John Watts
In other words: We are encouraged to:
At last night’s City Council meeting, members of the public asked in effect if the City could do something to prevent the termination of leases for Medicaid residents at Victoria House. A similar issue came up several years ago when a resident of San Juan Commons was threatened with eviction for maintaining a flower garden outside her window against Commons rules.
At that time at the request of Council, I reviewed City legal options with MRSC (the non-profit service center providing general legal advice to Washington cities and counties). The email from MRSC staff attorney Paul Sullivan is copied below. The state landlord-tenant law allows a landlord to evict without any cause. (Retaliation evictions are prohibited. Discrimination based on race, creed, color, etc. is separately prohibited.) In effect, per MRSC, state LL-T law _may_ preempt and prevent any city action. No other city (except Seattle) has a “just cause” eviction ordinance. (Aside, a city business license ordinance that attempts to regulate business conduct regards lease terms, including termination, would face the same issue – namely, is the matter preempted by state LL-T law.)
City Council should provide direction to the City Manager (and City Attorney) if Council would like a draft ordinance brought forward, or if Council wants to review the matter further. By copy of this email to some citizens who have contacted the City, I am not in a position to do something here without Council direction.
Separately, I could not find any state regulation that might apply to this situation. Interested parties might ask state officials if Victoria House-type facilities are regulated with respect to lease terms (including termination).
Also separately, there may be private legal options available to a resident. One speaker last night said in effect that his parent had been promised eviction would only occur for certain named causes. I am not in a position to provide legal advice on a private legal matter.
Thank you and please call with any questions.
John Watts
City Attorney - City of Port Townsend
250 Madison Street, Suite 2
Port Townsend, WA 98368
Telephone: 360/379-5048 Fax: 360/385-4290
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*From:* Paul Sullivan [mailto:psullivan@mrsc.org]
*Sent:* Tuesday, July 24, 2001 1:07 PM
*To:* Watts, John
*Subject:* Just cause evictions
Erica Zwick from our library asked that I look at your recent inquiry in which you ask for sample "just cause" evictions ordinances. Erica contacted several tenant associations and determined that no city in Washington, except for Seattle, has adopted a just cause ordinance. I have verified that information, to the extent I could, by doing a search under our multiple municipal code database.
As to materials in our library, I did find a previous inquiry on the subject, in which we (Pat Mason) said: May a city add a just cause eviction provision to their local housing code. A just cause provision would limit the right of landlords to evict tenants.
The legal issue involved is whether such a provision has been preempted by the state in the Landlord/Tenant Act, Ch. 59.18 RCW. There is one case which has considered this issue,_ Stephanus v. Anderson_, 26 Wn. App. 326 (1980). That case did involve a just cause eviction provision in the Seattle Housing Code. The court indicated that such a provision was preempted by the state Landlord/Tenant Act and did not provide a substantive legal right to the tenant. However, the state statutes have been amended since that case and it is not clear that the precise holding in that case would control if the issue were raised again.
Because of concern that this area has been preempted by the state most cities have not attempted to add a just cause eviction provision to their housing code. The city of Seattle does have such a provision, but that is the only city in the state as far as I am aware that has adopted one at this time. I have recently [ in 1991] been contacted by the office of the city attorney in Kent and Bellingham concerning this precise issue. I am not aware that either city has decided to enact a just cause eviction provision at this time, but both cities are considering or have considered in the recent past whether to do so. You might wish to contact Mr. Bruce Disend, City Attorney of Bellingham, (206) 676-6903 [now Joan Hoisington is the city attorney], or Mr. Roger Lubovich, City Attorney of Kent, (206) 859-3340, in order to obtain their analysis of this issue. In summary, it does appear that an argument can be made that the state Landlord/Tenant Act has preempted the authority of a city to include a just cause eviction provision in their local housing code. If the city chooses to enact such a provision, it should be aware that it is subject to potential legal challenge and the outcome is uncertain at this time. Neither Bellingham nor Kent ever adopted such an ordinance.
Erica did a search on the Internet. Using the search engine Google.com, she typed in "just cause evictions" and received quite a few hits, including some from Oakland, California. Thus, while Seattle may be the only Washington city, there may be some on the national level that have adopted the ordinances.
I hope this is helpful. As always, don't hesitate to contact us, if we can be of any other assistance.
City Council should provide direction to the City Manager (and City Attorney) if Council would like a draft ordinance brought forward, or if Council wants to review the matter further. By copy of this email to some citizens who have contacted the City, I am not in a position to do something here without Council direction.
Separately, I could not find any state regulation that might apply to this situation. Interested parties might ask state officials if Victoria House-type facilities are regulated with respect to lease terms (including termination).
