Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in Washington

My husband and I are leasing to purchase a property with two homes on it and we are responsilble for both homes so we are renting the other house out. We have explained our current situation to the land owner about my husband lost his job and how the payments will be a little late. We have had agreements with him and we have never missed one house payment in the last 13 months, we have still got all payments in within the month most of wich were only late by a few days, but yet every month he sends us a pay or vacate within 3 days notice. He already called me at 7:00 am this morning threatening to do another pay or vacate notice for this months house payment and it is only the third. He has told us before we have till the 7th of every month to make our payment before it is considered late. Mind you, he is a lawyer and I don't know if this is legal or if he is just trying to use his power to scare us, what do we do?


Asked on 2/03/11, 1:58 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Amir John Showrai The Pacific Law Firm, PLLC

Unless it is unavoidable, I always advise against entering these types of land deals. Usually, the lease to own contract specifies that if you are in breach, and the landlord can terminate and evict you, unlike a regular mortgage with a deed of trust, you will not get any of your equity you have built into the property, as you might on a foreclosure.

In other words, if you breach, and the landlord evicts you, you get nothing. It is as if you merely rented the property as any other tenant, when in your mind, you owned it.

Is he trying to scare you? Maybe, but who cares. The only important thing to remember is to make those payments on time, try to obtain a regular mortgage if you can, and don't give your landlord an excuse to evict you so that you lose all your equity in the home.

Read more
Answered on 2/09/11, 8:26 pm


Related Questions & Answers

More Landlord & Tenants questions and answers in Washington