fair housing

Elizabeth Rankin Powell

"Fair Housing" is the phrase used in the laws about discrimination. It is tough to prove discrimination based on an unpermissible category, such as race or gender. But that is not your problem. Your problem is that your house is not in reasonably good repair. The first thing you have to do is to give your landlord written notice of the problem. It could be as simple as "Dear Landlord: Our heat is out, please fix it. Signed, you". You cannot invoke any remedies until you do this. In some states you can withhold rent - here, if you do that without following the entire statute, you can be evicted, so please don't engage in self-help to solve the problem without talking to an attorney and understanding the entire statute.

You will want to read RCW 59.18.085 and 59.18.110 which provide remedies when a landlord does not get a significant problem fixed. Also, In WA it is possible to have an oral agreement to rent property, which is considered a month-to-month agreement, and the landlord cannot take a deposit without a written agreement. The State does not require a landlord to have a license to rent property, although a county or a city could require it.

Also, the law requires you to mitigate your damages, that means, not sit there letting the situation go from bad to worse. Litigation is difficult under the best of conditions, it is impossible to be a plaintiff when you are living in your car. You can get relief from the courts, but you have some hoops to jump through first. Hope this helps. Elizabeth Powell

Kyle C Olive

A "renter's license" is not required to rent property. However, the property must be "habitable." If it is not, you must give the landlord written notice about the problem. Make sure to keep a copy of the written notice for your records. A landlord has 24 hours, 72 hours or 10 days to START making the repairs, depending upon what the issue is. More information can be found here: http://www.washingtonlawhelp.org/WA/StateChannelResults.cfm/County/%20/City/%20/demoMode/%3D%201/Language/1/State/WA/TextOnly/N/ZipCode/%20/LoggedIn/0/iSubTopicID/2/iProblemCodeID/1630100/sTopicImage/g%2Dhousing.gif/iTopicID/865/ichannelid/7/bAllState/0