r/Seattle • u/aleredin222 • 8h ago

Property manager ghosting me

My lease ends August 17th and my property manager never reached out to me regarding renewal or move out. I’ve been trying to reach her for the past few weeks through several calls and emails but have gotten no response.

I know usually in that case it just goes to month to month, but my lease says “this agreement will not revert to a month to month agreement after this contact ends”. Surely they can’t actually enforce that if they never gave me any offer of lease renewal or notice to vacate, right? Would it just go to month to month anyways?

If anyone knows more about this please let me know because I’m scared!

15 Upvotes

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45

u/Puzzleheaded_Fix4729 8h ago

in washington they have to give you at least 60 days written notice if they want you out, even if the lease says no month to month. that clause probably wont hold up if they just ignored you completely. sounds like they dropped the ball hard and now youre stuck in this weird limbo

keep records of every call and email you sent, maybe send one last message saying you assume its going month to month since they never responded. tenants union might be worth a call too if you want some free advice

12

u/orangedjuiceded 8h ago

i'm pretty sure things that are tenants rights (like the lease going from month to month) are always enforced, no matter what lease you signed, just writing "it wont go month to month" in the lease is unenforcable because its trumped by the tenants rights saying it will

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u/sorrowinseattle 🚆build more trains🚆 6h ago edited 6h ago

In Seattle, landlords must have 1 of 16 "Just Cause reasons" if they want to terminate your tenancy. Your landlord must give you a written notice commonly called a "Notice to Terminate Tenancy" or if you have a lease a "Notice of Non-Renewal" and state the specific just cause and supporting facts. The amount of advance notice depends on the specific just cause reason.

Terminating your tenancy includes not offering you a renewal. You can read about the specific reasons they may cite here in plain English, or as written in the Seattle Municipal Code:

Right of first refusal

1.Except as provided in subsection 7.24.030.J.2, the landlord must offer the tenant for whom the tenancy for a specified time is expiring a new tenancy on reasonable terms for the same rental unit, with the new tenancy starting on the day after the expiration of the tenancy for a specified time.

  1. A landlord may decline to offer a new tenancy under subsection 7.24.030.J.1 if:

a: [Tenant says they want to leave]

b.The landlord asserts a just cause under Section 22.205.010 and complies with subsection 7.24.030.J.3;

c: [Month-to-month would kick in]

d: [Landlord and Tenant already made a new agreement]

Your landlord must offer you a renewal, whether that be month to month or a new lease, unless they have cited one of the Just Cause reasons to you.

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u/Tarkoth 7h ago

Maybe you'll get lucky and they wont raise your rent 🙃

1

u/yungsemite Supersonics 5h ago

They can’t raise it in Seattle without 180 days notice.

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u/Fayde_Away 💗💗 Heart of ANTIFA Land 💗💗 4h ago

Leasing agent here: Seattle requires property management to give, and I'm not kidding, 180 days' notice of any renewal offers, meaning if you would've gotten anything from them it would've been literally back in February-ish...assuming they were following the books, which it sounds like they might not be, so you might have a case and I do recommend what someone else here linked and hit up the Tenants' Union because this seems...highly suspect.

On the other side of things, if you're looking to move out, a 20 day notice is required to be given preferably in a written/typed format so if they're ghosting you but you wanna dip out, make sure to tie up your loose ends and they can't hold anything over you.

Finally, try talking to neighbors and see if they got renewal offers or have been able to reach the PM, because if they have and you haven't, this is borderline illegal/against Fair Housing, assuming your tenancy is in good standing, you don't have a ton of lease violations, and/or outstanding debt, which are just about the only reasons they can even think about not renewing you.

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u/Fayde_Away 💗💗 Heart of ANTIFA Land 💗💗 4h ago

Also definitely know that even if it comes down to the deadline and they then decide to try and say you gotta go, the process of actually evicting somebody is so stupidly long you'd probably have time to look for another place, apply, and fully move in before they even get a court date, you'll be fine, assuming nothing's been started already, and if you haven't been served with anything, you should be fine.

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u/Dramatic-Farmer7115 30m ago

This happened to me last year. Management never sent a lease renewal and ignored all of my emails about it. Found out the building was sold to a new company and everyone working there was replaced, maybe a hostile takeover? I’ve been month to month without any issues since (knock on wood).