Z-0410.3

SENATE BILL 5840

BySenators Padden, Pedersen, and Kuderer

AN ACT Relating to the acknowledgment of leases; and amending RCW 59.04.010 and 64.04.010.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

Sec. 1. RCW 59.04.010 and Code 1881 s 2053 are each amended to read as follows:

Tenancies from year to year are hereby abolished except when the same are created by express written contract. Leases may be in writing or print, or partly in writing and partly in print((, and shall be legal and valid for any term or period not exceeding one year, without acknowledgment, witnesses or seals)).

Sec. 2. RCW 64.04.010 and 1929 c 33 s 1 are each amended to read as follows:

Every conveyance of real estate, or any interest therein, and every contract creating or evidencing any encumbrance upon real estate, shall be by deed: PROVIDED, ((That))that (1) Leases do not require acknowledgment, witness, or seals, but to be recorded, a lease and a memorandum of lease must have the lessee's and lessor's signatures acknowledged; and (2) when real estate, or any interest therein, is held in trust, the terms and conditions of which trust are of record, and the instrument creating such trust authorizes the issuance of certificates or written evidence of any interest in said real estate under said trust, and authorizes the transfer of such certificates or evidence of interest by assignment by the holder thereof by a simple writing or by endorsement on the back of such certificate or evidence of interest or delivery thereof to the vendee, such transfer shall be valid, and all such assignments or transfers hereby authorized and heretofore made in accordance with the provisions of this section are hereby declared to be legal and valid.

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