The Tenants challenge the sufficiency of the content of Landlords'
termination notice. They claim it did not give adequate notice because it failed to
state sufficient facts in support of the reason for terminating the tenancy. The
Tenants also contend that the Landlords did not have just cause to terminate the
tenancy, as required by the applicable city ordinance. Again, we disagree.
A landlord must obtain a court order to evict a residential tenant.26 Before
a court grants this relief, the tenant must receive an opportunity to contest the
eviction at a show cause hearing.27 In Seattle, a landlord cannot evict, or attempt
to evict, a residential tenant unless the landlord can prove in court that just cause
exists.28 With a termination notice, the landlord must provide a written statement
of the reason for the termination and facts supporting that reason.29 The reasons
for just cause include the following:
The owner seeks possession so that the owner or a member of his
or her immediate family may occupy the unit as that person's
principal residence and no substantially equivalent unit is vacant
and available in the same building. . . . There shall be a rebuttable
presumption of a violation of this subsection ... if the owner or a
member of the owner's immediate family fails to occupy the unit as
that person's principal residence for at least 60 consecutive days
during the 90 days immediately after the tenant vacated the unit
26 RCW 59.18.290(1).
27 SMC 22.206.160(C); RCW 59.18.380.
28 SMC 22.206.160(C).
29 SMC 22.206.160(C)(3).
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NO. 72611-1-1/10
pursuant to a notice of termination or eviction using this
subparagraph as the cause for eviction.[30]