Gary rated it it was amazing Jul 08, Tobias Barker rated it it was amazing Aug 06, Dylan Griffith rated it it was amazing Nov 11, Dave White rated it really liked it Aug 02, Kat Hagger rated it it was amazing Aug 15, Mr S Barford rated it it was amazing Dec 28, Sunshine rated it really liked it Dec 08, Ben Hammett rated it really liked it Dec 15, Mithril rated it really liked it Sep 11, Donna Evans rated it it was amazing Sep 03, Gregory Anderson rated it liked it Nov 03, Brittany is currently reading it Apr 29, Melanie Fox is currently reading it Apr 30, Christiane Link marked it as to-read May 07, Joseph is currently reading it May 13, Yemi Awoyemi marked it as to-read May 21, Brad Revell marked it as to-read Aug 05, Mr John Helm marked it as to-read Aug 10, Gianfranco Bombardieri marked it as to-read Aug 17, Ivelin Nikolov is currently reading it Aug 23, Tony good marked it as to-read Nov 30, Sheldon slater is currently reading it Jan 07, Shavene jones added it Apr 05, Qi Yan marked it as to-read Jun 08, Octav Cobzareanu added it Jul 18, Lewis Proctor marked it as to-read Aug 05, Retha Waters is currently reading it Aug 21, Anand Goyal is currently reading it Sep 09, Reece marked it as to-read Oct 02, Ross added it Nov 04, Lamar Johnson is currently reading it Nov 24, If you intend to hire an attorney to handle your eviction, you only need to worry about the first three steps.
Once you have issued the relevant prelawsuit unlawful detainer notice, an eviction attorney will take care of the rest. None of the information on this website including this page is intended as legal advice; nor is it intended to give rise to an attorney-client relationship. Once you and your tenant enter into a lease, the tenant is typically entitled to the use of your property until some event occurs to end their right. You cannot evict a tenant until they have lost the right to occupy the property, so the first step in every eviction is to have a legally valid reason to terminate the tenancy.
Below is a list of the most common reasons to terminate the tenancy. If your situation does not fall into one of the 6 categories below, you probably do not have the right to terminate the tenancy:. We have included a detailed explanation of each category below. Each category requires a different prelawsuit unlawful detainer notice, so make sure you use the correct one for your situation. We have created a comprehensive set of form notices that are available for download here , or after each relevant section below. The procedural details are important here, since even a slight misstep can force you to restart the entire eviction process over again, or prohibit you from evicting a problem tenant until they commit another violation.
If a tenant is actually late on rent and does not comply with a properly served and processed 3-day pay or vacate notice, then you have grounds to terminate the tenancy and proceed with an unlawful detainer action. Most leases set the first day of the month as the due date for each rental payment but provide a 5-day grace period so that the rent is only late if the full amount has not been paid by the 5th of the month.
Your local jurisdiction may require more details! This is just what Washington state law requires at a minimum. Can you ask for payment for utilities, late fees, or other non-rent items in the 3-day pay or vacate notice? If you do issue a 3-day pay or vacate notice that asks your tenant to pay non-rent items, a savvy defense attorney could argue that the notice is invalid.
If the court finds that your notice was invalid, then you may need to reissue the notice, which could cause unnecessary complication, delay, and expense. If your tenant actually fails to comply with the terms of the lease other than being late on rent, covered above and your tenant fails to conform to a properly-served day comply or vacate notice, then you can terminate the tenancy and proceed with an eviction.
Most of the time, leases prohibit the tenant from doing certain things—for instance, it may prohibit subletting, pet ownership, or smoking indoors. If your tenant is currently in violation of the lease, it is often best to gather evidence of noncompliance and proceed by issuing a day comply or vacate notice. However, there is often leeway for your tenant to do unfavorable things without actually violating the terms of the lease. You can issue a day comply or vacate notice for other fees alongside your 3-day pay or vacate notice for rent.
If your tenant is violating the terms of the lease, you should make sure to document the noncompliance as best you can. Because if you have to proceed to an unlawful detainer action, your tenant may argue that they were never out of compliance in the first place. If that occurs, it will be easier to win your unlawful detainer action if you have good documentation of the noncompliance. If the noncompliance is visible from the exterior of the unit, taking a photo can be a great option. We recommend taking at least two photos: If the noncompliance is audible but not visible from outside the unit, you should consider recording the noise.
Most smartphones have a function that allows you to easily record snippets of audio e. If the noncompliance is neither visible nor audible from outside the unit, you may have to get creative. If your tenant commits waste, nuisance, minor i. These categories have a lot of crossover:. Waste is a reason to terminate the tenancy under RCW Waste can result from mismanagement, poor upkeep, or intentional damage to the rental property. Nuisance is a reason to terminate the tenancy under RCW Hopewell Community Club, Wash.
