“This eliminates any kind of negotiation,” Ronald Christopher said. They served their tenants with a 90-day notice, giving them until the end of March to move out. In December, the Christophers made a last-ditch effort to get out of their lease: They put their house up for sale. But still, it takes about six to eight weeks,” Denfeld said. “It goes through pretty quickly with them because they know all of the procedures. The couple has already spent more than $1,300 on attorney fees, according to their records.ĭenfeld pointed out that for Clark County Rental Association members who have access to the association’s attorney - rather than using attorneys who charge by the hour - it should cost only between $900 and $1,200 to evict a tenant. “How are we going to pay the attorney fee if we don’t have renter money?” Houngming Christopher said. They went to an attorney, who told them eviction could cost them several thousand dollars between legal fees and court costs, plus the additional loss of about $10,000 in unpaid rent. What makes you think they’re going to agree to the repayment?” he said. They made a repayment plan, but Ronald Christopher doesn’t see much point in it. ![]() The Christophers charge their tenants $1,600 per month in rent. Under state legislation passed in April 2021, landlords must offer tenants a reasonable repayment plan before going to eviction court. “Beyond just the business impacts, there are knock-on effects, especially when children are involved - health impacts, education impacts, general societal and growth impacts.” “Economically and societally, homelessness is a major issue,” he said. That’s what being a landlord is: It’s a business.”Īccording to Moody, the law is specifically intended to make eviction difficult to prevent homelessness. “Like any small business, that business can be particularly vulnerable to one deal gone bad. “I am sympathetic to landlords who are struggling, but in a rather limited fashion,” Moody said. From his perspective, tenant protections are crucial to keeping roofs over people’s heads. They’re the ones that are keeping the rentals affordable.” Landlord frustrationsīen Moody, housing programs managing attorney with the Clark County Volunteer Lawyers Program, gives legal advice to low-income tenants. “Actually what they’re doing, the smaller landlords, they’re doing everything that they can to pay down on their mortgage and to keep their rentals affordable. “Some of the renters have the idea that (landlords) are bad people and they’re taking all of their money,” she said. Small landlords are an important part of Clark County’s affordable rental market, Denfeld added. “There’s very, very little that can help the owners themselves.” “They’re trying to maintain and keep going, but some of them just can’t,” Denfeld said. The pandemic has been hard on small landlords, especially now that COVID-19 rental-assistance programs have ended, according to Sue Denfeld, president of the Clark County Rental Association, which represents more than 9,000 small-landlord homes. “Who would want to have rental property where renters have more rights than the people that own the property?” I don’t want to live in this town anymore,” Ronald Christopher said. “My family’s lived in Vancouver since the late 1800s. Washington’s tenant protections along with the steep costs landlords must pay for evictions mean the Christophers can’t find a way to get the renters out of their duplex. ![]() He has posted several 14-day eviction notices on his tenants’ door, but it’s largely an empty threat, he said. “The only reason we’re still alive and functioning here is because we don’t have a mortgage right now.” ![]() “We’re both 70 years old, living on Social Security,” Ronald Christopher said. They declined The Columbian’s interview request for fear that it would create further housing challenges for them going forward. Still struggling with unemployment, the tenants are doing what they can to find work and get by. Now, the Christophers haven’t received any rent money since October, they said. The tenants were able to scrape together enough money to pay another few months’ rent, though the payments were late, according to Ronald Christopher. Government pandemic assistance helped pay the rent and utilities through last May. Their tenants, a family with two kids and a third on the way, stopped paying rent after a combination of health issues and lack of day care options left them unable to work. Things were going relatively smoothly for the retired couple until the COVID-19 pandemic hit. Ronald and Houngming Christopher started renting out half of their duplex in Vancouver’s Cascade Highlands neighborhood five years ago, thinking it would be a good way to supplement their Social Security income.
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