Return to Home Page


Centennial Tower
Seattle, Washington

An Editorial

This site details our experiences with Centennial Tower Apartment Building, located at

2515
4th Avenue
Seattle, Washington
98121

The building is presently managed by:

APEX Realty Management, Inc.
4020 Lake Washington Blvd NE
Kirkland, WA 98033

This site contains and includes our opinions.


Purpose of this site:

There are few issues more central to the human experience than the concept of HOME.

Psychologists tell us that humans have certain needs. At the top of the list are these two: To survive and to procreate. In order to accomplish either, a stable, safe and livable home is of the greatest importance. When all the world is out to get us, where's the one place on Earth we can retreat to, to seek comfort, safety, rest and peace? Home. Indeed, there's no place like Home. International wars have been waged, won, and lost over the concepts of "home". Millions have sacrificed their lives to protect their home. Untold hundreds of thousands have gone to jail or are in prison currently because they violated the sanctity of home. Tens of thousands have been killed, rightly and legally so, by a homeowner defending his home.

The concept of home is intensely emotional. A person's home is of the utmost, the utmost importance to the very survival of that person, and there's not a government, society or people in the world which doesn't recognize that fact.

Much of the population of the United States lives in apartments. Unfortunately, the very concept of the apartment experience means that the resident is more or less at the mercy of the good will of (a) his/her neighbor, and (b) his/her landlord. When good neighbors go bad, there is often some recourse. You can call the building manager; you can call the police; you can call building security (if available). These remedies may or may not work to restore the peace, safety and sanctity of your home, but at least you can try them and see. This leaves the resident feeling as though there is at least a chance that his problem will get solved, and that the security, livability and value of his apartment home may be kept intact. The sanctity of one's home, regardless of its arrangement, location or construct, is of paramount importance. Few apartment managers even begin to understand the trust which is placed in them when they contract to provide space in which someone will make their home. Managers handle the responsibility with varying degrees of success. Some managers don't handle the responsibility at all. And some managers are such a clear and blatant detriment to the well-being of their apartment community that they should be evicted themselves.

This site endeavors to help the millions of apartment dwellers avoid problems in the communities in which their apartment-homes are located, and to understand what kinds of problems can occur when bad managers are in control.



How many laws has Apex Realty broken?
Probably more than we have room to list here.

Contrary to the incomprehensible arrogance of Apex Realty's Julie Fite, no Seattle City landlord may evict, or even threaten to evict you for complaints about living conditions, or for posting a website about your building. Note that if a landlord wants to evict you, and they believe they have just cause according to Seattle's laws, they must list that cause on any eviction notice or threat to evict. Failure to do so is a crime.

This website contains and includes our opinions

 



Seattle Landlord Tenant Law:

THE JUST CAUSE EVICTION ORDINANCE
This ordinance requires landlords to have good cause
in order to terminate a tenancy. It specifies the only
reasons for which a tenant in Seattle may be evicted,
and requires owners to list the reason, in writing, for
ending a tenancy when giving a termination notice.
Unless otherwise noted, an owner must give a termination
notice at least 20 days before the start of the next
rental period. Good causes include:

1. The tenant fails to pay rent within 3 days of a
notice to pay rent or vacate.

2. The owner has notified the tenant in writing of
overdue rent at least 4 times in a 12-month period.

3. The tenant does not comply with a material term of
a lease or rental agreement within 10 days of
receiving a notice to comply or vacate.

4. The tenant does not comply with a material
obligation under the state Landlord-Tenant Act
within 10 days of a notice to comply or vacate.

5. The owner has notified a tenant in writing at least 3
times in a 12-month period to comply within ten
days with a material term of the lease or rental
agreement.

6. The tenant seriously damages the rental unit
(causes “waste”), causes a nuisance (including
drug-related activity), or maintains an unlawful
business and does not vacate the premises within
3 days of a notice to do so.

7. The tenant engages in criminal activity in the
building or on the premises, or in an area immediately
adjacent to the building or premises. The
alleged criminal activity must substantially affect
the health or safety of other tenants or the owner;
illegal drug-related activity is one crime specified
by the ordinance. A property owner who uses this
reason must clearly state the facts supporting the
allegation, and must send a copy of the eviction
notice to DCLU.

8. The owner wishes to occupy the premises personally,
or the owner’s immediate family will occupy
the unit, and no substantially equivalent unit is
vacant and available in the same building. Immediate
family includes the owner’s spouse or
owner’s domestic partner, and the parents,
grandparents, children, brothers and sisters of the
owner or owner’s spouse or owner’s domestic
partner. DCLU may require a property owner to
sign a certification of the intent to have a family
member move in if a tenant has reason to believe
the owner will not follow through with this reason.
There is a rebuttable presumption of a violation if
the designated person does not occupy the unit
for a continuous period of 60 days out of the 90
days after the tenant vacates. A tenant evicted
for this reason has a private right of action if he or
she feels the owner has failed to comply with
these requirements.

