Note to landlords. Don’t scrimp on your due diligence when doing background checks on potential tenants.
In August 2017, the Seattle City Council voted unanimously to make it illegal for landlords to refuse prospective tenants based only on a criminal background check (only adult sex offenders can be automatically excluded).
Incredibly, our former mayor, who resigned after multiple allegations of homosexual abuse with minors, was still in office when that passed!
In 2016, the Council also passed a “First Come, First Served” rule, which means a landlord must rent to the first “qualified” applicant.
The Council has also passed fee and deposit restrictions on rentals.
Unsurprisingly, civic leaders and groups are now publicly outraged that Seattle has suddenly become the 5th most expensive rental market in America!
They can’t be to picky, if the applicants are part of a protected, privileged group like lgbtlmnop, ILLEGAL ALIEN, trans-mutant or just claims to be a ?????, the landlord could be hit with a discrimination lawsuit.
Once the person or ??? is in they can quit paying rent and it will take MONTHS to get them out, in CA Property owners have NO RIGHTS and are assumed guilty until proven innocent.