This is a fairly broad and flexible definition, so the court has a lot of discretion in determining what constitutes a nuisance. While most waste can also be considered a nuisance, nuisance also covers non-waste things like noxious odors, blinding lights, or loud noises.
- Automatons for Peace (Amazi Chronicles Book 1);
- Differences between subletting and renting out a condominium;
- The definitive guide for renting out your apartment.
- Shop by category.
- How to become a landlord: your definitive guide!
Keep in mind that these kinds of physical disturbances must be chronic and fairly severe to constitute a nuisance. If your tenant committed assault with a deadly weapon, is involved in a gang, or has committed a drug offense, then proceed to the next section.
However, if your tenant got in a fist fight, stole something non-violently, or committed another relatively minor offense, you can can evict that tenant for waste and nuisance as described in this section. Unlawful business is a reason to terminate the tenancy under RCW However, unlawful business can also include uses for which the unit is not properly zoned or licensed. Our 3-Day Notice to Vacate Form.
System Notification
You can think of the 3-day notice for waste or nuisance as a 3-day notice to pay or vacate without the option to pay. When your tenant commits waste, nuisance, minor criminal acts, or unlawful business, you are not required to give the tenant an opportunity to cure. You can issue this notice and then proceed with an eviction if your tenant fails to vacate in 3 days. Note that if your tenant commits or permits gang-related activity, then you do not need to issue them a 3-day notice to vacate as described immediately below. Not all criminal acts, drug activity, or gang involvement is serious enough to allow eviction without notice.
If a tenant is involved in gang-related activity and you fail to file an unlawful detainer action, RCW And you may also have civil liability to your innocent tenants. Nearly any kind of drug-related activity allows you to evict a tenant without notice. Possession, use, or sale of controlled substances are each enough on their own.
To qualify for a no-notice eviction under that statute, the criminal act must:. Notice that the bar is fairly high here. Therefore, a mere fist fight probably would not constitute grounds to evict without notice. These definitions are not meant to be construed broadly. The legislature clarified in RCW When a tenancy is month-to-month which often happens automatically after the one-year term of the lease has ended , either you or the tenant can choose not to renew the tenancy.
If either of you provides sufficient notice of non-renewal, then the tenancy will terminate at the end of the term. You can use a day notice in the vast majority of cases where you need to end a periodic tenancy, which makes it very handy. However, there are some caveats:. As with other contracts, leases can end naturally after a set period of time.
However, in practice it is fairly uncommon for a residential lease to expire after a set period of time.
- Things to know before becoming a landlord.
- Meine Jahre in Florida - Roman-Erzählung eines Auswanderers (German Edition).
- How To Rent Your House: The Definitive Step by Step Guide?
- Birthday Boy?
This is for two main reasons:. First, the vast majority of residential leases are written to provide for a one-year term, and then automatic month-to-month renewal of the tenancy. Second, if your lease is silent regarding the terms of renewal, RCW In other words, if your lease does not specify the terms of renewal, and neither party provides notice that they intend not to renew more on this below then the lease will automatically renew for one payment period, which is usually a month. Thus, the only way that your lease will expire naturally is if it explicitly states that it does not renew after the initial term.
This is fairly rare in residential leases. If you have a reason to evict your tenant, and you have prepared the appropriate notice, then the next step is to serve that notice. In this section, we will explain the steps involved in serving an unlawful detainer notice. These steps are the same regardless of the kind of prelawsuit unlawful detainer notice you are serving.
Eviction Summons and Complaint. In other words, some drafting errors may be excusable, but errors in service are not. A good tenant attorney will seize on any minor flaw in the method of service to invalidate notice and get the case delayed or dismissed. Being inconsistent with enforcement sends a message to tenants that the landlord is either too distracted or too disorganized to keep tabs on their property. Worse yet, a court could potentially interpret chronically inconsistent enforcement as a waiver of the provisions that have gone unenforced.
In contracts as in life: Therefore, you should almost always serve the following notices as they become applicable: There is no waiting period for these notices; you can serve them the day of the violation. The sooner you serve them, the sooner you can either bring your problem tenant into conformity or proceed with an eviction.
However, in contrast to the other notices, there is usually nothing to be gained from issuing a day notice to terminate the tenancy early. Service must be effective at least 20 days prior to the end of the rental period which is usually the end of each month. Therefore, we usually serve our day notices about 22 days before the end of the month, since service by mail adds a day to the effective service date, and the actual date of receipt does not count more on how to count time when mailing notices below.
However, when serving a Summons and Complaint Step 8 below , an adult other than the plaintiff must serve the tenant. Serving an unlawful detainer notice is trickier than you might think. The threshold is somewhere between 12 and 15 years old. In other contexts, the Washington State Supreme Court has concluded that a year old was of suitable age and discretion to receive service.
