Residential evictions, the bottom-line: if you stop paying rent, you will be evicted

This author frequently receives calls from residential tenants who are being evicted, or threatened with eviction, for nonpayment of rent.  The tenant often says the landlord breached duties, usually habitability (e.g. failure to address mold, which is addressed in another blog post), and asks what can be done to stop the eviction.  Not much.

Under the lease, the tenant’s possessory interest in the property is conditioned upon payment of rent.  While the Residential Landlord Tenant Act (“RLTA”), RCW 59.18, applicable to Washington residential tenancies, imposes return duties on the landlord, such as maintenance of habitability (RCW 59.18.060), it does not excuse nonpayment of rent.  In fact, the RLTA expressly provides that tenants must be current on rent to exercise RLTA remedies for landlord breach.  RCW 59.18.080.

When a tenant stops paying rent, the Court has little choice but to enforce the eviction and return possession to the landlord.  If a tenant fails to make payments, the landlord can issue a formal notice giving the tenant the option to either pay the lease arrearage or vacate.  If the tenant fails to comply, technically, under Washington law, the tenant is no longer a valid tenant with a possessory interest but rather someone “unlawfully detaining” the property.  RCW 59.12.030(3).  And in an unlawful detainer action, the landlord is entitled to a judgment canceling the tenancy and for a writ of restitution as to the premises, enforceable by the sheriff. RCW 59.12.170; RCW 59.18.380.

To summarize, an eviction following nonpayment of rent is an inevitability.  If the landlord is in breach of contractual or RLTA obligations, the tenant is afforded certain remedies, but simply withholding rent is not one of them.  There is little, if anything, an attorney can do to stop or delay an eviction if the lease is in default for nonpayment.