Today, the Washington Business Properties Association (WBPA) is taking another step forward with small housing providers who are challenging Governor Inslee’s unfair and unlawful statewide eviction moratorium in Lewis County State Superior Court. The plaintiffs are seeking injunctive relief of the ban, which for months has cost them their livelihoods.

To be clear: evicting tenants is a last resort for housing providers. That is not what this case is about. Rather, the WBPA is supporting the plaintiffs’ challenge to the statewide eviction moratorium on the following grounds:

• The Governor has forced housing providers to support tenants through ”free” rent without providing financial relief for housing providers, who must still pay taxes, mortgages and maintenance costs and try to support their families‎.
• Housing providers are prohibited from evicting or seeking repayment from tenants, including tenants that aren’t suffering any financial hardship as a result of the pandemic.
• The Governor’s order doesn’t require tenants to prove they have suffered financial hardship and allows tenants to silently ignore good faith attempts to work with them.
• The Governor’s order bars access to the courts for housing providers to seek repayment from tenants who are behind on rent, or from renters who simply refuse pay, once the order is lifted.
• The eviction moratorium was adopted without statutory authority and extended repeatedly by the Governor without the consent of the Washington state legislature.

No one group or individual alone can bear all of the costs and burden brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. Yet that is what is being asked of small housing providers. The Governor’s order was hastily adopted and needlessly extended, giving a “free ride” to tenants who can pay but choose not to as well as to tenants engaging in criminal and nuisance behavior or causing property damage. Small housing providers are suffering greatly, so the WBPA has decided to take action.

Read the full court filing here.

​Read the full article on the WBPA website: WBPA Challenging Governor’s Eviction Ban, Demand Small Housing Providers be Compensated for Services - Washington Business Properties Association (thewbpa.org)

SPOKANE, Wash. — Governor Jay Inslee is facing another lawsuit over his ban on evictions. 
The Washington Landlord Association is one of several plaintiffs on the complaint filed Tuesday. They say some landlords have not received a rent payment in eight months, forcing those property owners to make some tough decisions. 
​
The governor’s eviction moratorium is supposed to end on December 31, however the WLA is almost certain it will be extended into the new year. 

Washington Landlord Association President Rob Trickler says by skipping rent payments, some tenants are digging themselves into a hole they won’y be able to crawl out of. He fears many landlords will never be reimbursed. 

“This order in our opinion has been unlawful since 30 days after it was issued,” said Trickler. 
Trickler says landlords have largely been ignored throughout the eviction moratorium. 
“Our membership is primarily the mom and pops,” said Trickler. 

If tenants aren’t paying rent, landlords still have to pay their mortgage, property taxes, and make home repairs. 
Trickler says he feels for people who have truly lost their jobs and income during the pandemic. However, he says some tenants have simply taken advantage of the law. 

“I have members and clients that have tenants that are buying new automobiles and camping trailers in the like while not paying their rents, painfully employed,” said Trickler. 
He fears the moratorium is a problem that’s ballooning. 

“Obviously the longer this goes on and the higher those bills get the less likely the tenant is ever going to manage that and the landlord will never see any of that,” said Trickler. 

According to Crosscut, 500,000 renters in Washington were using credit cards or short-term loans to meet their basic spending needs at the end of October, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Survey. 
In total, 63,000 tenants were occupying their homes without paying rent. 

The state of Washington has set aside funds to reimburse landlords for the lost rent. However, Trickler called it a complicated mess, saying the payment is often limited to 80% of three to four months and some landlords may be required to extend the lease through March. He says that’s not a good enough deal for landlords.

To read full article, please click on the link to be directed to the KXLY website: Washington landlords suing the state over eviction moratorium they fear may be extended - KXLY

Last month, the Washington Business Properties Association (WBPA) stood with three small housing providers in Yakima to overturn Governor Inslee’s unfair and unlawful statewide eviction moratorium by filing a federal suit in the Eastern District of Washington.

Thanks to the work of housing advocates, WBPA, and plaintiff's efforts, Governor Inslee and his staff have announced that they are convening further stakeholder meetings this week to address our concerns with the moratorium. Namely, the Governor has agreed to bring the WBPA to the table to discuss amendments to the order that would ensure the moratorium’s protections for non-payment of rent apply exclusively to renters who can verify that they are financially impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

For more information, click the link below:

Click Here to Read More

Lawsuit Gaining Traction in the Press!

We are excited to tell you that we have received some excellent press coverage since we filed the Lawsuit last week. As you may know, our lawsuit was featured as the Editor’s Choice story for the Puget Sound Business Journal over the weekend and again today in their Afternoon Edition Newsletter:

KIMA and The Lens have both interviewed WBPA President Kevin Wallace and Lawsuit Plaintiff Enrique Jevons. The NBC and ABC affiliates in Spokane carried stories this past weekend regarding WBPA challenging the Governor’s Eviction Moratorium. 

For links to the articles and more, follow the link below:

Click Here to Read More

For Republicans to win a majority in the State House, it will be more important than ever that we maintain control of the seats we already have. To do that we will need the help and support of people like you.

Donate
​

By the Rental Housing Journal

​The rent payment tracker for June showed 92.2 percent of apartment households had paid some rent by June 20, according to a release from The National Multifamily Housing Council (NMHC).

The NMHC found in its survey of 11.4 million units of professionally managed apartment units across the country that 92.2 percent of apartment households made a full or partial rent payment by June 20.

This is unchanged from the share who paid rent through June 20, 2019 and compares to 90.8 percent that had paid by May 20, 2020. These data encompass a wide variety of market-rate rental properties across the United States, which can vary by size, type and average rental price, according to the release.

The NMHC Rent Payment Tracker metric can provide insight into changes in resident rent payment behavior over the course of each month, and, as the dataset ages, between months. While the tracker is intended to serve as an indicator of resident financial challenges, it is also intended to track the recovery as well, including the effectiveness of government stimulus and subsidies.

However, noteworthy technical issues may make historical comparisons imprecise.

For example, factors such as varying days of the week on which data are collected; individual companies’ differing payment collection policies; shelter-in-place orders’ effects on residents’ ability to deliver payments in person or by mail; the closure of leasing offices, which may delay operators’ payment processing; and other factors can affect how and when rent data is processed and recorded.

Total unit counts may change as units are leased or vacated and survey methodology is refined.


“With the support of expanded unemployment benefits, stimulus funds and significant efforts by apartment community owners and operators to help residents impacted by the outbreak of COVID-19 and resulting financial hardships, it seem most renters were once again able to meet their obligations,” Doug Bibby, NMHC President, said in the release.
​
“The early steps taken by lawmakers have proven critical to keeping many safely and securely housed. As we move forward and the economy begins to recover, it will be vitally important that lawmakers continue to support the nation’s renters and forestall even greater economic harm,” he said.

3 In 10 Americans Missed Housing Payments in June