9. The owner wishes to evict a tenant who lives in the
same housing unit with the owner; or the owner
desires to stop sharing his or her house with a
tenant living in an approved accessory dwelling
unit (ADU) in an owner-occupied house.

10. The tenant’s occupancy is conditioned upon
employment on the property and the employment
is terminated.

11. The owner plans major rehabilitation and has
obtained required permits and a Tenant Relocation
License in most cases. A tenant evicted for this
reason has a private right of action if he or she
feels the owner has failed to comply with these
requirements.

12. The owner decides to convert the building to a
condominium. (State and City regulations regarding
conversions must be met.)

13. The owner decides to demolish a building or to
convert it to non-residential use and has obtained
a necessary permit and a Tenant Relocation
License under the Tenant Relocation Assistance
Ordinance.

14. The owner desires to sell a single family residence
and gives the tenant written notice at least 60
days prior to the end of a rental period. The owner
must list the property for sale at a reasonable
price in a newspaper or with a realty agency within
30 days after the date the tenant vacates. Property
owners may be required to sign a certification
of the intent to sell the house if DCLU receives a
complaint. There is a rebuttable presumption of
an ordinance violation if the unit is not listed or
advertised, or is taken off the market or re-rented
within 90 days after the tenant leaves. A tenant
evicted for this reason has a private right of action
if he or she feels an owner has failed to comply
with these requirements.

15. The owner seeks to discontinue use of a unit not
authorized under the Land Use Code, after
receiving a Notice of Violation. The owner must
pay relocation assistance to tenants who have to
move so that the owner can correct the violation.
Relocation assistance for low-income tenants is
$2,000; for other tenants it is an amount equal to 2
months’ rent.

16. The owner needs to reduce the number of tenants
sharing a dwelling unit in order to comply with
Land Use Code restrictions (i.e., no more than
eight people per dwelling unit if any are unrelated).
For information on the procedures to terminate
tenancies for this reason, please consult DCLU
Client Assistance Memo #610 for detailed instructions.

17. The owner must evict a tenant from a house
containing an approved ADU in order to comply
with the development standards for ADUs, after
receiving a notice of violation of the Land Use
Code. (If the violation is that the owner has
moved out of the house and has rented both units,
one unit must either be reoccupied by the owner or
be removed.) The owner must pay relocation
assistance to displaced tenants in the amount of
$2,000 for low-income tenants, or two months’ rent
in other cases. DCLU may require a property
owner to sign a certification of his or her intent to
discontinue the use of the ADU.

18. An Emergency Order to vacate the property has
been issued by DCLU and the tenants have failed
to vacate by the deadline given in the Order.
Failure to carry out stated cause: If an owner evicts
a tenant for the reason that (1) sale of a single family
residence is planned, (2) the owner or a family member
is to move in, (3) substantial rehabilitation is planned,
(4) the number of residents must be reduced
to eight, or (5) the owner is discontinuing an ADU after
receipt of a notice of violation, and the owner fails to
carry out the stated reason for eviction, he or she may
be subject to enforcement action by the City and a
civil penalty of up to $2,500.

 

Private right of action for tenants: If an owner evicts
a tenant because (1) sale of a single family residence is
planned, (2) the owner or a family member is to move in,
or (3) substantial rehabilitation is planned, and if the
owner fails to carry out the stated reason for eviction, the
tenant can sue the owner for up to $2,000, costs, and
reasonable attorney’s fees.

For additional information on the Just Cause Eviction
Ordinance, call DCLU at (206) 684-7867 or (206) 386-
9733.

ACTIONS CONSIDERED TO BE
HARASSMENT OR RETALIATION
City law prohibits retaliatory actions against either a
tenant or a landlord. These provisions are enforced
by the Seattle Police Department
.

A landlord is prohibited from harassing or retaliating
against a tenant by:

1. Changing or tampering with locks on unit doors;

2. Removing doors, windows, fuse box, furniture or
other fixtures;

3. Discontinuing utilities supplied by owner;

4. Removing a tenant from the premises except
through the formal court eviction process;

5. Evicting, increasing rent or threatening a tenant for
reporting code violations to
DCLU or the Police
Department or for exercising any legal rights
arising out of the tenant’s occupancy;

6. Entering a tenant’s unit, except in an emergency,
or except at reasonable times with the tenant’s
consent after giving at least 2 days notice, or a 1-
day notice when showing units to prospective
purchasers or tenants; or

7. Prohibiting a tenant, or a tenant's authorized agent
who is accompanied by that tenant, from distributing
information in the building, posting information
on bulletin boards in accordance with building
rules, contacting other tenants, assisting tenants
to organize and holding meetings in community
rooms or common areas.

In most instances the law initially assumes that a
landlord is retaliating if the landlord takes any of these
actions within 90 days after a tenant reports a violation
to DCLU or to the Seattle Police Department, or within
90 days after a governmental agency action, such as
making an inspection. In such cases the burden is on
the landlord to rebut this presumption of retaliation.


Return to Home Page