Several landlords have filed a lawsuit in federal court against Governor Jay Inslee and Attorney General Robert Ferguson challenging the governor’s eviction moratorium under both the federal and Washington constitutions.
While other business have been locked-down or restricted, the landlords argue “the owners of rental property are the only people who are required by any of the Governor’s emergency proclamations to continue to provide a good or service without charge. Stores and restaurants lost business opportunities due to the Pandemic, but they were not required to continue to provide goods or food to customers without an ability to charge for the items they sold.”
Governor Inslee’s moratorium, in contrast to the CDC moratorium and other moratoriums, prohibits evictions regardless of the tenant’s ability to pay. The landlord is not only prevented from evicting, but also from treating rent as a debt for any collection purposes, even invoicing or deducting from a security deposit.
The “Governor has banned housing providers from pursuing their primary remedy (eviction) needed to mitigate damages where the tenant fails to pay rent and then went a step further by proclaiming that such nonpayment could not be enforced as a debt or legal obligation.”
“The inability to treat unpaid debt as a financial obligation of the tenant is lifted only if the lessor offers the tenant and the tenant refused or failed to comply with, a repayment plan that was reasonable based on the individual financial, health, and other circumstances of that resident. However, there is no corresponding obligation of tenants to cooperate with the development of a repayment plan and tenants may to provide information that would enable the creation of a repayment plan that is reasonable based on the tenant’s financial, health and other circumstances.”
In other words, landlords may not treat rent as owed unless they offer a payment plan reasonable under the particular circumstances of a given tenant, but tenants are not obligated to share the relevant necessary information or otherwise cooperate in the formulation of a payment plan.
Under the moratorium, “tenants may continue to occupy their respective premises at no charge, utilizing the water, power, trash, sewage, and other fees that the housing providers must continue to pay without reimbursement. By stripping all remedies away from owners – without requiring tenants to demonstrate an inability to pay rent – the Proclamations create a legal disincentive for tenants who can pay all or some of what they owe from doing so because there is no recourse for such calculated behavior.”
The landlords urge that the governor’s moratorium is unconstitutional on grounds of the due process, interference with contracts, and takings clauses of the federal and Washington constitutions.
Four of my tenants who were qualified got help from the Community Action Council but one of my tenant who has been working has not paid rent for five months!
While very frustrating for landlords, residential tenants are generally protected from eviction for non-payment under the Washington state eviction moratorium. Under the CDC moratorium, by contrast, tenants are not automatically protected.
I am not clear how they can blatently discriminate against landlords like this. Several people I know don’t have multiple properties but retained their first home when they bought up now they’ve lost their jobs AND cannot collect the rents to pay their mortgages and expenses on the rental property. They are causing a specific group of people severe financial hardship. If people need help paying their rent, have a program that covers the rent/expenses (and pays it to the landlords). The way this is set up, it encourages people to abuse the landlord and the system!!! I’m curious as to the status of the lawsuit, please post an update. Thank you
As amI. How any of this is constitutional is completely beyond me. If the Governor issues a decree that states a renter does not have to pay what is OWED, and what he/she signed a contract for, than the Governor an damn we’ll pick up the tab for their rent. Forcing homeowners into a possible bankruptcy or foreclosure of their property because they mortgage, taxes, insurance, and maintenance don’t stop is beyond the scope of his authority, or that of the legislature. This is an Illegal taking of private land, with no end in sight. Inslee needs to be removed.
I wish I would’ve known people were taking this to court.
I would have loved to be a part of this lawsuit.