agency set:J.ding notice of the condemnation, eviction, or displacement order to the
landlord. The landlord shall pay relocation assistance and any prepaid deposit and
prepaid rent either by making individual payments by certified check to displaced
tenants or by providing a certified check to the governmental agency ordering
condemnation, eviction, or displacement, for distribution to the displaced tenants.
If the landlord fails to complete payment of relocation assistance within the period
required under this subsection, the city, town, county, or municipal corporation
may advance the cost of the relocation assistance payments to the displaced
tenants.
RCW 59.18.085(3)(b), (c).
6
No. 90088-4
Corp. v. Cent. Puget Sound Growth Mgmt. Hr 'gs Bd., 154 Wn.2d 224, 239-40, 110 P .3d
1132 (2005). Reading the provisions of the statute together, the plain language provides
that the tenant is entitled to receive the relocation assistance amounts as calculated in
subsection (3)(b) but may also seek, via legal action against the landlord, the tenant's
actual costs of relocation that exceed the relocation assistance amount as calculated in
subsection (3)(b). The statute provides relocation assistance; it simply does not address
or encompass emotional distress damages.
Further, if there were any doubt as to the statute's purpose, the legislature
expressly spelled it out. The statute's stated purpose is twofold: First, "to establish a
process by which displaced tenants would receive fimds for relocation from landlords
who fail to provide safe and sanitary housing after due notice of building code or health
code violations." LAws OF 2005, ch. 364, § 1 (emphasis added). And second, "to