[WSBARP] Evictions & Vehicles

Wed Jan 18 14:08:12 PST 2017

I always tell my landlords that the sheriff will have a chat and give them a deadline, and when they are still around that the landlord needs to have a crew and a truck and be able to move it out in about an hour or so, because that is all the longer the sheriff will stand around.  Then we send the notice to the last known address of Tenant.

From: Rob Wilson-Hoss 
Sent: Wednesday, January 18, 2017 11:19 AM
To: 'WSBA Real Property Listserv' 
Subject: Re: [WSBARP] Evictions & Vehicles

Well, it isn't real property, but others may know more than I about that. What I do know is that this statute is overdue for a serious overhaul. There is a proposed amendment before the Legislature but it only gets about a tenth of the way towards solving the problem. Landlords have more juice in Olympia than tenants, apparently. 

Sheriff's departments are really challenged by this statute, and I don't blame them. Much better to find another way to deal with the stuff, such as the statutory option. It may be more expensive for the landlord, but dumping the junk on the street is just bad in every way. Your neighbors will despise you, the Sheriff's department will fight you any way it can, and your karma will be dramatically violated. 

By the way, if this is in a development with covenants, there may be a weird twist. In most such developments, the public streets are really only rights of way over the lots, which each extend to the middle of the street. So, if the covenants prohibit dumping rubbish or trash on a lot, or nuisances in general, or noxious or offensive things on lots, then in actuality, if the landlord is dumping this stuff on the nearest public property, and we assume for the sake of argument that the right of way is public property, then if the landlord dumps the stuff on the nearest public property, he or she is dumping it on his own lot (the part that is overlain by the public right of way, but still part of his own lot) and in violation of the covenants. I have made this argument successfully, against a landlord who really deserved to be "corrected."

Rob

Robert D. Wilson-Hoss 
Hoss & Wilson-Hoss, LLP 
236 West Birch Street 
Shelton, WA 98584 
360 426-2999

www.hossandwilson-hoss.com
rob at hctc.com

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From: wsbarp-bounces at lists.wsbarppt.com [mailto:wsbarp-bounces at lists.wsbarppt.com] On Behalf Of Paul Neumiller
Sent: Wednesday, January 18, 2017 10:25 AM
To: wsbarp at lists.wsbarppt.com
Subject: [WSBARP] Evictions & Vehicles

After finally working the issues out with city and county officials, I have got them to back off and not arrest or fine my landlord clients for moving the tenant’s personal property to the nearest public property (they tried to charge littering and illegal dumping of garbage.) RCW 59.18.312 says, in part, “If the tenant or the tenant's representative objects to the storage of the property or the landlord elects not to store the property because the tenant has not served a written request on the landlord to do so, the property shall be deposited upon the nearest public property and may not be stored by the landlord.…”)  BUT, the hold out are the evicting sheriffs who says that if my landlord client moves (or drags) a tenant’s vehicle to the sidewalk and street, they’ll charge the landlord (“because we’ll know who moved it there”).  

Before I move up the chain of command for my local sheriff and point out RCW 59.18.312, I was wondering if any of you had the same problem and how you resolved it.  Do you agree that a tenant’s vehicle that is left on the premises after the execution of a writ of restitution is considered the tenant’s “personal property” and thus can be moved “to the nearest public property” under RCW 59.18.312?  Thanks for your input.

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