Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in Washington

rental land and feral cats

I rent land for a mobile home that I no longer live in. I have moved from the home, but go back for yard upkeep and check on the home. The landlord lives next door to that property. The landlord took a stray cat she found on my rental property to the vet in May, paid for the cats surgery, and presented me with the bill expecting me to make the 1000.00 + payment in July. She never approached me when she saw me in person but sent the bill with a neighbor when she visited 3 days after the landlord visually saw me at the property mowing the lawn. The cat is not mine. I have not lived in that house for over 9 months and that is well know in the neighborhood. Do I haver to pay the vet bill for a cat that isn't mine? Because she says it is living on that land? Can she force me out and make me move the manufactured home if I do not pay it? The yard has been upkept, the rent paid on time, and her significant other is well aware that we are looking to sell the manufactured home on their rental land.


Asked on 7/04/07, 5:57 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
Elizabeth Powell ELizabeth Powell PS Inc

Re: rental land and feral cats

Your rental agreement for the property is not a tenancy if you don't live there. Perhaps you could better characterize it as a storage agreement with yard maintenance.

In the absence of any other information regarding the provenance of the cat, it sounds as though she took on the cat upkeep gratuitously. You didn't say that she found the cat in your mobile home, or that the cat is clearly an offspring of a cat you owned when you lived there.

If it is a cat who showed up and she elected to care for it, that isn't your bill to pay.

I'd have to understand more facts here to see why she thinks this is your responsibility.

I'll bet that nowhere in your rental agreement is it stated that your duties as a tenant include paying vet bills for feral cats, not if you have an oral agreement, and not if you have a written agreement.

The MHLTA at RCW 59 20 contains specific provisions that allow you to sell a home to a third party without moving it. The landlord cannot unreasonably withhold permission, although they can have some say in the new tenant.

Hope this helps. Elizabeth Powell

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Answered on 7/04/07, 10:44 am


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