Idaho property manager sued for eviction threats in Washington

An Idaho property management firm is being sued by Washington for allegedly threatening to evict tenants for nonpayment of rent despite the state’s emergency orders that put a halt to most evictions during the pandemic.

The Washington attorney general’s office filed suit Thursday in Spokane County Superior Court against Whitewater Creek, Inc., of Hayden, and several Washington subsidiaries that manage some 1,000 apartment units the Spokane area.

The lawsuit accuses Whitewater Creek of violating emergency proclamations in place to deal with COVID-19 first issued in mid March, as well as the state’s consumer protection laws. Starting in April, the company allegedly told tenants who were unable to pay rent they would be evicted, according to the lawsuit.

“They violated the clear text of the governor’s emergency proclamation,” Ferguson said in a news release announcing the lawsuit. “Their actions were cruel, unacceptable and illegal.”

Whitewater Creek officials did not immediately respond to requests for a comment.

In some instances, the company demanded rent without notifying tenants of the eviction moratorium, the suit says. The state received complaints from tenants and told the company in May to send notices to all tenants explaining their rights under the moratorium.

The company denied it had tried to evict anyone, but the lawsuit includes a copy of an April 20 email from the owner of the company directing an employee to tell a tenant “they will be evicted for past due rent as soon as the court’s open May 4.”

The lawsuit also contends tenants were told verbally they would be evicted rather than given written notice because Whitewater Creek knew such threats were illegal.

Whitewater Creek manages 12 properties in Spokane County: Arrowleaf Village, Airway Point Apartments, Basalt Ridge Apartments, Galena Apartments and Airway Pointe Senior, all in Airway Heights; Winter Heights Apartments in Spokane Valley; Broadwing Apartments, First Liberty Apartments and Talon Hills Senior in Liberty Lake; Palouse Trails Apartments, Pine Rock Apartments and Summit Ridge Apartments in Spokane.

Some of those properties are low-income complexes developed with tax credits and tax exemptions from the state Housing Finance Commission where tenants pay rent based on a percentage of the area’s median income.

This is the second legal claim filed against an out-of-state property management firm for threatening to evict tenants in violation of the emergency proclamation. A lawsuit against a Nevada company that owns rental property in Tacoma and Silverdale resulted in a $350,000 payment, most of which went to tenants in the form of refunds, payments and rent forgiveness.