Background Screening

The Tacoma City Council unanimously passed ordinance #28559, enacting a whole new law entitled “Rental Housing Code” which will be found in TMC 1.95.  By amendment, they made the Effective Date December 1, 2018 (officially 10 days after ordinance is published on their website) for paragraph TMC 1.95.060 which requires giving at least sixty (60) days advance notice for rent increases of any amount. No penalty will be enforced until February 1, 2019, but if you tender a shorter rent raise notice, the City will not allow you to enforce the rent raise and require you to reissue a proper 60-day advance notice before any rent raise can be effective. This includes raising rent on any lease renewal offers – must allow at least 60 days before rent can go up. The one exception is if the fixed term lease has a built-in automatic increase/escalation clause, then the 60-day notice will not be required as the rent increases will have been pre-disclosed in the lease agreement. (This was ap...

Property management Company Settles for $105,000 Another property management company was recently sued by a former tenant. A&G Rental Management chose to settle a lawsuit with a previous tenant for $105,000. The suit claimed the property management company provided the tenant with deplorable living conditions. The suit against the property management company claimed the tenant had to live with hypodermic needles, rats and overflowing garbage at their apartment community. The tenant consistently complained about the conditions over their lease term, but the property management company never addressed their concerns. The tenant decided to file suit for emotional harm after they received several move-out charges from the management company totaling $1,500. The ex-tenant felt these charges were unfounded based on the living conditions and the move-out fees. It seems like this lawsuit could have been avoided by taking two basic steps. When buying real estate, t...