Legislature Puts Washington Landlords At Risk

[Curtis Bidwell]

In an effort to address the housing crisis the Washington State Legislature has numerous bills to consider, most all of which limit a landlord’s ability to conduct business and preserve their financial investment.  Landlord’s must be informed and respond to the legislature to protect our rights as property owners and business people. 

While these proposals are perhaps good intentioned (?) to help tenants stay in their home, it is my opinion that these laws will further exasperate the housing crisis leading to higher rental rates and fewer rental options on the open market -especially for the marginal tenant.

DO NOT BE SILENT! Lawmakers need to hear from individual private landlords and hear your story of how these laws will impact your ability to conduct business, provide much needed housing, and keep rents reasonable. 

Look up your representatives for your residence as well as where you have property: https://app.leg.wa.gov/districtfinder/

Among the most serious issues are: SUBSTITUTE SENATE BILL 5600: http://lawfilesext.leg.wa.gov/biennium/2019-20/Pdf/Bills/Senate%20Bills/5600-S.pdf

1. Judicial Discretion is given to the judge to determine if the defendant should be evicted and when –regardless of the validity of your claim.  It removes the rule of law in favor of an arbitrary decision based on emotion or other arbitrary factors, and there is no remedy for the landlord if the judge rules in the defendant’s favor.

2. Just Cause: Leases do not terminate and you cannot remove a tenant without Just Cause.

Closely aligned with the Just Cause provision, the 20 day notice to terminate may be removed or replaced with a 60 day notice.

120 Day Notice to terminate if you are substantially changing the use or major remodel (see Tacoma’s new provisions: https://www.cityoftacoma.org/cms/One.aspx?pageId=163079).

14 day Notice to Pay or Vacate instead of the historical 3 Day Notice.

Redefines “Rent”: Fees and Deposits may not count toward rent and therefore cannot be evicted for non-payment.

Landlord required to accept 3 equal installments for Security deposit.

Attorney’s fees, etc may only be collected on an evicted tenant only after proving they did not act in good faith instead of merely hardship.

... And yes, there is much more! If you want a sample letter/email to send your representative let me know, I'll send to you what I forwarded to the housing committee members.  

[Eugene M.]

@Curtis Bidwell Great post. While I haven't invested in WA yet, I'm a trained political scientist and have worked on a federal Representative's staff. It might be worthwhile for the local REIAs and other groups to request office calls with legislators. In my experience, legislators naturally took group meetings more seriously than a couple of letters or phone calls. Although I haven't done so in a while, a meeting with a state legislator *should* be easier than a federal one. The general public goes straight to federal representatives more often to assist navigating agencies, even if it's a state agency. 

@Mike R. That stinks. How long ago did you send it? State legislators have very small staffs and sometimes take a while to catalog notes from constituents. Legislators have a responsibility to respond to constituents, but some will be better than others. The best ones develop strict in-house policies to send custom responses back and bring up issues that multiple people have asked about straight to the member. I worked for one of these guys. Others may not see it as important; the trick is to clearly articulate your stance, provide a personal example or "what-if" and then clearly request a response to a specific question. You can attempt to call or get your local networking club to go to their office too. Good luck!