If your landlord falsely took an eviction action against you today, even if you proved your case to a judge, you'd probably have a permanent black mark on your record.
Right now, tenant background companies often report any eviction action filed in court, even in cases where the issue is resolved outside of court.
Every time you’d go to fill out a rental application, you'd fail.
Most landlords would immediately reject you, making leasing a home very difficult.
It happened to Rachelle Fields.
“It was incredibly stressful. It's disheartening,” she said.
Fields was never evicted and she said she’s never been late with rent.
Still, when Fields moved to Olympia from Virginia with her family she was told she failed her tenant background check.
“Until we came here, I didn't know that was on my history,” Fields said.
Fields’ teenaged son has autism and was having a hard time when they lived in Virginia. She said he would get angry very quickly and start damaging their home or attacking siblings.
She said he put holes in their walls and even broke a window. When she went to management offering to pay for damages, she was verbally told it may cost several thousand dollars.
But instead of getting a bill, Fields received a court summons.
Her landlord had gone to court to get an unlawful detainer, which is usually the first step in an eviction process. Fields said when she went to court, she got the real sum for the damages in a bill for the first time.
Fields has paperwork showing that she immediately started paying that bill and finished payments within two months.
But when she applied for an apartment after moving to Washington state, her tenant background screening gave her a “fail” for having a landlord-tenant court record. Some landlords immediately assume that was an eviction and deny housing, despite the fact that many tenants are never forcibly removed from their units.
Some tenants, like Fields, continue to live in their units after the issue is resolved.
Stories like hers are fueling a new movement to change laws in Washington.
“They weren't legally evicted, but, yet they're being punished for a crime… that really didn't happen,” said state Rep. June Robinson. “For me, it's that justice piece.”
Last legislative session, bills trying to address the problem were heard in the senate and house, but did not make it very far.
Robinson expects they’ll be picked up again in 2016.
She said she has learned of cases where minors were listed on a lease, and when parents go through court actions with landlords, those minors later have problems getting housing as adults.
The problem is so widespread landlords advocacy groups actually agree changes are needed.
"The compromise we had reached last session would have allowed records where a tenant wins in court to be sealed, and we're fine that," said Sean Martin, the external affairs director of the Rental Housing Association of Washington.
The problem is that some tenant advocates would like the inverse, where all cases are sealed unless the landlord wins in court.
Martin explained that would not work, because "90 percent of the cases filed don't actually go to final judgment. And so it's not necessarily the landlord winning in court. It's the circumstances of why this was filed in the first place."
He said even when issues are resolved outside of court, a landlord needs to know why an unlawful detainer was issued. In most cases, it's because rent was late, something a future landlord finds important.
Martin said it is not cheap for a landlord to go to court, so filing for an unlawful detainer is not done without legitimate reason.
Still, Robinson said, “I think there are other ways that they can know that, through checking with previous landlords."
The Fair Credit Reporting Act does not allow for tenant screening companies to report evictions that are more than seven years old, but any landlord looking up a tenant’s name in Washington state court records will see any of these actions permanently.
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