I have a house in Tacoma. Washington state will now allow to evict until after Aug 1st. City Tacoma has law that 60 days of written notice for eviction. I called the city and talked to the person there and was told that the written notice has to be in letter form or hands in by person. It cannot be by email. Tacoma law only said written. So my question is "Does email notice consider a written notice in legal term?" I will also mail a letter with certified mail with tracking. In the past I send the tenant a certified letter and the letter was returned to me from the post office. The tenant is not home most of the time when the postman does the delivery. What if the tenant said I did not receive the letter? Any suggestion? Thanks
New to Real Estate · Tacoma, WA · Member since 2017 · 20 posts · 13 votes
6y
I have a rental in Fife that I had to start eviction proceedings on last winter. Email wasn't sufficient. The notice only needs to be mailed regular mail, but I wasn't taking any chances. I mailed it certified AND had someone hand-deliver it to them. There is also a method of pinning it to their front door so it's very obvious, but I didn't do that.
What I learned the hard way is to include every single tenant on the eviction letter AS WELL AS "all others occupying the property". There were two people on the lease plus at least two unauthorized people, so I mailed six copies and had six copies handed to the tenants. Because I wasn't careful to include every single person, I had to restart the entire process.
Investor · Shelton, WA · Member since 2017 · 6k+ posts · 6k+ votes
6y
@Charles D.I would use every method available.........pin it to his door, registered mail, ordinary mail, email-despite what was said, singing minstrel; whatever it takes. Crazy! We finally get to evict but no delivery methods are accepted? Remind me why we pay taxes?
Hello Charles, I have a rental near you in Lakewood, fortunately for myself I have had the same tenant since 2006. Bjorn is correct, use EVERY method available to you. You need to have someone other than yourself hand them the eviction notice or video record with your phone if you are doing it. Certified mail even though they may not accept it you will have a receipt that it was sent and not opened. (DO NOT OPEN IT if it is returned),
In addition get yourself a simple Call Recorder app on your phone. It will automatically record all calls and give you leverage in case things from your conversations seem to change. This happens all the time and nothing tells the truth more than a recording.
Every time you set foot on 'your rental', put your cell phone in your front shirt or jacket pocket facing the the camera out and turn on the video. This way it wont be so intimidating or noticed. These suggestions may sound overboard or paranoid and hopefully you wont need to show them as any evidence but it is a very good insurance policy for when you need to show up in court.
When posting a notice of eviction on the house or the noticed to vacate, take a picture of it and set your phone to time stamp it. Good luck, - Jon Pierre
New to Real Estate · Tacoma, WA · Member since 2017 · 20 posts · 13 votes
6y
I have a rental in Fife that I had to start eviction proceedings on last winter. Email wasn't sufficient. The notice only needs to be mailed regular mail, but I wasn't taking any chances. I mailed it certified AND had someone hand-deliver it to them. There is also a method of pinning it to their front door so it's very obvious, but I didn't do that.
What I learned the hard way is to include every single tenant on the eviction letter AS WELL AS "all others occupying the property". There were two people on the lease plus at least two unauthorized people, so I mailed six copies and had six copies handed to the tenants. Because I wasn't careful to include every single person, I had to restart the entire process.
Thanks for all the replies. Does the regular priority mail has tracking? So if the tenant not home during the time the postman does the delivery, the priority mail with tracking will prove the mail is delivered. Will that work?
I have a rental in Fife that I had to start eviction proceedings on last winter. Email wasn't sufficient. The notice only needs to be mailed regular mail, but I wasn't taking any chances. I mailed it certified AND had someone hand-deliver it to them. There is also a method of pinning it to their front door so it's very obvious, but I didn't do that.
What I learned the hard way is to include every single tenant on the eviction letter AS WELL AS "all others occupying the property". There were two people on the lease plus at least two unauthorized people, so I mailed six copies and had six copies handed to the tenants. Because I wasn't careful to include every single person, I had to restart the entire process.
Good luck :-/
How did you include the name of the people live there that you don't know? Do you have a copy of the letter you sent? Of couse no actual name of the tenants. Thanks
New to Real Estate · Tacoma, WA · Member since 2017 · 20 posts · 13 votes
6y
@Charles D. As far as I understand it, you don't actually have to prove the tenant received the mailing. I didn't feel comfortable with it, so I hired a third party to hand-deliver the notice.
This is really solid advice, and exactly what I used: (notice that it says AND ALL OTHERS OCCUPYING THE PROPERTY. That covers the people you don't know the names of)
@Charles D. As far as I understand it, you don't actually have to prove the tenant received the mailing. I didn't feel comfortable with it, so I hired a third party to hand-deliver the notice.
This is really solid advice, and exactly what I used: (notice that it says AND ALL OTHERS OCCUPYING THE PROPERTY. That covers the people you don't know the names of)
Thanks for the replys. It said "Mailing alone is never sufficient, even if the tenant actually receives the document. Mail the eviction notice from the Pierce County" how to mail eviction notice from Pierce County? Thanks