WBPA Challenging Governor’s Eviction Ban, Demand Small Housing Providers Be Compensated For Services

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)