crash and burn, very, very soon,” he finishes.
@medievalfilthcauldrons Landlords, especially this one, are the worst.
♬ original sound – Andrew
Commenters agreed with Andrew’s outrage, and some began questioning the legality of Cruz’s practices.
“The for profit housing industry fuels my anger and animosity….” one user said.
“What he’s doing is completely illegal for Section 8. Would be a shame if a bunch of folks reported him,” another commenter stated.
“I literally had my landlords banned for life from HUD in 2002 after they charged me for ‘appliances’ monthly. If I remember correctly it was around $160. Rules are strictly enforced for this,” a third user added.
Landlord TikTok’s foray into Section 8 housing
Landlord content has run rampant on TikTok since the pandemic; there are now over 156 million posts under “Landlord TikTok.”
In an interview with the Daily Dot, Andrew expanded on his motivation for making his video: namely, a recent trend of divisive TikTok real estate advice meant to teach people how to profit off of Section 8 housing.
“I’ve been vocal about my disdain for landlords and the role they play in exploiting renters and harming the housing market for pretty much as long as I’ve been on TikTok,” Andrew said over TikTok direct message. He noted that he’d seen Cruz on TikTok before, mostly in the landlord’s videos selling online real estate courses.
Andrew added that he’s seen many different accounts selling courses like Cruz’s lately.
“I’ve made a tremendous amount of content about how exploitative and harmful this behavior is,” he said. “People selling online courses about how to become a Section 8 landlord to extract every dollar out of tenants who are struggling, possibly disabled and unable to work, or are living off disability or social security.”
Andrew ended the interview with an assertion: “I believe housing is a basic human right. The economy in the United States continues to widen the wealth gap, and we’re seeing record numbers of evictions and people battling homelessness. It shouldn’t be this way.”
Can landlords charge extra for appliances?
The United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) provides official Housing Quality Standards (HQS) that dictate what criteria properties must meet before landlords can receive Section 8 payments.
According to the HQS, there must be “adequate circulation in the dwelling unit,” and ceiling fans are an acceptable way to accomplish this. Similarly, “facilities and services for the sanitary disposal of food waste and refuse” are required, but it’s up to local governments to determine exactly what those facilities and services are.
If the living space fails to meet these standards during the annual inspection, then it isn’t viable for rental. However, landlords are not required to use ceiling fans to meet the ventilation requirement, and it’s implied in the HQS that, in most areas, garbage bins and dumpsters take care of the food and refuse disposal requirements.
HUD provides an inspection checklist on their website, and the amenities Cruz lists are only mentioned under the “Special Amenities” section. This section is for optional use, designed to “collect additional information about other positive features of the unit that may be present,” and can potentially be used when considering the “reasonableness of the rent.” Special amenities include features as basic as a dishwasher, garbage disposal, or microwave.
The Daily Dot reached out to Cruz for comment via Instagram direct message and email.
