An interview with NJP attorney Scott Crain.
What challenges do low-income individuals face with hotel and motel housing?
Low-income individuals have resorted to living in motels and hotels, paying a daily or weekly rate. This can sometimes be more financially feasible than gathering a larger sum for monthly rent. However, these short-term rentals often become long-term stays, as tenants face barriers to re-entering regular rental housing due to strict screening processes that may disqualify them because of past evictions or poor credit.
Do these housing options meet the needs of tenants?
For many of their residents, hotel and motel rooms are the last resort before homelessness. While these establishments do provide a critical stopgap, they cannot fill the gap in the lack of affordable housing across the state.
Some of the larger chains, like Extended Stay America, specifically operate as a place for longer-term stays. That might be fine except for the fact that hotels and motels are not covered by Washington State’s Residential Landlord Tenant Act. In fact, the Act specifically exempts hotels and motels from the law.
This means some of the legal protections for tenants in regular rental housing don’t apply. These include the requirement that landlords provide notice of eviction with the reason for the eviction, or relocation assistance if a property is condemned, or the right to demand repairs.
Although some hotels and motels take a more responsible approach, others are using the exemption as a cover to lock people out of their unit or call law enforcement to remove them without any legal process.
All this leaves residents vulnerable to eviction without proper notice or the due process typically required in court.
What are the most common legal issues for those housed in hotels and motels?
At Northwest Justice Project, we handle eviction cases on an almost daily basis for residents of hotels and motels. Illegal lockouts are a frequent issue. A renter may come back from the grocery store to find that the electronic lock on his door has been changed.
Occasionally, we see cases related to health and safety, such as after a fire or code enforcement action that leads to the sudden condemnation of the building, putting people out on the street.
Local law enforcement may believe that they can remove a tenant living in a hotel or motel without a court order. However, a tenant cannot be removed from their dwelling forcibly except by court order. Tenants may be intimidated by law enforcement and leave without exercising their legal rights first.
How does NJP defend tenants in these situations?
Evictions are mostly for nonpayment of rent. In cases like that, we may look at issues such as the conditions of the place. If those conditions were really poor—bedbugs, non-working plumbing, lack of heat—we argue that the tenant doesn’t owe everything claimed because the hotel/motel didn’t provide a habitable dwelling unit.
In cases where the eviction occurs with no notice the legal argument is straightforward: it’s illegal. You can’t lock out a tenant. You have to go through the court.
How has the landscape changed for hotel/motel housing?
Landlord/tenant laws have not kept up with the times.
The exemption of hotels and motels from the Landlord Tenant Act may have made sense when it was passed decades ago.
The economy was different then. We didn’t have the severe lack of affordable housing and the proliferation of these hotels and motels, whether owned by corporations, franchises, or individuals. We do now, and it’s big business. By one count, there are 450 extended stay hotels in Washington State. And they are often marketed to low-income people at risk of homelessness.
The law as it stands does not reflect the current reliance on hotels and motels as long-term housing solutions for some of the most housing-vulnerable people across the state.