Evicting a Roommate in Washington

Your roommate in Washington isn’t paying the rent, or is violating your sublease agreement, and you want to know if you can evict him. The answer depends on a few things, including whose name is on the lease and your reasons for wanting an eviction. You can evict your roommate if he is not on the primary lease, but if he is, you have a problem. In this article, we’ll detail the ins and outs of evicting a roommate in Washington State.

• Do you have the legal power to evict your roommate?
• How do you know if you have a good reason to evict?
• Should you enlist your landlord’s help?
• How much notice do you have to give?
• How do you file eviction papers?

• What happens in court?

  Do you have the legal power to evict your roommate?

In summary, Washington State landlord-tenant law allows you, a named party on a lease, to evict a subletter, but not a proper “roommate”. Anyone living in your apartment who is also on the lease is a roommate. Anyone living in your apartment who is not on the lease is a subletter.

Here are some specific scenarios that might be confusing you:

• What if you're both on the lease? You cannot evict your roommate.
• What if there's no lease? If there is no lease in place, technically both you and your roommate are “month-to-month” tenants. Your tenancies can be terminated only by the landlord. As such, you cannot evict your roommate.
• What if I’m on the lease and my roommate is not? You can evict your roommate, who is considered a subletter under the law. This is the case even if you and your roommate do not have a formal sublease.

How do you know if you have a good reason to evict?

There are three grounds for eviction in Washington. The first is that your roommate has not paid the rent. Thus, if the rent on your lease is $1,000, and you and your roommate have an agreement that he pays $500 a month, and he has not paid, you can evict him. Note that this is the case even if you and your roommate do not have a formal written sublease - although, as is detailed below, you may eventually need to prove in court that you two had a verbal agreement.

The second is that your roommate has violated the lease in some way. Remember, if both of you are on a lease, you cannot evict your roommate. So the “lease” we are talking about here is a sublease. If you and your roommate entered into a sublease agreement, and he has violated a term thereof, he can be evicted on that basis. If there is no written sublease, then you have a problem. Technically speaking, you can evict your sublessor based on a breach of an oral agreement the two of you made, but you are going to need to prove the existence of the agreement in court.

The third is an interesting one: that your roommate is engaging in criminal behavior, or is performing a legal “nuisance.” This could mean anything from selling drugs out of an apartment, to running a restaurant in his bedroom, to blaring a siren at all hours of the night, to discharging toxic pollutants into nearby potato fields. Nuisance law has a long and complicated history in America, but for our purposes, think of it as a roommate doing something that makes it quite literally impossible for you to enjoy your apartment.

Should you enlist your landlord’s help?

If you and your roommate are both on the lease, the only way you can get your roommate out is by involving your landlord. Talk to your landlord - explain why you want your roommate out. If your roommate is engaged in behavior that is harming the apartment, or if his actions make it difficult for you to pay the rent, your landlord may have a very good reason to want him out.

In one very specific situation, you must enlist your landlord’s help under the law. This involves gang-related activity occurring in your residence. If your roommate is engaged in so-called “gang-related activity,” you may serve your landlord with a ten-day notice demanding that he evict your gang member roommate. He is then under a legal obligation to bring an eviction proceeding.

How much notice do you have to give?

If you are evicting your roommate based on a failure to pay you rent, you need to provide them with a three-day notice to either pay rent or vacate the premises. Note that even though the same laws apply, the three-day notice form is different in Seattle than it is in the rest of Washington State.

The three-day notice also applies for illegal acts, or acts constituting a nuisance. When you draft this notice, make sure to include in as much detail as possible the act you are complaining of. Your roommate will have three days to either end the act, or move out, at which point you can bring an eviction proceeding.

If your eviction is based on a breach of a lease agreement, you must provide your tenant with ten days’ notice. Do this with a Washington State notice to quit form, or a Seattle notice to quit form. Remember to list in as much detail as possible the provision of the agreement your roommate is alleged to have breached, whether it was oral or written.

All of the above notices must be served on your roommate in accordance with the laws of Washington State. This essentially means that you, or someone on your behalf, must hand the notice directly to your roommate. Mailing is not sufficient.

How do you file eviction papers?

If you have served your notice, the designated time period has passed, and your roommate has not either cured his default or moved out, it’s time to file. This means obtaining what is known as a “Summons and Complaint” from a Housing Court judge. Go to your local Housing Court - some Googling, including the name of the county you live in, should direct you to the closest courthouse. Bring with you a copy of the notice you already served. At this point, it is not absolutely necessary to show evidence of your roommate’s malfeasance, but it also doesn’t hurt to have some to show the judge. A judge will hear your case and will issue a “Summons and Complaint” directing your roommate to show up for a court appearance. This will begin the eviction process.

One very important thing to note - you cannot serve the Summons and Complaint directly on your roommate. It must be done by a third party. You can hire a process server, or request that the county sheriff serve your roommate.

What happens in court?

When your first scheduled court appearance is on, make sure to bring all of your evidence to show the judge. If your eviction is based on your roommate not paying the rent, make sure you bring bank statements showing your roommates' previous rent payments, as well as proof that you paid the full monthly rent to your landlord. This will help you establish the existence of an agreement between you and your roommate.

If you have no written sublease and want to evict your roommate based on his breach of an oral agreement other than the payment of rent, you have to prove both the existence of that oral agreement and your roommate’s breach thereof. This is tough! Be prepared for a fight. Don’t be like the unfortunate tenants in Merklinghaus v. Bracken, who on appeal claimed to have “five witnesses” lined up and ready to testify to an oral agreement with their landlord, but mysteriously failed to inform the trial judge of these witnesses.

If all goes well, and you prove your case, the judge will then issue an order of eviction against your roommate (called a “writ of restitution”), giving him a set number of days to remove himself from the apartment. If he fails to do so, you can provide the writ of restitution to the county sheriff, who will forcibly remove your roommate and his belongings from the apartment. And finally, you are free!

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