A new bill in Olympia would impose a state-wide just cause eviction law for residential rentals.[1]
Landlords would not be allowed to terminate a tenancy or evict a tenant except for certain enumerated grounds. These would include failure to pay rent, material breach of the rental contract terms, creating waste or nuisance, the owner seeking to sell, the owner seeking to live in the property, and various other specified grounds.
The law would require landlords to offer payment plans for tenants with rental debt due to COVID-19 hardship. The payment plan must be “based on the tenant’s finances” and other circumstances and in any subsequent eviction case the court is to consider the payment plan terms and the tenant’s circumstances.
This is one of several proposals in the legislature regarding landlord-tenant law.
