Landlord/Tenant Law (a bit long)

ledhedsymbols · 06-03-2006, 01:38 PM

So here's the set-up. Last summer, I was renting a condo from (at the time) a nice little old lady in Bremerton Washington. For whatever reason, she freaked out and broke my lease to sell the property. I wasn't all that interested in the hassle, so I rolled over and expected to get my deposit back and carry on smartly. Who wants to live somewhere they are not wanted anyway?

She then proceeded to cook up the most ridiculous list of trumped up "charges" to knock my depost down from $800 to a little over $200. I suspect that she didn't keep the money in excrow as required, and balked when she realized she was supposed to cough it up.

I sent her a letter detailing exactly how I disputed the charges, and stated that I intended to apply legal pressure if I didn't hear back from her to reach a settlement. The letter was sent certified return receipt etc. etc. She refused to accept delivery. When the letter was returned to me by the post office, unclaimed and unopened I filed in small claims court in King county (Seattle) because I am required to file in the county in which she resides, not where the property is located. This is a royal pain in my backside because King county is a two hour ferry ride and commute from where I live at.

There was an initial misunderstanding about a return of service form, and even though she admitted she had been properly served, the judge assigned a new date so that I could rectify the paperwork problem. I finally made it to the new court date, and because I was 100% in the right, and am a smart young sailor, I had the evidence in order to back this up. I won the judgement less some minor fees for misc. B/S that comes from moving out of a rental. Because I'm a nice guy, I agreed to give her 90 days to pay vs. 30 days as per the court.

Fast forward to today... It's been 120 days and change. I haven't heard or received anything from the evil hag. I started looking at the legal requirements for me to file a lien, and garnish her, but it's hideously complex. I'm getting married in 2 months, work in a military prison for 12 hours a day, and besides it's salmon fishing season. I don't want to waste anymore of my time. Why is it so difficult to get money that was mine in the first place?

Does anyone in Washington have experience with this? Advice? Monday I'm going to contact a lawyer about this. Better to get less and pay a legal eagle than take a bath on the whole affair and let this evil old bag get away with screwing over a good clean responsible tenant. I'm so getting out of the Navy and buying a house next year!

Thanks for listening,
Micah

ledhedsymbols · 06-03-2006, 01:42 PM

Update.... That went well, she got all skittish, stammered that I needed to contact her lawyer and hung up on me. I think she was just hoping that I would go away....

Porsche-O-Phile · Porsche-O-Phile's Garage

Unfortunately there are many ****ty landlords that resort to these kinds of tactics routinely in order to pad their profits.

Sorry for your troubles. I hope you do continue to put the screws to this woman and ultimately prevail.

Sorry, but I wouldn't care if it was 80 bucks, 800 or 8,000. The principle of the matter remains - it's your money and someone else is helping themself to it. Give 'em hell and don't be so nice next time.

Dantilla · 06-03-2006, 03:00 PM

Since you have a judgement, you could turn it over to a collection agency. They will take a big chunk, but it will immediately show up on her credit report, making life difficult for her until you are paid.

ledhedsymbols · 06-03-2006, 03:51 PM

That's another road I will explore. I wanted to find out from a lawyer if it would be cheaper for me to have him/her handle it or a collections agency, which charges 1/3 to 1/2 the amount in collection.
The problem for me is the time and money involved to travel from here to another county every time I have business with the court. Never mind the fact that I coughed up a 1000 dollar security deposit, cleaned and moved to a different condo within 30 days of notice. I'm just not wanting to waste more of my time, but I don't want to lessen the sting for her either.
If I read Washington State Law correctly, I can attatch up to 250 dollars to the judgement for legal fees if I have to collect from her.
I just don't understand I guess.... I've become intimately familiar with Washington Landlord/Tenant law, and it isn't really that hard to follow. She just seems to be one of the people who thinks it's OK to do whatever she wants regardless of how it affects other people.

turbo6bar · 06-03-2006, 04:50 PM

You have the judgement, so Landlord/Tenant Law is no longer important. You're now in the collection stage. Welcome to the real world. I have judgements against past tenants, and never collected a dime. Winning is easy. Collecting is the hard part.

I realize it's after the fact, but you're entitled to any costs or damages realized when the landlord broke the lease. I hope karma gets this lady. If you do get anywhere with this, don't give an inch.
I wish you the best of luck,
jurgen

RANDY P · RANDY P's Garage

with a Judgement on credit, it'll get paid eventually next time she transfers / buys property. She's effectively locked from doing anything till she pays him. She's already a homeowner - it's different than some eternal renter / bottom feeder who will never own a house.

Nice thing is, he's entitled to interest now. It may be a few years, but next time she attempts to purchase or refi you'll get paid off.

just don't yield an inch come the request for forgiveness of interest or costs.

rjp

Evans, Marv · 06-03-2006, 09:30 PM

What Randy said. I was lucky once when I took an ex tenant to small claims court (also lucky I didn't have to do it many times). I got a judgement of about $1,600 and let it go thinking I'd probably never see it. About 4 years later I got a call from a lady saying she was calling me about the guy. Seems that she had married the deadbeat. Apparently they wanted to buy some things like a car, furniture, etc. Since I had the outstanding judgement against him, I could put a lien on anything they bought with credit and nobody wanted to loan them anything. I told her they could pay me and I would remove the judgement. That is what happened within about a week.

bryanthompson · bryanthompson's Garage

is having her wages garnished a possibility? You should be able to just show that you won the settlement and haven't collected and it'll be easy.

ledhedsymbols · 06-04-2006, 09:19 AM

I checked into it, and Washington state is pretty convoluted. I'm going to talk to Navy Legal Services (JAG) tomorrow to see if they will be of any help, I'll also talk to a couple lawyers who specialize in this type of dispute, and I'll also contact a collections agency to see how they would handle it.
I believe she is retired except for this one rental property, so I'm not sure how this will all shake out. I'm going to explore the options tomorrow. At this point I'm willing to take a hit on the money. I don't really need it, but it's a matter of principle for me. Maybe this will help someone else avoid this situation if they rent from her. Hopefully this causes her to read the law and play ball in the future.
the lien process is quite a bit simpler, but I wanted to talk to a lawyer about how this would affect her estate. She's quite old, and she might die before she sells property.
I know I sound like some ******* trying to garnish some old lady's social security checks, but she is one evil old lady... I'll keep you guys posted.