New to Real Estate · Seattle WA · Member since 2023 · 7 posts · 7 votes
Background :
I have a tenant who has been renting out one of my properties in Seattle for 6 years now, he was late on rent during the pandemic and the late rent still carries now. (roughly about $10000). Although he has been paying an extra $300 every month but it is not consistent. I am also paying for this property's utility fees. The lease agreement expired a long time ago and I didn't renew one for a very long time. What would be the best thing to do here? should I hire an attorney to evict him? if so, would this process be difficult?
Developer · Seattle, WA · Member since 2018 · 90 posts · 47 votes
2y
@Keng Fong , I live in and invest in Seattle. My question to you is if they are paying now, why bother evicting them? Placing a new tenant will not get you the bad debt back.
I would encourage you to get the existing tenant on a new lease that clearly spells out either the base rent + repayment plan, or better yet, the new base rent that should get you to market-based rent. It sounds like this is a single unit - in the new lease require the tenant to transfer utilities into their name and have them pay for it.
Investor · Richmond, VA · Member since 2023 · 459 posts · 474 votes
2y
The process is specific to the municipality you are in, from what I have read Seattle is not landlord friendly so if it were me I would hire an attorney who was experienced in the process.
In Virginia the process is simple enough to do it yourself - and I have a few times.
Developer · Seattle, WA · Member since 2018 · 90 posts · 47 votes
2y
@Keng Fong , I live in and invest in Seattle. My question to you is if they are paying now, why bother evicting them? Placing a new tenant will not get you the bad debt back.
I would encourage you to get the existing tenant on a new lease that clearly spells out either the base rent + repayment plan, or better yet, the new base rent that should get you to market-based rent. It sounds like this is a single unit - in the new lease require the tenant to transfer utilities into their name and have them pay for it.