Washington State reduction of rent for maintenance RCW 59.18.100

[Adam L.]

Hello all. Wondering if anyone has any experience with Washington State RCW 59.18.100. The law seems to allow tenants to deduct maintenance costs from their monthly rent payment if a landlord fails to perform required duties.

Can a tenant deduct from their rent payment for a broken dishwasher? Are there any legal changes in the COVID era allowing a landlord to avoid this type of maintenance?

[Nik Moushon]

@Adam L. I'm not a lawyer. I cant tell you if something is safe or not to try out. I can just give you my opinion. 

Before you do anything, have you tried just asking if you can hire someone to do it and then deduct the charges from your rent? 

What I would do is put together an email that shows the agreement you made when you first signed the lease. Attach, in PDF, the emails or texts that prove your claim that they would fix it before you moved in (i hope you have those claims in writing). Also include a copy of the state law. Show them that they have two legal obligations to fix it (a contractual agreement and a state law). Give them an ultimatum. Tell them they have a certain number of days to reply and to schedule a day for their team to come in a fix/replace the dishwasher. Tell them you will be accommodating to their schedule and that you'll be out while their workers are there. If they dont then by day X you will have no choice but to use the state law to fix it yourself (hire it out) and deduct the charges from your rent due (make sure to provide copies all receipts of charges with reduced rent). Show them this is a win-win for everyone. Their staff dont have to worry about getting sick and you get what they promised. Make it come off as a good alternative. Also, remember WA has a moratorium on evictions until October. They cant evict you for anything at the moment. They still can hold you accountable for the deduction in rent but they cant evict you. No one knows when that moratorium will be lifted. So thats a risk youll have to judge for yourself. Also, if they do try to evict you at some point you will have a court date to defend yourself. Its not like you just get kicked out. 

The other thing you can do is suck it up and just pay to get it done yourself. If you have to buy a hole new one, you get to take it with you when you leave. Not that that is ideal but you have that option. Just make sure you KEEP the old dishwasher. Its not yours to throw away. I would still write a letter like above stating what you are going to do. Give them a chance to fix it but if not then you will do it. Then at the end of your lease you can try to get it back. Either by deduction of the last rent or you'll have to take them to small claims court. 

Either way you do not want to come off threatening. That never works in my experience. Be professional and polite even if you want to throw a brick at them. Dont even mention taking them to court. At least in the first few letters. Those kind of claims/threats are 99% of the time idle threats and just makes them not want to work with you even more. My thinking is that if I plan on taking someone to court I dont want to give them a heads up. Plus if they threaten you with eviction first, vs you threatening to take them to court, it looks better on you in front of a judge. Not saying you need to go that way of course. Its always better to try to get things done before it has to go to court. And in WA if you do go to court the losing party has to pay all court and lawyer fees...so dont do this yourself. Go hire a lawyer or at least talk with one before you try. Because you could still loose, even if you are in the right, because they have lawyers on retainer (more than likely) if they are this large company. You dont want to pay their fees.