Seattle City Wire

The Seattle City Council has overridden years of legal precedence with a pair of ordinances that restrict property owners’ right to choose their tenants, critics argued.

"The rules strip landlords of their fundamental right as property owners," attorney Ethan Blevins of the Pacific Legal Foundation said. 

The “first in time” ordinance requires landlords to set their rental criteria in advance and then rent to the first applicant who walks in the door with an application that meets the criteria.  

The second Seattle rule forbids landlords from asking about or considering an applicant’s criminal history. 

With the help of the Pacific Legal Foundation, a small group of “mom-and-pop” landlords is fighting the ordinances. The Pacific Legal Foundation plans to take the issue to the U.S. Supreme Court. 

Marilyn Lim and her family own a triplex in Seattle. She and her husband and children live in one unit. She rents out the other two units, sharing the yard and common space with the tenants. Seattle’s “first in time” rule prevents her from choosing which applicant she would prefer to have living in close proximity to her family. 

Lim believes she should have the right to pick among applicants, not be obligated to take any person who puts in the first acceptable application. 

Kelly Lyles is a small landlord who lives off the rental income from a house that she inherited. She is also a survivor of more than one sexual assault. Lyles cried when the city council refused to back down on its rule forbidding the use of criminal background checks by landlords.

Criminal history bears directly on factors like reliability, creditworthiness and safety, the Pacific Legal Foundation said. The federal government has the right to require criminal background checks in applications for federally assisted housing, it said, and small landlords should have the same right. Instead, Seattle landlords can face severe penalties for  inquiring about or considering an applicant’s criminal history. 

The Washington Supreme Court recently upheld Seattle’s “first in time” rule and its ban on criminal background checks as tools against housing discrimination. 

There is no evidence that Seattle landlords engage in widespread housing discrimination, the Pacific Legal Foundation said. These laws force landlords into long-term lease relationships with renters they did not choose. it said.

Property owners should have some say over who occupies their land, the foundation argued.