All Forum Posts by: Jay V.

If tenant is terminating lease early and there is no past due rent or damages, can a landlord keep full or partial security deposit as a penalty for lease termination? Note a new tenant has been found and the old tenant helped with showings. There's a vague reference to it in lease contract for lease termination penalty, but not explicit. Morally it feels like it should be returned, but curious what others do. 

We have a tenant on month-to-month lease in Lacey (Thurston County). He is unable to pay his rent for the month due to spouse's job loss. The spouse has found the job, but they don't have resources to pay for the current month. They are seeking help from State and they think they will be able to qualify thru the Washington's Eviction Resolution Program. If they do, then the State/County pays the rent. The rent is due 1st of the month and if all goes well, then the earliest I can have the rent is middle of the month. They also say that the would be able to resume payments from next month. Questions:

1. Should I serve pay-or-vacate notice and charge all the late fees? Other option is to "trust" and wait, which would mean that I am taking a risk and would have to tap into security deposit if things go ugly. 

2. As per the ERP program of Thurston County, landlords are required to provide a payment plan to tenants who are behind on rent 6 months after the Covid-19 emergency has ended. Are other WA landlords serving eviction notices or trying to work with tenant and state due to Covid?

3. If tenant is able to secure help and starts making the payment, is there any legal implication to pay-or-vacate notice or can that be just discarded?

Thanks everyone for the guidance. The CC&R clearly state that renting is allowed and the lease must be at least 1 year. My worry is is somebody legally snatching up the property? Can the CC&R be modified based on this title exceptions in future? 

We are trying to purchase a townhome in a village style community in Olympia, WA and it has about 52 exceptions attached to it in Schedule B in the Title. 40/50 of those exceptions are recorded separately and have their own multi-page document. The community is part of a large village style development complex (100+acres) with apartments, parks, clubs, etc. The property seems good deal and a good rental potential and I see buy/sale happening in the townhomes in that community. But my lawyer is freaking out with respect to number of covenants on the property. One of the things pointed out was: Restrictive covenant regarding the wetland mitigation area providing Department of the Army the ability to come onto the property for development purposes and restoring the mitigation area. Question:

1. Is it normal to have such large number of restrictions attached in property that is part of a larger township?

2. Do I need to review and understand each of those 40/52 recordings to ensure my investment is safe and future proof? Lot of these is legalese and seems dangerous just by reading thru it, but it might not be so bad after all.

Newbie investor here. Looking for guidance. Thanks.

Jay

We are trying to purchase a townhome in a village style community in Olympia, WA and it has about 52 exceptions attached to it in Schedule B in the Title. 40/50 of those exceptions are recorded separately and have their own multi-page document. The community is part of a large village style development complex (100+acres) with apartments, parks, clubs, etc. The property seems good deal and a good rental potential and I see buy/sale happening in the townhomes in that community. But my lawyer is freaking out with respect to number of covenants on the property. One of the things pointed out was: Restrictive covenant regarding the wetland mitigation area providing Department of the Army the ability to come onto the property for development purposes and restoring the mitigation area. Question:

1. Is it normal to have such large number of restrictions attached in property that is part of a larger township?

2. Do I need to review and understand each of those 40/52 recordings to ensure my investment is safe and future proof? Lot of these is legalese and seems dangerous just by reading thru it, but it might not be so bad after all.

Newbie investor here. Looking for guidance. Thanks.

Jay