**Not Legal Advice. Please contact an attorney if you need assistance***
So you own a rental property in Washington State and your tenant isn’t following the lease...What do you do?
First don't panic. Most of the time someone is failing to comply with the lease because they are unaware that they are out of compliance. It's not because they intended to be, they just either have forgotten that provision of the lease or, never read and internalized it.
The best thing you can do is bring the violation to their attention. If your rental property is in Washington State you can do this issuing a 10 Day Notice to Pay or Quit the Premise.
In the notice you will want to clearly spell how what they did wrong and cite provisions of the lease agreement. Think about covering, what, where, when, and whom. Next you will want to tell them what they need to do to cure the violation. This should also be specific.
Once the notice is ready you will need to deliver the notice. You have 3 options available.
Option 1: Deliver a copy to the tenant personally.
Option 2: Leave a copy with someone of "suitable age and discretion" at the tenant's place of residence and mail a copy via First Class mail.
Option 3: Post the notice in a conspicuous place on the premises and mail a copy via first class mail assuming you cannot find someone of "suitable age and discretion" to leave the notice with.
Okay, so the notice has been served. Let's fast forward 10 days. Now you need to know if the resident cured the violation. Depending on what the cure was it may require a visit to the property to confirm the resident has complied with your notice. Other times this can be done via email. In most cases the resident will cure the violation.
In the event the tenant has not cured the violation, their rental agreement terminates and you can ask them to leave immediately.
We hope you found this article informative. If you, or something you know would like to talk about our professional property management services please do not hesitate to contact us.