Also separately, there may be private legal options available to a resident. One speaker last night said in effect that his parent had been promised eviction would only occur for certain named causes. I am not in a position to provide legal advice on a private legal matter.
In other words: We are encouraged to:
- lobby the city council for an ordinance on this matter,
- ask our state representatives whether current regulations prevent evictions
- lobby our state representatives to create such regulations, urgently.
John Watts
At last night’s City Council meeting, members of the public asked in effect if the City could do something to prevent the termination of leases for Medicaid residents at Victoria House. A similar issue came up several years ago when a resident of San Juan Commons was threatened with eviction for maintaining a flower garden outside her window against Commons rules.
At that time at the request of Council, I reviewed City legal options with MRSC (the non-profit service center providing general legal advice to Washington cities and counties). The email from MRSC staff attorney Paul Sullivan is copied below. The state landlord-tenant law allows a landlord to evict without any cause. (Retaliation evictions are prohibited. Discrimination based on race, creed, color, etc. is separately prohibited.) In effect, per MRSC, state LL-T law _may_ preempt and prevent any city action. No other city (except Seattle) has a “just cause” eviction ordinance. (Aside, a city business license ordinance that attempts to regulate business conduct regards lease terms, including termination, would face the same issue – namely, is the matter preempted by state LL-T law.)
City Council should provide direction to the City Manager (and City Attorney) if Council would like a draft ordinance brought forward, or if Council wants to review the matter further. By copy of this email to some citizens who have contacted the City, I am not in a position to do something here without Council direction.
Separately, I could not find any state regulation that might apply to this situation. Interested parties might ask state officials if Victoria House-type facilities are regulated with respect to lease terms (including termination).
Also separately, there may be private legal options available to a resident. One speaker last night said in effect that his parent had been promised eviction would only occur for certain named causes. I am not in a position to provide legal advice on a private legal matter.
Thank you and please call with any questions.
John Watts
City Attorney - City of Port Townsend
250 Madison Street, Suite 2
Port Townsend, WA 98368
Telephone: 360/379-5048 Fax: 360/385-4290
------------------------------------------------------------------------
*From:* Paul Sullivan [mailto:psullivan@mrsc.org]
*Sent:* Tuesday, July 24, 2001 1:07 PM
*To:* Watts, John
*Subject:* Just cause evictions
Erica Zwick from our library asked that I look at your recent inquiry in which you ask for sample "just cause" evictions ordinances. Erica contacted several tenant associations and determined that no city in Washington, except for Seattle, has adopted a just cause ordinance. I have verified that information, to the extent I could, by doing a search under our multiple municipal code database.
As to materials in our library, I did find a previous inquiry on the subject, in which we (Pat Mason) said: May a city add a just cause eviction provision to their local housing code. A just cause provision would limit the right of landlords to evict tenants.
The legal issue involved is whether such a provision has been preempted by the state in the Landlord/Tenant Act, Ch. 59.18 RCW. There is one case which has considered this issue,_ Stephanus v. Anderson_, 26 Wn. App. 326 (1980). That case did involve a just cause eviction provision in the Seattle Housing Code. The court indicated that such a provision was preempted by the state Landlord/Tenant Act and did not provide a substantive legal right to the tenant. However, the state statutes have been amended since that case and it is not clear that the precise holding in that case would control if the issue were raised again.
Because of concern that this area has been preempted by the state most cities have not attempted to add a just cause eviction provision to their housing code. The city of Seattle does have such a provision, but that is the only city in the state as far as I am aware that has adopted one at this time. I have recently [ in 1991] been contacted by the office of the city attorney in Kent and Bellingham concerning this precise issue. I am not aware that either city has decided to enact a just cause eviction provision at this time, but both cities are considering or have considered in the recent past whether to do so. You might wish to contact Mr. Bruce Disend, City Attorney of Bellingham, (206) 676-6903 [now Joan Hoisington is the city attorney], or Mr. Roger Lubovich, City Attorney of Kent, (206) 859-3340, in order to obtain their analysis of this issue. In summary, it does appear that an argument can be made that the state Landlord/Tenant Act has preempted the authority of a city to include a just cause eviction provision in their local housing code. If the city chooses to enact such a provision, it should be aware that it is subject to potential legal challenge and the outcome is uncertain at this time. Neither Bellingham nor Kent ever adopted such an ordinance.
Erica did a search on the Internet. Using the search engine Google.com, she typed in "just cause evictions" and received quite a few hits, including some from Oakland, California. Thus, while Seattle may be the only Washington city, there may be some on the national level that have adopted the ordinances.
I hope this is helpful. As always, don't hesitate to contact us, if we can be of any other assistance.
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