SENATE BILL REPORT

SB 5600

BYSenators Warnke, Lee, Vognild, Smitherman, Johnson, Bottiger, Gaspard and von Reichbauer

Specifying unfair practices for mobile home landlords and tenants.

Senate Committee on Commerce & Labor

Senate Hearing Date(s):February 18, 1987

Senate Staff:Dave Cheal (786-7576)

AS OF FEBRUARY 17, 1987

BACKGROUND:

Until January, 1985 it was assumed that the Consumer Protection Act had some application to landlord tenant matters, including mobile home parks.  On January 11, 1985 the Washington State Supreme Court decided that tenants and landlords are limited to the remedies provided by the Landlord Tenant Act and that no remedy is available in the private right of action provisions of the Consumer Protection Act regardless of how unfair or deceptive the act or practice in question might be or whether clear statutory violations are involved.  Although this case involved the residential Landlord Tenant Act rather than the mobile home Landlord Tenant Act, the basis for the court's holding would probably make it applicable to mobile home parks as well.  Remedies available under the mobile home Landlord Tenant Act include tenant initiated repair of defective conditions following notice to the landlord comparable to those in the other Landlord Tenant Act.  Repairs are limited to the value of one month's rental during any twelve-month period.  A tenant may also seek a judgment from a court or arbitrator for a determination of reduced rental value based on the landlord's failure to carry out his duties under the Act.  If the tenant obtains such a judgment, it may be enforced as any other judgment or may be used as a setoff against existing or future claims by the landlord.  The tenant may then pay the diminished rental value until the defect is corrected.

A third remedy is to terminate the tenancy.  Mediation and arbitration are available, and in any lawsuit based on the Act, the prevailing party is entitled to attorneys fees and costs. 

When the court determined that the Consumer Protection Act did not apply to landlord tenant matters, the Office of the Attorney General ended its program of information-dissemination and conciliation.

SUMMARY:

Violations of the mobile home Landlord Tenant Act which are an unfair and deceptive act or practice in the conduct of any trade or commerce are made violations of the Consumer Protection Act.  Therefore, not every violation of the mobile home Landlord Tenant Act would constitute a basis for a cause of action under the Consumer Protection Act.

The Washington State Supreme Court has indicated that the determination of what constitutes an "unfair and deceptive act or practice" is by a gradual process of judicial inclusion and exclusion.  State v. Readers' Digest, 81 Wn.2d 259, 275 (1972).

Fiscal Note:      requested