Dori: Seattle landlord law removes reasonable subjectivity

There is a new landlord law coming to Seattle aimed at making the rental process more fair for applicants. But now some are wondering how it will be enforced.

One of those people is KIRO Radio’s Dori Monson. And not only the enforcement. He asks if it’s even a fair law to the landlord. He argues that subjectivity needs to be a tool available to the landlord and Seattle has taken it away.

“There are some landlords here that have given discounts to Amazon and Microsoft employees, and this (Seattle landlord law) says that if somebody’s income has government assistance you have to treat them the same,” Dori said. “So no, they cannot put subjectivity into writing. That is expressly prohibited by this rule.”

“If you are a landlord in Seattle, things are going to get really, really tough on you,” he said. “You have to rent to a person on a first-come, first-serve basis. If you don’t like the vibe the renter gives off, you still have to rent to them. It’s incredible that the government is telling a property owner they don’t have discretion who they rent to.”

Shanna Smith, president of the National Fair Housing Alliance, argues otherwise. Take the deals handed out to employees of certain high-paying companies. It’s a practice has been controversial in Seattle over the past year.

“Giving Microsoft employees deals is not subjectivity,” Smith told Dori. “That’s a preference. There’s a difference.”

No,” Dori quickly responded. “Subjectivity is ‘I think the job skills and the diligence that get you a job in a very competitive field probably makes you a better renter than somebody that is on public assistance.’ There is truth to that.”

Seattle landlord law

On Aug. 8, the Seattle City Council approved a new rule. Landlords are now required to rent on a first-come, first-serve basis when it comes to applicants. The Seattle landlord law will go into effect on Jan. 1, and according to the Seattle Times, it has yet to be determined how it will be enforced. Working that out is now the job of the Seattle Office of Civil Rights, who is expected to hire two new employees just to handle the first-come, first-serve policy.

“The criteria should include things that identify who is going to be a good, reliable tenant. What more do you need than that?” Smith said. “Maybe you don’t like my appearance. But that shouldn’t stop you from renting to me. Maybe you don’t like that I have an accent. If I’m qualified to rent, that shouldn’t prevent me from getting an apartment.”

Dori argues that if a person has an accent, that likely means they have an ethnic background that is protected anyway.

“Except, if you don’t have first-come, first-serve, you have a situation where the landlord gathers a bunch of applications and picks — going over somebody in a protected group. Because they can,” Smith said. “And they do it all the time.”

What about the appearance of a person? For example, if their car is rather messy, could that indicate they are a messy renter? That’s what Dori argues. Smith said that landlords still have a defense against that — many just don’t put in the work.

“If the landlord gets a bad vibe, he should not write down ‘I got a bad vibe.’ It should be very concrete,” Smith said. “They should say they had this, this and this. And while they were first in line, these things, for me, disqualify them. I don’t think any jury will find them liable. But the landlord has to document it. And that’s what they don’t do.”

“I can tell you that no one is going to file a lawsuit because they were turned down because their car was filthy,” she said. “It will have to be investigated. You will have a hard time finding a lawyer or a local unit of government who is willing to file a complaint just based on that allegation. You have to have an investigation that shows whether or not there is substance to that allegation”

Dori doesn’t agree. It would require him to trust whatever enforcement the local government opts for.

Dori said that enforcement for the Seattle landlord law “will be so biased against landlords and in favor of prospective tenants because that’s the politics in Seattle. The politics in Seattle is that you have to skew in favor of the complainant.”

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