Seattle's eviction moratorium expired. What happens now?

The Seattle City Council voted 5-3 last week against another proposal to extend its eviction moratorium. After being in place for two years, the moratorium ends today, March 1. Renters behind on payment could see an eviction notice as early as this week.

Edmund Witter, a managing attorney of the King County Bar Association's Housing Justice Project has been preparing for this day.

“This is when it all starts,” Witter said.

The Housing Justice Project typically finds that the eviction process begins after six or seven weeks of missing a rental payment.

Witter says the timeline for eviction is short, but there are some protections still in place. For instance, if you have experienced financial hardship over the past two years you can file a declaration to your landlord.

Witter says this declaration process is not easy, but that it does offer renters at least six months or until the end of the Covid-19 civil emergency before an eviction process begins.

Housing Justice Project provides free legal advice and consultation for for low-income renters with eviction related issues.

How has the eviction moratorium helped?

Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell says he wants to evaluate the effectiveness of the moratorium for renters and small landlords. For the Housing Justice Project, the eviction moratorium has offered a lot of help.

“We would not have been able to provide as much rental assistance to as many people in need as we could without the eviction moratorium,” Witter said.

The eviction moratorium gave tenants and landlords time to figure out assistance and payment plans.

Witter says he colleagues are used to someone facing eviction within the same month of a missed payment. The application process alone has exceeds that timeframe.

Rental assistance application process has taken some tenants or landlords months to get through.

“That moratorium was the only thing preventing people from being evicted while they waited in line."

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