HOQUIAM, Wash. — A Western Washington family says their elderly mother was taken advantage of by renters who lived in her house, stopped paying rent, trashed the place, and used meth in her home.
“Oh my God. The smell is (expletive) horrible,” Amanda Miniken can be heard in a video she recorded of her mother’s Hoquiam house, shortly after the people living there were evicted on Thursday, Sept. 10.
Miniken says the mess was left by people who rented rooms from her mom. Her mother, Jude, also lived there.
When Jude died in April, three of the tenants stayed and stopped paying rent.
Jude’s children say they finally saw the damage after the squatters were evicted. But her son, Josh Miniken, says there were signs of trouble right after they moved in.
He says the tenants were controlling. Parts of the house appeared to have been sealed off, and a security camera was drilled into an outside wall.
Tensions came to a head when Amanda and Josh say one of the renter’s dogs killed Jude’s dog. Amanda says she visited days later, and no one had buried the pet.
“And so I took the dog, walked out to the trash pile behind my mom’s house - which used to be a beautiful garden – and had to bury my mom’s dog. In this trash pile,” Amanda said, her voice shaking.
Jude’s children say she had rented out rooms before but was in failing health – including cognitive decline - and should not have signed a lease with the last tenants, two of whom received rental assistance from the state.
“If the state is going to sponsor tenants moving into an elderly woman’s home, somebody needs to do some sort of independent assessment,” Josh said.
Her children don’t believe Jude conducted a background check on her tenants. Washington State typically does not require a background check to receive rental assistance.
The family is also frustrated that the eviction process took so long.
Amanda and Josh insist their mother wanted the tenants to leave in December.
A day after Jude’s death, the family notified the tenants they had 30 days to vacate the property.
The formal eviction process began in May.
“(I’m) just frustrated with the whole concept of tenant law allowing squatters to remain in a deceased person’s residence.”
The family says it will cost thousands of dollars to make repairs and clean up the house.
The family also believes one or more of the tenants used meth and will need to pay $2,000 to test for residue from illegal drugs.
They have set up a GoFundMe to help restore their mother’s home.