Once a property is sold with the tenant in place, it is up to the new
owner to determine whether to keep the tenant or whether there is
just cause to terminate their tenancy. If, as is apparently the case
here, the new owner wants to tear down the housing and build
replacement housing, then the new owner is required to go through
the Tenant Relocation Assistance License prior to giving the tenant
notice to move; the tenant relocation process provides the just
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No. 74434-8-1/8
cause. The owner cannot rely on an "intent to sell" just cause
designed to allow an owner to make a property more saleable by
offering it without a tenant in place, if the property has already been
sold with a tenant in residence. And, to allow this just cause to be
applied in these circumstances would enable the new owner to
evade obligations under the Tenant Relocation Assistance
Ordinance and thereby frustrate the intent of that ordinance.
CP at 39.
The Owners deployed the "elect to sell" just cause provision to their
benefit: they wished to take possession of the property tenant-free. At oral
argument, the Owners concede that they bargained for this result, as the
Burnsides agreed to issue the just cause notice to terminate in the purchase and
sale agreement. The Owner cannot circumvent the requirements of the JCEO
and Tenant Relocation licensing scheme by invoking "elects to sell" just cause
where the property was sold with a tenant in place. We conclude that this
provision does not provide just cause for eviction where, prior to issuing a notice
to terminate, an owner contracts to sell rental property with a tenant in place.
Thus, the Owner's notice terminating tenancy violated the JCEO and the trial