TL;DR: Don’t pay your disputed lease fees, unless you’re taken to court.
Hi! I wanted to share something I’ve learned about being a renter in Seattle and Washington State that I’ve seen a lot of people struggle with.
Renters have rights that most people are not aware of, beyond what’s in the renter’s rights guide they give you with your lease.
I’m not a lawyer or anything, but I have worked with them on my own situations.
Rental leases in the the State of Washington and Seattle are covered by two legal areas. Seattle / Washington state renter rights laws, and contract law.
As a renter in the state of Washington, you are not able to give up your rights as a renter under the law, even if you sign a lease that doesn’t comply with the current laws. You always have the rights of the protection laws no matter what. Those rights outweigh any terms written into your lease.
If your lease issue isn’t specifically covered by the protection laws, then disputes with that lease would fall under contract law. For a contract dispute to be settled, it has to go to court and be ruled on by a judge that issues a judgement against you. Otherwise, it’s just words on a piece of paper, even if you signed it.
Here’s what most people not are aware of: It’s likely that your lease contract is just a generic form contract that isn’t written in a valid way that wouldn’t hold up in a court case.
It’s almost a certainty that your lease isn’t a valid contract.
Property management companies are usually huge corporations operating in many different jurisdictions. The cost of their legal departments maintaining all of the leases, in all of the juridictions, in terms that would hold up in court costs them way more than they would make taking their tenants to court. They are profit-driven corporations that care only about making more profit.
They are hoping that most people don’t know their rights and will just pay whatever fees they are told they have to pay. Once you do, you no longer have a contract dispute.
If you notify the property management company of the dispute, and the actions/reasons why you believe you’ve fulfilled the terms of the lease. Then it’s up to the property management company to agree or dispute the contract. They have to take you to court to and win to say your owe them anything.
Here’s where it gets more interesting. If the property management company or their collections agency reports the “lack of payment” to a credit agency without a court judgement… They violated your rights under the Fair Credit Reporting Act.
You are entitled to receive fees and whatever damages you’ve incurred from the incorrect report, and they have to pay your legal fees for you. You can immediately dispute any collections from them to be removed from your credit report, then take legal action. Obviously, you’ll know if you didn’t go to court by that point, so it’s pretty cut and dry. At that point, what they’ll owe in the FCRA damages are way more than you’d ever owe them in the lease situation.
Property management companies are already bad enough, but they are actively depending on renters not fully understanding their full rights as part of their corporate profit making business model.
If you ever have a lease issue, regardless of the circumstances, and have paid what the Seattle / Washington protect laws say you should, don’t ever pay more once you’ve notified the property management company that you’ve fulfilled your part under the protection laws without going to court.
There is a small catch. Even if you get a lawyer, and your lawyer is confident you’re dealing with an invalid contract. In the unlikely event it does go to court, anything can happen before a judge. However, you’re still better off fighting instead of just paying what you’re told to.
(Obviously, don’t take my word for it, seek proper legal advice for your specific case.)
submitted by /u/brain1127
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