Expand Tenants Rights: Support the Tenants Union!
Washington State tenants have won important legal protections, but these rights don't go far enough. Help build the movement to protect and expand tenants rights and make the promise of safe, healthy, affordable housing a reality: 
Who is My Landlord
If tenants have problems in their home, they need to know who is responsible to fix them. One of the ways that some landlords maintain their power over tenants is through their absence and anonymity. Landlords who separate themselves from the abuses happening on their property make it difficult for tenants to solve the problems they are facing.
Most state and city laws require that tenants enforce the law. At times tenants are forced to sue landlords in small claims courts or to deliver written notice regarding a problem. The most effective person to contact is the landlord, not the property manager. Your manager or the company hired to manage your building is not the owner. The owner pays property taxes, and is ultimately responsible to ensure that laws are followed.
According to state law, all landlords must provide the name and address of an agent who lives in the county of the property. An agent is someone who can accept letters and can be served court documents. This agent is not necessarily a person who can be held accountable for violation of tenants’ rights.
Unfortunately, there is no guaranteed way to find out who your landlord is. Records of land ownership are confusing and allow for hidden identities. What follows are steps that have been successful in finding landlords. Don’t forget simpler forms. Use the phone book, ask tenants in the building, and talk with neighbors of the property.
One place to begin looking for the name of your landlord is the Tax Assessor’s Office in your county. At the King County Department of the Assessor you can access the name of the person who pays property taxes on your property (they will likely be the owner), and an address. When calling or going into the office, give the physical address of the property and ask for the name and address of the taxpayer. Tenants can also look up other properties owned by the landlord, the value of the property, the amount of property taxes (paid or unpaid), excise numbers (helpful in later research), and sale histories.
Some landlords further hide themselves by only giving offices of public records a P.O. box for an address. With only a P.O. box it is hard to personally contact landlords to serve papers. Landlords can refuse to pick up certified mail from the P.O. box. If the tax assessor gives a P.O. box, ask what other properties the landlord owns. Often landlords may own several buildings and only one or two houses. A landlord is most likely to live in the most expensive home and rent out the other houses of lesser value. You may find an address of an expensive home, often on the waterfront or in the Eastside, owned by the landlord. More than likely, that home is the landlord’s home.
Sometimes, the owner of the property will be a corporation, often a limited liability corporation (LLC). When a group of investors purchase a property they often form a LLC. To find information about a LLC, contact the Washington Secretary of State. By telephone or at the website of the Secretary of State’s Corporations Division, you can find out the partners of a LLC, the officers and directors of a corporation, and the agents for process and service for the corporation. The partners and officers are usually owners, though this is not guaranteed. Regardless, they can be political targets since they have responsibility for their investments.
You can verify the owner of the property at the King County Recorder’s Office. You may get more contact information about your landlord as well as mortgage and lending information. You will need the name of the landlord, or the excise or parcel number. Someone must sign the deed when property is purchased. One person signs on behalf of the corporation; you will likely learn the name of at least one owner. If your building changed owners in the past year you will need to make the request in person or in writing. You can look up a title company in the yellow pages who can help you access recent information as well, but may charge you a fee.
Many tenants live in public housing that is either owned by a housing authority or the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), has a loan guaranteed by HUD, or has a project based section 8 contract. By completing a Freedom of Information Act request for information about your building through the local office of HUD, you can access valuable information. To get information write a letter with the name of your building and what information you would like to see. You can find out who owns the building and the sources of funding, copies of inspection reports, copies of communication between tenants and owners, and the original regulatory agreement. If you want specific information you can request it be sent to you. If you want to review the file you can request that HUD contact you to set up an appointment. You can contact the FOIA Liaison Officer in Seattle and find out more about the FOIA by calling your local office or visiting HUD’s FOIA web pages. You can visit the office or mail your request to your local office.
Researching landlords can be frustrating and overwhelming. Do your best to not let that stop you from getting the justice you deserve. For more information contact the Tenants Union.
Posted: Monday, December 6, 2004
Disclaimer: The information contained in or linked to the Tenants Union website is for informational purposes only. The Tenants Union makes no claims, promises or guarantees about the accuracy, completeness, or adequacy of the information contained in or linked to its web site.
The Tenants Union cannot act as your attorney, and its staff members are not attorneys. The Tenants Union makes no representations, expressed or implied, that the information contained in or linked to its web site can or will be used or interpreted in any particular way by any governmental agency or court. As legal advice must be tailored to the specific circumstances of each case, and laws are constantly changing, nothing provided herein should be used as a substitute for the advice of competent counsel.