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Area Owners Vow to Fight New Renter Rights Proposal

SEATTLE-The proposal is intended to make it easier for the city to punish owners who raise rents or send eviction notices to renters who complain about apartment conditions. Owners fear it would limit their ability to evict bad tenants and penalize silent partners who have no knowledge of a violation.

By Ingrid Ricks | Updated on October 19, 2000

SEATTLE-A locally-based association of apartment owners plan to fight a proposal by City Councilwoman Judy Nicastro that would make it easier to punish landlords who raise rents, send eviction notices or otherwise threaten renters who complain about apartment conditions.

The proposal, introduced at a City Council meeting earlier this week, is an amendment to the city’s Housing and Building Maintenance Code designed to protect renters from owner retaliation. Representatives of the Apartment Association of Seattle and King County say the proposal would make it more difficult for owners to evict bad tenants by getting the city involved in eviction cases already being litigated, and would have serious repercussions on silent-partner real estate investors.

Chris Benis, immediate past president of AASKC and a real estate attorney who is acting as council for the association, says the proposed ordinance would open the door for tenants to file frivolous claims with the city. But what concerns him even more is that it would lessen the burden of proof required in criminal proceedings. “Under the proposal, you could be a one-tenth silent partner in an apartment building and if a law was violated, you could be charged criminally for the violation and the fact that you didn’t know it was committed or had no intent to commit it wouldn’t be a defense,” notes Benis. “I think it would chill people’s willingness to invest in real estate in the city of Seattle.”

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