As long as the recipient of service is of sufficient age and is not mentally handicapped, courts do not make serious enquiries into the discretion of the recipient. In most other cases involving substituted service on a minor, the court makes no reference to the discretion of the recipient. Even though RCW Dealing with unclear cases: But do not forego the substituted personal service!
If you forego substitute personal service and a court decides you could have performed it, that would likely invalidate the service by posting and mailing, because posting and mailing is only allowed when personal and substitute personal service are impossible. This section only applies if you have issued a prelawsuit unlawful detainer notice. The kind of notice you have sent will dictate the responses that are in conformity with the notice:.
What if you tenant fails to conform to the prelawsuit unlawful detainer notice at all? You can skip the rest of this section and move on to hiring an attorney, or. However, if your tenant does conform to the notice, or partially conforms to the notice, then you may not be able to move forward with the unlawful detainer action.
Most landlords consider this a good outcome because it will save them the expense and hassle of litigation. However, your tenant will still be liable for any unpaid rent, damage, or fees associated with vacating without notice, and you can pursue those via a civil action though practically speaking, filing such an action may be cost prohibitive, and it is often difficult to actually recover this money from tenants—especially tenants who already have difficulty paying their rent.
However, you can still file a civil action for damages if applicable. However, the landlord can convert the unlawful detainer action into a civil suit for damages where applicable. Hazelrigg , Wn. What if the tenant tenders full payment after the compliance period and you accept it? You are not required to accept late payment. However, if you do accept late rent from your tenant in the full amount of what they owe, then you have typically waived your right to terminate the tenancy and so your tenant is still entitled to possess the premises as described in their lease.
Therefore, you will have no legal basis to evict the tenant unless the tenant breaches the lease again.
The Ultimate Landlord Checklist
He must wait until the old breaches continue or new ones occur. In many cases, the problem tenant will drop off or mail a late rent check after the 3-day compliance period has already elapsed. If you choose not to accept late rent, you can terminate the tenancy and move forward by filing an unlawful detainer action. This situation is a bit of a gray area, and there are no statutes directly on point. The benefit of option 1 is that, by returning the check, there is no way that the tenant can argue that you accepted the rent.
The downside is that you lose access to that money in the event you win your case. It is often difficult to recover back-rent from problem tenants, so if you return their check, you may never have access to that money again. The benefit of option 2 is that, if you win your case, you will still have access to the late rent that you are owed.
The downside is that entering the late rent directly into the registry of the court is irregular, and may not be a viable option in all municipalities. Whatever you do, avoid depositing the rent into your own account if you intend to proceed with the eviction. You are not required to accept partial payment, but it may be in your best interest to do so. Unlike accepting full rent, accepting partial payment does not automatically waive your right to terminate the tenancy.
If the court thinks you accepted partial payment for those reasons, then it will rule that the tenancy was not terminated, which will prevent you from proceeding with an unlawful detainer action. Therefore, if you intend to evict your tenant, it may be simpler to either refuse to accept partial payment, or to enter that rental payment into the registry of the court once you have filed your eviction action. After the first three steps, things start to get pretty complicated. It is usually at this point that landlords choose to hire an attorney to carry the case to the finish line.
If you are located in the South Sound area and interested in help with your eviction, we would be happy to assist. Call us at or email us online today. However, you may not be legally required to hire an attorney. If you personally own the subject rental property, you are allowed to represent yourself in an unlawful detainer action. But, be aware that the nuanced steps involved described below can be fairly daunting for those unfamiliar with the law.
On the other hand, if the subject rental property is owned by a corporation, LLC, or other artificial entity, then you are legally required to hire an attorney to represent the corporation in the unlawful detainer action. The good news is that, if you try to represent your corporation without a license to practice law, the court will likely continue that is, delay and reschedule the case to give you time to hire an attorney and cure related defects in your summons and complaint. After you have correctly issued a prelawsuit unlawful detainer notice for a legally valid reason as explained above, the next phase of the process involves initiating your lawsuit with the goal of obtaining a writ of a restitution.
As described in more detail below, a writ of restitution is the legal document that commands the sheriff to eject your tenant and restore you to possession of the premises pursuant to RCW Initiating an unlawful detainer lawsuit usually involves serving the following documents on the tenant:.
See a Problem?
However, you can file and serve these documents in different sequences depending on the strategy you are trying to pursue. The following strategies apply to any unlawful detainer action, including those dealing with nonpayment of rent. Below, I go into detail regarding the benefits and downsides of each strategy. This strategy is not available in most other states or federal jurisdictions, but it is legal in Washington. The notice of nonpayment is another hurdle your tenant has to jump over; like the summons and complaint, your tenant must answer appropriately within 7 days RCW Even if the tenant does comply with the notice, that can be a good thing too, as described below.
