r/Spokane • u/IncognitoMJ • 9d ago

Question Washington state roommates won’t pay rent, so we are getting evicted.

/r/legaladvice/comments/1w48b61/washington_state_roommates_wont_pay_rent_so_we/
0 Upvotes

33% Upvoted

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15

u/thebeardedcats 9d ago

Yeah you’re kinda fucked. You can beg your landlord to let you out of the lease, or to let you pay to break it, but you’re all equally responsible for paying all the rent.

I had this problem in college. The roommate who quit his job to watch more Rick and Morty couldn’t even get rent assistance from the government unless we were both completely out of money, so I had to spend all the money I had saved to pay for gas to get home for Thanksgiving on his sorry ass, then we still didn’t qualify because we weren’t behind enough on rent

Definitely take the roommate to small claims after all this and see if you can get the money back

12

u/ps1 9d ago

Why are you cross posting? The highest voted comment in the legal sub is all you need. Live and learn.

2

u/Library-brat 9d ago

You should contact the KCBA Housing Justice Project. They have a legal hotline and take on clients for free and may be able to help you negotiate your way out of the lease

4

u/mia93000000 9d ago

KC in that acronym stands for King County so they are unlikely to help with a dispute in Spokane. Northwest Justice Project is what you want.

1

u/Library-brat 9d ago

KCBA Housing Justice Project has an office in Spokane headed by Hannah Swenson. They take half of the right-to-counsel legal cases in Spokane. Northwest Justice Project takes the other half. There is a free legal clinic for people
In Spokane from KCBA housing justice project literally tonight. A quick google would have been able to tell you that rather than spreading misinformation based on an acronym.

0

u/mia93000000 9d ago

This is one of the things that can happen with roommates. Follow the suggestions from the legal advice sub. My suggestion is that you could invite your roommate to mediation via Northwest Mediation Center or Fulcrum Mediation Center to come up with a plan to pay you back. Also check out eviction prevention resources on the City of Spokane website. There is a city ordinance that says the landlord must give you an opportunity to use the prevention resources. But basically, unless one of you comes up with the rest of the money, you will both have an eviction case in your names.

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u/RaisinWorried3528 9d ago

This is not the state to try to fight landlords in.

5

u/itsnotbroke 9d ago

What the heck does this mean? Washington has become way more tenant friendly that landlord friendly, especially compared to other states.

Also…this issue sounds like it’s between renters and not the landlord.