{"id":8797,"date":"2025-05-06T14:40:36","date_gmt":"2025-05-06T14:40:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/myaiostagingweb.com\/sunworldgroup\/?p=8797"},"modified":"2025-05-06T14:43:50","modified_gmt":"2025-05-06T14:43:50","slug":"how-to-evict-a-tenant-in-southwest-washington","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/myaiostagingweb.com\/sunworldgroup\/2025\/05\/06\/how-to-evict-a-tenant-in-southwest-washington\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Evict a Tenant in Southwest Washington"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

Evicting a tenant in Southwest Washington is rarely easy, especially with all of the tenant protections in place.<\/p>

Let\u2019s talk about what\u2019s required because this can get complex.<\/p>

Establish for Which Month the Tenant Owes Rent<\/h4>

Not all late rent is treated equally.<\/p>

First, you have to establish for what month the tenant owes rent. This is because prior to May 1, 2023, any arrearage that the tenant owes you cannot be subject to a 14 Day Notice ahead of eviction. Rent that\u2019s owed before that date must have a payment agreement offered. The payment agreement cannot exceed more than 30 percent of one month\u2019s rent.<\/p>

Here\u2019s what that means: if rent is $1,000 a month, you cannot ask the tenant to pay more than $300 a month in arrears. If they want to pay more to eliminate their balance, that\u2019s great. But, you cannot require more than 30 percent.<\/p>

For rent that is late after May 1, 2023, you can serve a 14 Day Notice. When you do serve that 14 Day Notice, however, it has to be for the current month that the rent is due. Again, there can be no notice served for any rent that was due prior to May 1. Instead of a 14 Day Notice, you\u2019re offering a payment agreement.<\/p>

Applying Rental Payments<\/h4>

Let\u2019s provide an example to simplify what we\u2019re talking about.<\/p>

Suppose you service a 14 Day Notice for the rent that has not been paid for June. Your tenants owe rent for June 2023. If they don\u2019t pay the June rent after the 14 days have come and gone, you can file for eviction.<\/p>

If rent comes in during the 14 Day Notice period, you cannot apply it first to the back rent that\u2019s owed. You must apply it to the current month. You would not be permitted to use that payment for the back rent that\u2019s owed prior to May and then file for eviction for the current month.<\/p>

Maybe your tenants owe four months of overdue rent – all rent that wasn\u2019t paid prior to May of 2023. If they also have not paid for June, you\u2019re serving a 14 Day Notice for the June rent and putting together a payment agreement for the months of overdue rent that they also owe. Any payment that comes in will have to be applied first to the current month\u2019s rent. That would be June of 2023.<\/p>

If your rent is $2,000 per month, and they pay you $2,000, that will cover the June rent.<\/p>

If they pay another $1,000, you can apply that to the arrearage.<\/p>

Payment Arrangement Wording and Timing<\/h4>

Always be careful with payment agreements for the months prior to May. The agreement has to be carefully written, and the payments for the past due rent cannot be forced until 30 days after the notice of repayment is given. If you provide a payment arrangement on June 1 for rent that\u2019s owed through April of 2023, you cannot expect the arrearage to be paid until July 1. And, the language has to be very clear.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

That\u2019s understandable. With the online rental sites and social media platforms available, it\u2019s easier than ever to market and advertise a rental home. But, it\u2019s also crowded. Tenants are scrolling through listing after listing, and it can be difficult to stand out. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8799,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,6],"tags":[9,12,13],"class_list":["post-8797","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-houses","category-property","tag-architecture","tag-design","tag-interior"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/myaiostagingweb.com\/sunworldgroup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8797","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/myaiostagingweb.com\/sunworldgroup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/myaiostagingweb.com\/sunworldgroup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myaiostagingweb.com\/sunworldgroup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myaiostagingweb.com\/sunworldgroup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8797"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/myaiostagingweb.com\/sunworldgroup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8797\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8802,"href":"https:\/\/myaiostagingweb.com\/sunworldgroup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8797\/revisions\/8802"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myaiostagingweb.com\/sunworldgroup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8799"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/myaiostagingweb.com\/sunworldgroup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myaiostagingweb.com\/sunworldgroup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myaiostagingweb.com\/sunworldgroup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}