A landlord posted a series of TikToks chronicling his eviction of a low-income tenant. They've sparked wider outrage against such posts, which often go viral.

• A landlord is facing backlash for sharing TikToks of the aftermath of a tenant's eviction. 
• Viewers said the landlord should not be "making content" about such a sensitive situation. 
• It follows a series of similar videos that often go viral and attract controversy.

A landlord is facing intense backlash on TikTok after he filmed a series of videos documenting the purported eviction of his tenant.

The first video, in which Mital Patel filmed uncut grass and abandoned rubbish around the property, was posted on September 18 and has since had 6.7 million views. The subsequent five videos, in which Patel and his father can be seen cleaning out the abandoned property, have had about 1.5 million views combined. 

"Come with us as we evict our Section 8 tenant," said Patel at the beginning of the series. The US Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher Program provides federal funding to help people from low-income backgrounds afford housing on the private market. 

"There are many pros and cons to having a Section 8 tenant, but the result of this one was extremely bad," Patel continued.

Commenters under Patel's first video criticized him for making the Section 8 reference, suggesting he was discriminating against the tenant because of their background, which he denied.

"Section 8 has nothing to do with being a bad tenant," said one comment with 944 likes.

"Despite this video. I hope it is clear that the majority of people who are on section 8 don't treat the properties they are renting in this manner," wrote another commenter. 

In a subsequent response to a comment asking why Patel referenced Section 8, he said it was to provide "context", and acknowledged that not all individuals on the program "are people who take advantage." He expected to continue renting properties to tenants on the program, he added. 

In a statement provided to Insider, Patel said: "Stating the tenant was a section 8 recipient is important to understanding. It was never intended to be derogatory or discriminatory." 

Several users also criticized Patel's video and said they felt it was inappropriate to film such a situation for social media. 

"If you're a landlord who decides to make content on evicting people, I hope you perish," said one user in a video with 67,000 views. 

"Have a little bit of fucking empathy bro. Why are you flexing putting someone out on the street and like painting Section 8 tenants in this bad light?" asked another user. 

One user appeared to satirize Patel's video by reenacting his introduction. "What's up guys! Welcome back to a new video. Today we're making somebody homeless!" said the user, who then told Patel to "get a real job." 

Patel defended his videos in a number of subsequent posts, where he said his tenant "signed a contract" with regard to damage to the property, so he was not wrong to point that damage out in his videos.

He responded to a user who accused him of making "entertainment" out of "the shittiest day in someone's life," by claiming that the tenant has been evicted from properties five times before, according to her civil record. "That makes us the sixth time, not having it," he said in the video. Insider was unable to independently verify this claim.

Patel told Insider he disagrees with criticism that his videos were inappropriate: "I'm not sorry I posted and said what I said. I blocked all of the tenant's personal information, addresses, and went the extra mile to ensure they remain anonymous."

He added: "I will never take back anything I post or say, cause as it is, landlords in general are always given hate. Doing that will just add more fuel to the fire." 

In a video posted on September 30, Patel encouraged people to keep commenting and sharing their opinions about his videos on TikTok, whether they agreed or disagreed with him.  

Landlords are already controversial creators

The TikTok hashtag #eviction has close to 500 million views. Many videos featuring the hashtag are from landlords who share clips of the eviction process. They often face backlash from commenters who say that posting about evictions on social media is insensitive and serves to embarrass the tenants involved, particularly if they can be identified in the video. 

One landlord who filmed his empty property after an eviction on October 5 was criticized for saying he was going to throw away the baby cots and children's toys that the tenant left behind. "We've got another single mother who's not paying her damn rent," he said in the video, which has 20,000 views. 

Commenters immediately took the tenant's side, saying the landlord should give her a chance to collect her belongings and suggesting that being a mother is "hard," so it was not her fault she struggled to pay rent. 

The creator declined to respond to Insider's request for comment. 

Another landlord, who did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment, was scrutinized for filming his tenant explaining that he was getting ready to leave on the day of his eviction in a video posted in January with 1.4 million views. "Crazy to even film him!" wrote one commenter. "No need for the video," said another. 

In August, Forbes reported that eviction rates in the US had returned to, and in some places exceeded, pre-pandemic levels, after the Supreme Court lifted the CDC's eviction moratorium that banned evictions during the pandemic by deeming them a risk to public health. 

The outlet reported that eviction rates were rising in correlation with increasing rents, citing a report from Realtor.com that showed median rents in the US rose by 12.3% in the 12 months to July 2022.

For more stories like this, check out coverage from Insider's Digital Culture team here.