Washington State Governor Jay Inslee, announced a landlord related Proclamation on Friday, April 17th, 2020. The proclamation is an extension and expansion of the ban on evictions and late fees. In addition, a ban on rent increases.
This new proclamation and its contents went into effect Friday, April 17th, 2020 and will remain in effect through June 4th, 2020 unless we are otherwise informed.
Text from the Proclamation:
“Landlords, property owners, and property managers are prohibited from serving or enforcing, or threatening to serve or enforce, any notice requiring a resident to vacate any dwelling or parcel of land occupied as a dwelling, including but not limited to an eviction notice, notice to pay or vacate, notice of unlawful detainer, notice of termination of rental, or notice to comply or vacate. This prohibition applies to tenancies or other housing arrangements that have expired or that will expire during the effective period of this Proclamation. This prohibition applies unless the landlord, property owner, or property manager attaches an affidavit attesting that the action is necessary to respond to a significant and immediate risk to the health or safety of others created by the resident.
Landlords, property owners, and property managers are prohibited from seeking or enforcing, or threatening to seek or enforce, judicial eviction orders involving any dwelling or parcel of land occupied as a dwelling, unless the landlord, property owner, or property manager attaches an affidavit attesting that the action is necessary to respond to a significant and immediate risk to the health or safety of others created by the resident.
Local law enforcement are prohibited from serving, threatening to serve, or otherwise acting on eviction orders affecting any dwelling or parcel of land occupied as a dwelling, unless the eviction order clearly states that it was issued based on a court’s finding that the individual(s) named in the eviction order is creating a significant and immediate risk to the health or safety of others.
Landlords, property owners, and property managers are prohibited from assessing, or threatening to assess, late fees for the non-payment or late payment of rent or other charges related to a dwelling or parcel of land occupied as a dwelling, and where such non-payment or late payment occurred on or after February 29, 2020, the date when a State of Emergency was proclaimed in all counties in Washington State.
Landlords, property owners, and property managers are prohibited from assessing, or threatening to assess, rent or other charges related to a dwelling or parcel of land occupied as a dwelling for any period during which the resident’s access to, or occupancy of, such dwelling was prevented as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak.
Except as provided in this paragraph, landlords, property owners, and property managers are prohibited from treating any unpaid rent or other charges related to a dwelling or parcel of land occupied as a dwelling as an enforceable debt or obligation that is owing or collectable, where such non-payment was as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak and occurred on or after February 29, 2020, the date when a State of Emergency was proclaimed in all counties in Washington State. This includes attempts to collect, or threats to collect, through a collection agency, by filing an unlawful detainer or other judicial action, withholding any portion of a security deposit, billing or invoicing, reporting to credit bureaus, or by any other means. This prohibition does not apply to a landlord, property owner, or property manager who demonstrates by a preponderance of the evidence to a court that the resident was offered, and refused or failed to comply with, a re-payment plan that was reasonable based on the individual financial, health, and other circumstances of that resident.
Landlords, property owners, and property managers are prohibited from increasing, or threatening to increase, the rate of rent for any dwelling, parcel of land occupied as a dwelling. This prohibition also applies to commercial rental property if the commercial tenant has been materially impacted by the COVID-19, whether personally impacted and is unable to work or whether the business itself was deemed non-essential pursuant to Proclamation 20-25 or otherwise lost staff or customers due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
“ADDITIONALLY, I strongly encourage every tenant to pay what they can, as soon as they can, to help support the landlords, property owners, and property managers who are supporting them through this crisis.”
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Source: Landlords in Washington Facebook Group
