Landlord-Tenant Blog

153 posts

Bad Form – Failure to Serve a Summons with Mandatory Language Proves Costly for Landlord

On June 8, 2006 I wrote in an article posted on this site about the new summons for residential unlawful detainer actions in Washington.  In that article I wrote: Amendments to the Washington Residential Landlord-Tenant Act went into effect yesterday….It is unclear what…courts will do when inevitably many landlord plaintiffs – acting pro se or with attorneys not familiar with the new law – come into court having served the old eviction summons. A decision published last month by Division I of the Washington Court of Appeals held that a landlord had wrongfully evicted a tenant because the landlord’s attorney […]

Reefer Madness

It is legal in Washington to possess and use marijuana for medicinal purposes with the approval of a doctor. Recently in King County a landlord attempted to evict a tenant because of drug possession and use.   At a show cause hearing the court set the matter for trial, rather than granting the landlord the eviction. The tenant did not deny possession or use of illegal substances, but cited medical use as a defense.  The court reasoned that the issue of whether the amounts of marijuana in question were appropriate for personal medicinal use should be heard at a trial, […]