The Washington State Legislature added or amend sections affecting Washington landlord-tenant laws to give protections in addition to the two posts I previously covered.
Some of the sections noted below (Sections 5 through 8) took immediate effect upon Governor Inslee's signature, which was April 2, 2020. Sections 1 through 4 will take effect on June 11, 2020. I explain further below.
To summarize this bill, I will go section by section as based in the final passed session law, so you can follow along.
Section 1: The overall main purpose of SB 6378 was to clarify passages or close loopholes in the laws passed last year. As I previously covered on this blog, the 2019 laws were the first major changes to the unlawful detainer statutes in years. Previous legislative sessions had, of course, tweaked the rules here and there, but 2019 took it to a new level to significantly protect more tenants.
Section 2: Changes were made to the 14-day notice to pay rent or vacate. The tenant now has more explicit options than before, including being able to pay the landlord as stated in the rental agreement or sending payment via other certified means. Verbiage was added to include the NW Justice Project's contact information.
It's likely that, when applying the 2019 version of the statute, courts may have wrongfully sided with the landlord because payment was not made in a way stated on the notice. This closes that gap.
At least when I practiced law in Clark County, the NW Justice Project had attorneys ready at any Show Cause Hearing. But ideally, the tenant should speak with an attorney sooner, and this gives the tenant the vital information he or she will need.
Section 3: Washington landlords will now be able to refuse taking cash from a tenant when trying to pay ANY rent owed. However, landlords, as previously required, must give a receipt to the tenant when accepting cash.
This one is a bit weird, but understandable. Perhaps this stemmed from landlords being given counterfeit money, an unusual but not impossible situation.
Section 4: The unlawful detainer summons should now provide the contact information for the NW Justice Project.
Note that the law says the form of the summons must be substantially in that format, but doesn't have to be word-for-word. Judges usually have wide discretion to determine if the summons was defective, so I stuck as close to the verbiage as possible when in private practice.
Section 5: RCW 59.18.410 was first amended to clarify the meaning of "such time has expired" as pertaining to when judgment is entered or within five days after entry of that judgment.
And then we get to the meat of the change, the most substantial in this bill. I take it to read as follows:
- This assumes the tenant wants back in the unit after judgment is entered
- The tenant then may pay whatever monies are owed under RCW 59.18.410(1) as determined by the judge, and the tenant is not to pay any more than that.
- The tenant may use funds from an emergency rental assistance program - through a governmental or nonprofit entity - to pay any monies owed.
- If using the funds from an emergency rental assistance program, the tenant must also provide to the landlord a copy of the "Pledge of Emergency Rental Assistance", which probably amounts to a guarantee that the funds are legit.
- If #2, #3, and #4 are satisfied, the tenant reserves the right to stay the eviction or assert rights as necessary to make sure the funds go through.
- If the funds sent to the landlord are from an emergency rental assistance program, the landlord MUST take it in the following ways: (a) if the 14-day rent notice has not yet expired, the landlord must accept the monies as full payment and satisfaction of rent owed under the rental agreement; OR (b) if the 14-day rent notice has expired, the landlord must accept the monies even if the monies only partially satisfy any judgment.
- The landlord must suspend any court action for at least seven (7) days, starting the day after the landlord provides all information necessary to allow the money transfer to occur.
- The landlord is not obligated to enter into any other agreements with the tenant to accept such monies.
In any case, if judgment is NOT satisfied in full, the landlord retains the right to enter judgment for any remaining amount and continue with evicting the tenant from the premises.
RCW 59.18.410(3)(e) is amended as follows:
- Subsection (i) clarifies that a landlord or a tenant can seek relief
- Subsection (ii) requires an order staying the writ of restitution when the court finds the tenant is eligible for receiving assistance to pay rent through the landlord mitigation program. For efficiency, the stay of the writ could be in the same order, but attorneys could probably have the stay as a separate order.
RCW 59.18.410(4) covers ex parte stays of a writ of restitution and sets a court date to have a hearing on that issue. The legislature added verbiage to clarify the signed ex parte order must be served on the landlord ASAP, with multiple ways to serve the landlord or landlord's attorney with that order and notice of the court date. This was probably done to ensure that even a landlord cannot escape being personally served with such an order.
Hearings would probably be held the week after the ex parte order is signed, as unlawful detainer matters take priority over any other civil matters.
Section 6: RCW 59.18.230(1) adds language to forbid landlords from threatening a tenant with eviction for failure to pay any monies under RCW 59.18.283. These will usually include non-rent charges and payment installments.
I'm appalled that such language had to even be thrown in there, as landlords should realize that threatening a tenant with eviction can be illegal (perhaps criminal in nature) and present a constructive wrongful eviction argument, which opens a new can of worms.
Section 7: RCW 59.18.290 is clarified, removing the vague word "appear" and replacing it with responding to the pleading or other notice that requires a response. This usually means filing some type of written answer or a notice of appearance with the court.
Section 8: RCW 43.31.605, which is the landlord mitigation statute, links the changes made in RCW 59.18.410(3)(e)(ii).
Section 9: A new section will be added to the Residential LLT Act that allows Sections 5 through 8 above to take effect immediately upon signing, which was April 2, 2020.
However, with the COVID-19 pandemic, I'm not sure exactly how much those sections were used. The pandemic eventually led to an eviction moratorium, which initially ran through April 17, and was then extended through June 4, 2020. The moratorium could be further extended if the governor so chooses.
