Hi Everyone,

I felt extremely frustrated recently as a relatively new landlord. I had unbelievably bad luck to meet two very bad tenant families in a row in 3.5 years as a new landlord. Because of my first tenants allowed their dogs to pee all over the house and also damaged every single appliance in the house. I believed their lies that the strong odor was due to detergent used in carpet cleaning. Later when my next tenants moved in and began to complain everything, I began to realize that some pet owner could mistreat their pets so much and I spent 15k and 220-250 hours of my own time, asking a lot of days off from work, to fix all the issues as soon as I can, and the next tenants didn't appreciate at all my effort to fix the issues. In one occasion when the first carpet replacement service looked shaky to get delayed, I spent another 5 hours, including 4 hours' bus travel out of town to the provider's depot to examine the sample and get a quote, not looking for a cheap quote, but just tried to reserve a backup in case the first did have significant delay. I really felt sorry that the first a-hole tenants put these tenants also at difficult situation and did everything I can to fix the issues as fast I could. The husband tenant called me queried about the carpet quote visit in the morning, before I had time to explained to him the reason behind, he began to shout over the phone so loudly, almost breaking my ears... There was another occasion, they left the house during a house show when I was looking third tenant family, close to their lease expiration. They chose to enter the house in a very bizarre way not through the door, but via the garage door(the garage was not even used for parking at all but full of their stuffs) then through another locked door between the lower floor and the garage. I didn't expect that, while during the show, I was not sure about the original state of the door lock as people visiting the house might unlock the door from inside, so before I left, I locked it for safety When they arrived home, they immediately sent an email asking me return to unlock that door for them, then less than 20 minutes, they sent another threatening email saying that if I didn't return timely, they would hire a locksmith to break the door lock and I would be responsible for the fee. They behave in such bully way that I have to on email all day, without doing anything else, to watch email from them... A few incidents like the above two happening during their one year stay that totally broke my heart, as I tried to be a good caring landlord, not only take care of my own interest, but also theirs.

My beautiful garden had been totally wasted by the first tenants. I spent $3500 plus to restore it into very nice shape again, to make sure the next tenants moved into a house with a nice garden. Before they moved out, I sent email twice on their lack of maintenance on the garden, and specific items that were totally lack of maintenance, upon which they never replied. I verbally asked the husband again while a visit a week before their move out, the husband told me he would check with his gardener, if the company has time then he could do it. At the move-out date, he told me his gardener didn't have time to come, which looked like a pure excuse to me. The garden is now half covered by weeds, many plants untrimmed, two plants dead due to lack of maintenance, and serious blackberry invasion on the backyard to make the original plants unhealthy... The total cost of repair is 1000-1500. When I emailed them that I need to do repair service to restore the garden and attached the damaged photos/videos, the husband still claimed he took good care of the garden, and adamantly hinted if I deducted the amount from the deposit, they are going to go through court to sue me...

These tenants are so ugly souls who are dishonest, disrespectful, I felt extremely frustrated that I am thinking of selling my property for good to avoid dealing with these terrible terrible people again. I have adequate proof of photos of garden to show before and after, but still a little worry about court as Washington is such a liberal state that doesn't have a fair legal system to protect fairness and justice, but strongly leaning against protecting tenants.

Could you share with me any advice how to go through small claim court in Washington, specifically in Seattle?

Thank you very much!

Xun