Plaintiff’s File Class Action Suit Over COVID Eviction Moratorium

Suit filed against Washington State, the Governor’s Office, and a multitude of cities across Washington

Olympia, WA - Yesterday afternoon, in Thurston County, a group of small housing providers, filed a class action lawsuit against Washington State, Governor Bob Ferguson, and local municipalities for damages suffered as a result of the COVID-19 statewide eviction ban. The plaintiff class is made up of numerous housing providers who were never fairly compensated for non-payment of rent and property value diminution.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Washington instituted a statewide eviction moratorium for nearly two years. During this time, housing providers were prohibited from evicting tenants including for non-payment of rent or property damage. Most housing providers were never made whole after being forcibly mandated to retain non-paying tenants and faced years of unpaid rent as a consequence. Many housing providers were also not able to remove tenants with behavioral or drug issues. Many of these providers included retirees who relied on the monthly income to support their retirements.

“These housing providers were not able to collect monthly rent and in the same instance were not able to lawfully exclude non-paying residents from their legally owned properties.” said Sean Flynn, the Executive Director of the Rental Housing Association of Washington, the spokesman for the plaintiff group. “We believed and still do believe that this qualifies as a per-se taking of property, and we will take this all the way to the United State Supreme Court if necessary.”

“Housing providers and developers really want to know that this will not happen again during another season of emergency powers. The Washington Supreme Court has given no explicit guidance or assurances that this will not happen at another point in time,” said John DiLorenzo a Partner with Davis Wright Tremaine who is representing the class in the lawsuit. “These are not big property owners. They are small housing providers who were compelled to retain residents who paid no rent on their property without just compensation even after the COVID-19 crisis was in the rear view mirror.”

This suit will be first heard in Thurston County Superior Court after the various defendants have time to examine and respond to the filed complaint.

For media inquiries contact:
Sean Flynn, Executive Director
Rental Housing Association of Washington
president@RHAwa.org
(206) 905-0615

^{About Rental Housing Association of Washington (RHAWA): With more than 6,000 members, RHAWA provides resources and advocacy to small to mid-size rental housing providers. Our goal is to support members and the community in building a healthy housing economy for all. RHAWA is a not-for-profit organization and provides its members with a full range of products and services including tenant screening, leasing forms, and education.}

^{About Davis Wright Tremaine: Davis Wright Tremaine LLP is a prominent American law firm founded in 1944 and headquartered in Seattle, Washington, with more than 600 lawyers across multiple U.S. offices, offering a wide range of business, litigation, and industry-focused legal services.}