Long story short, my landlord repeatedly sent long, legalese-sounding, authority-tripping responses when I objected to illegal charges and demands that they made.
I objected using the wonderful resources from https://www.washingtonlawhelp.org/ and https://tenantsunion.org/ – but they just straight up ignored it all and escalated further and further with absurd illegalities including retaliation via rent increases, additional charges, and additional illegal expectations for us to take on landlord responsibilities of maintenance. It is clear that Seattle landlords tend to bully, even in spite of strong laws in favor of tenants, because most of our tenant law relies on legal action for enforcement.
I ended up hiring a lawyer – total cost was about $250 and it was covered by legal insurance from work, but they were able to get me about $2000 back and to get my landlord to fully back down from all the nonsense they were doing.
Lawyers often offer free 30-60 min consultations for things like this too.
Another option is to DIY sue your lawyer through small claims, but filing fees alone get somewhat close to the cost of a lawyer sending a simple demand letter.
Good DIY small claims walkthrough: https://www.reddit.com/r/Seattle/comments/ywy98y/a_stepbystep_guide_to_suing_your_landlord_and/
Sharing here for awareness, as it’s super clear that this is a widespread issue (when I say landlord, I mean a property management company that manages thousands of units in the Seattle area).
submitted by /u/LOLthatssofunny
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