Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in Washington

Law in Small Claims

We recently lost a small claims case as landlords. It seemed that the judge was not interested in evidence but instead just took the words of both sides (our tenants lied) and made a judgment down the middle. There appears to be a code that did not allow our tenants to break the lease w/out being current on their utilities (they weren't and broke the lease but we did not mention the code to the judge). Should/could we appeal based on the code and evidence we have? The main reason that we lost was b/c the tenants asked for repairs and we did not make them. We did not make one repair b/c they were responsible for it, though they tried to blame the weather. We have evidence of this since they did not report the problem until six months after they said it happened. The other issue is a health issue that they tried to blame the house for, yet they continued to live there for 1.5 years and wanted to renew for another year. We also have evidence that they caused the health issues themselves. Just b/c tenants are claiming needed repairs, does it mean landlords have to make them? Again, we have evidence that they were just trying to give us a hard time in order to get out of the lease w/out paying last month's rent.


Asked on 10/18/07, 1:06 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
Elizabeth Powell ELizabeth Powell PS Inc

Re: Law in Small Claims

You are so lucky to be rid of these tenants with no further liability! I can't really give you advice without seeing the pleadings and documents you submitted for evidence, but an appeal does not allow you to add more evidence now. The issue is why you didn't submit it for the small claims court.

There is a statute now that requires the landlord to pay relocation costs of $2K or three times the rent whichever is more, when the county or city agrees that the rental is uninhabitable.

Next time - when you are named as a defendant in a small claims case, know that you can lawyer up and 'remove' the matter to district court and be represented.

But based on what you have said here, no, just be done with this situation.

Hope this helps. Sorry if it is not what you wanted to hear. Also, I'm just going off of what you said, and can't offer you a formal opinion without a consult and review.

Your time limit to file and serve an appeal is 30 days. Elizabeth Powell

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Answered on 10/18/07, 7:29 pm


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