Down by the river?
Posted on 10/04/2023 8:48:03 AM PDT by TigerClaws
Jason Roth lives in a van with his dog Wally. He’s both homeless and a homeowner, all at the same time.
“It’s frustrating, extremely frustrating. It’s something I can’t fully wrap my head around,” he said.
Jason is making mortgage payments for his Rainer Valley home and paying for pilot school. He is owed five months’ rent - a total of some $29k in back rent, plus utilities.
“I do come here often just to look at my house, and miss it …and wish I could be in it,” he said.
Jason’s deadbeat renter is listing the downstairs living space on Airbnb for $434 a night. Jason believes he is generating at least $2k a month, and possibly closer to $3k or possibly even $4k, depending on the month.
The city gave the delinquent renter a short-term rental license. A spokesperson for the city said, “…the license this individual has is not valid because it was obtained using inaccurate information about ownership of the property.”
“OK. So, not only is he not paying me, but he’s generating an income through the basement Airbnb unit, and meanwhile, I’m having to pay the utilities for that unit,” said Jason.
He’s tried to work with the renter and even came up with a payment plan, the renter signed it, paid a thousand bucks - and that’s it. Jason also tried dispute resolution, with no results. Now, he has to wait until late October for an eviction hearing. The current process for an eviction in King County is about 12 months. That’s another 12 months that Jason has to pay the mortgage on his house, that he can’t access. Before all is said and done, he is looking at $50k in losses.
Attorney Ryan Weatherstone said that King County courts are only hearing six cases per day. Half of those hearings get automatically continued for another three and a half months. So, the court is only really hearing three hearings per day and they’re only hearing it for four days a week for the biggest county in Washington.
We stopped by Jason’s home to speak with the renter, but he didn’t answer the door. We did see a shiny car with a new registration in the driveway on our way out.
Understandably, Jason has a hard time justifying how this has happened.
“It makes me feel all kinds of different emotions. I mean, extreme sadness, anger, physical discomfort because of where I’m living.”
The city said it is investigating the case about the short-term rental license. And, Airbnb has removed the listing featuring Jason’s home.
For now, Jason is left to absorb the loss until he can get his home back.
“I’m on my own, which to me might be the worst part because there’s always going to be people who abuse the system and scam. But the city should be there to recognize when that’s happening. And nobody’s been able to provide me any tangible assistance, anything significant.”
Go to your local Hells Angels Chapter....................
when they go out the door get a big moving crew and remove their stuff. Change the locks, don’t let them back in. put their stuff into storage until back rent s paid.
Or get your brother and a couple of reliable friends for a 3 AM self-help eviction procedure.
The Hells Angels are professionals..................
bkmk
The big V word is quite appropriate here and other places l8ke say a stolen election.
People wonder why the mafia was so culturally ingrained in Southern Italy - because government was corrupt, politicized and weak, and there was no justice.
Down by the river?
Not saying this would happen but let’s say the delinquent renter wasn’t responsible and unfortunately there was a fire and the residence was no longer habitable. I guess the homeowner could recover from the insurance and could rebuild.
Of course the delinquent renter would have to go somewhere else and would hopefully have renter’s insurance to cover any of their losses.
“Rainier Valley homeowner lives in van while delinquent tenant lists rental on Airbnb”
In nature, the strong survive, the weak perish.
LOLOL!
It’s intentional to drive people away from being landlords.
You would think he could get a priority setting in court based on the circumstances but I know that actually serving people is not on the court’s agenda.
Better Call Saul—he could figure out a hundred creative ways to solve the problem.
Go through the Airbnb people and rent out the lower-level apartment. Move in, cancel the credit card used to secure the rental. Put the van in the driveway in such a way as to block him out (or in if the car is in the garage).
live there instead of the van. Turn about is fair play.
So get some friends to rent it on Air BnB and then all move in and refuse to leave.
True enough. But they are not above doing such a job and then extorting additional payment.
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