Seattle passed a law in 2017 requiring landlords to accept the first financially qualified rental applicant who applies. The law took away any discretion on the part of the landlord, required the landlord to keep detailed records of when rental inquiries were received, and threatened landlords with hefty penalties for failing to comply. The law is known as the Fist-in-Time Ordinance. A King County Superior Court judge ruled the Fist-in-Time Ordinance unconstitutional. The case is now pending with the state Supreme Court. The City has filed a brief. The landlords brief is due soon. Oral argument has yet to be […]
Travis Eller
110 posts
The City of Seattle has declared war on landlords in a misguided effort to address the affordable housing issue. The City of Seattle has banned landlords from considering criminal history, required landlords to accept the first financially qualified applicant with no discretion, capped security deposits and other legitimate move-in charges, and forced landlords to accept security deposits and other legitimate move-in charges in installments. Seattle passed laws requiring landlords to accept essentially all applicants regardless of criminal history (the “Fair Housing Ordinance”). A rental industry association filed a lawsuit in King County Superior Court challenging the Fair Housing Ordinance. The […]
A domestic violence victim suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, and depression. As a result, she was unable to sleep in studio apartments because she would become afraid if she heard footsteps or saw lights from the hallway under the studio apartment door. Under Section 8 rules, a single person qualifies for a studio apartment voucher, not a one-bedroom voucher. When she was called from the waiting list and allowed to apply for Section 8, she requested a one-bedroom voucher as a reasonable accommodation. She supported her request with a statement from her primary care physician. The Seattle Housing Authority […]
Washington residential landlords must accept all income sources when screening tenants under a new law that goes into effect September 30, 2018. Under the new law, Landlords must accept all sources of income, including Section 8 housing vouchers, public assistance, emergency rental assistance, veterans benefits, social security, and SSI benefits. The source of income may be from government or non-profit organizations. If a landlord requires an income threshold, any rent subsidy must be subtracted from the monthly rent before calculating whether the prospective tenant meets the income threshold. Landlords may not refuse to rent to new or current tenants based on […]
A couple own a triplex. They live in one unit with their young children and rent out the other two units. The family frequently interacts with the tenants, and shares a yard. Landlords in that situation might feel it important to have a good gut feeling about an applicant before renting to them. Such a couple was among plaintiffs who challenged a Seattle law that took away essentially all landlords’ rights to use any discretion in renting. Under Seattle’s First-in-Time ordinance landlords are required to post criteria for renting vacant units and to accept the first tenant that met these […]
Landlord-tenant attorney Travis Eller will be presenting a three-hour session at the 2018 Rental Housing Association Spring Workshop + Tradeshow April 11. Travis Eller’s presentation is entitled “Avoiding Pitfalls in Landlord-Tenant Law from Move-in to Move-Out.” Topics include: traps for the unwary in evictions, tenants with disabilities, storage of tenant’s belongings, new Seattle landlord-tenant laws, and more. Property mangers and landlords can register on the RHA website.
Sometimes a tenant owes the landlord for more than just the current month rent. If a tenant offers money short of the total amount owed, it is important that the landlord apply the payment to the oldest month first. Otherwise, in an eviction or civil action the court might hold that the landlord waived the prior months. For example, if the current month is February and the tenant has not paid any rent this year, then offers the amount of one month rent, the landlord should apply the payment to January, not February. If the tenant notes on the payment […]
This year bills have been introduced in both the Washington State House and Senate that would allow local governments in Washington to impose rent control on residential tenancies. Under current law local governments in Washington are prohibited from imposing rent control. The deadline for bills to pass out of committee and be presented to the house of origin was February 2. As this was not done with either the House or Senate versions of the rent control proposal, rent control appears dead for this legislative session. Doubtless battle lines have been drawn and rent control will be an issue in […]
The summons and complaint must be served by a non-party (someone other than the landlord) and served into the hands of a tenant or other resident of the rental unit. This is in contrast to the initial eviction notices. A 3-day notice to pay rent or vacate, 10-day notice to comply or vacate, or 20-day notice to terminate a month-to-month tenancy may be served by the landlord. These notices may be served by the landlord themselves, and on anyone, whether they reside in the rental or not, as long as copies are also mailed to the rental property. If no […]
Seattle has had a just cause eviction ordinance for years. A recent proposal would impose a state-wide just cause eviction law for all residential tenancies in Washington.[1] The new law would make it impossible for Washington landlords to evict residential tenants—including month-to-month tenants—except for one of a few enumerated causes. The proposed just cause eviction law would extend the cure periods for non-payment of rent and other breaches of the tenancy terms to fourteen days. Current law allows the landlord to serve a 3-day notice for non-payment of rent, and a 10-day notice for any other breach of the tenancy […]