First, you correctly fill out a notice of nonpayment. Then, the defendant is required to provide one of the following answers per RCW If you win the unlawful detainer action, you will be able to easily access the money in the registry, which saves you the trouble of trying to obtain and recover on a personal judgment against the defendant for the deficient rent.
Even if you lose, you will likely be entitled to the rent in the registry because the tenant will owe it for the time that elapsed during the eviction proceeding. The notice of nonpayment can be served along with a filed summons and complaint, between filing the summons and complaint and serving the order to show cause, or alongside the order to show cause. In other words, the only times you cannot serve the notice of nonpayment is before you have filed and served your summons and complaint, and after you have served the order to show cause.
How does the notice of nonpayment service timeline work with the two strategies above? The tenant shall have no less than 7 days to respond to the notice of nonpayment. If the notice was served along with a filed notice and complaint, then the deadline for compliance must be the same as the date for responding to the summons and complaint. The summons and complaint must be served together. This step will cover some tips on preparing your summons and complaint.
Step 8 explains how to correctly serve the summons and complaint. The summons should not contain any details about your case or any arguments. To evict the kind of residential tenants covered in this guide those who fall under the Residential Landlord Tenant Act , your summons must be substantially in compliance with the summons form set out in RCW The form is fairly self-explanatory. Beyond the form requirements from RCW The complaint is more complicated than the summons.
A complaint is the initial document that you file with the court to begin a lawsuit, and its purpose is twofold: Second, your complaint should provide adequate notice to your tenant of the claims you intend to bring against them. We have nothing to add. The Motion to Show Cause and the Order to Show Cause are two different documents; the motion is a request that the court grant the order, and the order merely requires the tenant to come to the courthouse for the show cause hearing.
The court does not require a specific form for either the Motion or the Order to Show Cause. However, our motions and orders usually follow the format in the downloadable examples below. The service requirements for the Summons, Complaint, Notice of Nonpayment, and Notice of Default is similar to the service requirements for a prelawsuit unlawful detainer see Step 2. However, the service requirements for these documents is slightly more complicated, so pay attention to this section.
A good tenant attorney can and will seize on any minor flaw in the method of service to invalidate notice and get the case delayed or dismissed. We highly recommend hiring a legal messenger like ABC Legal to perform this work for you, even if you are trying to otherwise handle the legal side of the eviction yourself. As proof of due diligence on your part, the court will require both an affidavit of attempted service that describes all unsuccessful efforts in obtaining service, and an affidavit from you or your attorney that states your or their belief that tenant cannot be found you are not required to show that the tenant is actually evading service.
If posting and mailing used to serve the tenant, you cannot recover a money judgment. Also, no matter how you serve the notice, you must keep an affidavit of service on file if you obtain a default judgment. Depending on the service and filing strategy you chose in Step 4 , you should be waiting for a response to at least one of the following:.
However, if your tenant does correctly serve a notice of appearance, then you must proceed to a show cause hearing. Your tenant can serve a notice of appearance in the following ways as described in RCW Note once again that mere pre-litigation contact is not enough; the defendant must serve you something in writing.
This information also appears above in the introduction of the notice of nonpayment. Notice that these delivery methods are almost exactly the same as those required by the notice of appearance under RCW If your tenant appropriately responds, you have to proceed with a show cause hearing. The idea behind default judgments is that, if a defendant fails to respond within the set time, the defendant must not be interested in contesting the allegations against them. Therefore, the court will grant a default judgment in favor of the plaintiff.
When your tenant has failed to respond appropriately to either document, obtaining a default judgment should be almost automatic. Read Step 9 to learn more about answer requirements and whether your tenant has met them. Alternatively, you can also default the tenant if they have answered appropriately but then failed to attend the show cause hearing. However, this rarely comes up in evictions since landlords usually cannot get the tenant out of the unit unless they follow through and get a judgment and writ.
A defendant appears in an action when he or she answers,. As discussed in Step 9 , a tenant must correctly answer the summons with a notice of service to avoid default. However, even if the tenant served you an inadequate answer, that will still constitute an appearance that entitles the tenant to notice of the default hearing. Likewise, if you have issued a nonpaying tenant both a notice of nonpayment and a summons, and the tenant has only correctly answered one but not the other, then you will have to issue your tenant a notice of default.
Fortunately, there will be no way for the tenant to stop a writ from being issue if the tenant has not conformed to the response requirements under RCW The notice of default does not have to be fancy or formal unless more than a year has elapsed since you sent the summons. The only requirements are as follows:.
The notice of default and any supporting affidavit must be served at least 5 days before the hearing on the motion.