Whether a No-Cause 20-Day Notice Can Legally End a Live-In Roommate's Tenancy in Washington

Attorney Answer

A 20-day notice is the right notice for your situation. RCW 59.18.650(2)(i) makes a live-in owner's 20-day notice a recognized cause to end the tenancy of someone who shares the home with you. What is most likely wrong is the timing: the 20 days must expire at the end of a rental period, not merely 20 days after you handed him the paper.

RCW 59.18.650(1)(a) says a landlord "may not evict a tenant, refuse to continue a tenancy, or end a periodic tenancy except for the causes enumerated in subsection (2)." Subsection (2)(I) is one of those causes, and it was written for your exact facts: "The tenant continues in possession after an owner or lessor, with whom the tenant shares the dwelling unit or access to a common kitchen or bathroom area, has served at least 20 days' advance written notice to vacate prior to the end of the rental term or, if a periodic tenancy, the end of the rental period." Because you live in the house with him, you do not need one of the 60- or 90-day causes and you do not have to prove he did anything wrong.

The trap is in that last clause, and it is almost certainly what he means. On a month-to-month tenancy with rent due the first, the rental period ends on the last day of the month. A notice served on the 15th cannot end the tenancy on the 5th of the next month — to end it on the 31st, it has to be served on or before the 11th. If your notice named a date 20 days out instead of the last day of a rental period, the fix is to serve a corrected notice keyed to the end of the next rental period, not to argue about the old one.

Two other requirements sit in RCW 59.18.650(6). The notice must "identify the facts and circumstances known and available to the landlord at the time of the issuance of the notice that support the cause" with enough specificity for the tenant to respond — so say in the notice that you own or lease the home, that he shares the dwelling unit or a common kitchen or bathroom with you, and that you are ending the tenancy under RCW 59.18.650(2)(i). And it must be served in a manner consistent with RCW 59.12.040: personal delivery; or a copy left with a person of suitable age and discretion at the premises plus a copy mailed; or, if no such person can be found, posting conspicuously plus mailing. RCW 59.12.040 also requires the notice to "specify in the notice the date by which the person to whom the notice is sent must vacate," and provides that when service is made by mail "five additional days shall be allowed before the commencement of an action based upon such notice."

On the roommate-versus-tenant question: if he pays nothing and there is no rental agreement at all, he may be a licensee rather than a tenant, and the removal action would be an ejectment action in superior court under chapter 7.28 RCW instead of an unlawful detainer. You have treated him as month-to-month, so serve the RLTA notice correctly — it costs you nothing if the relationship later turns out to be a bare license. What you must not do either way is change the locks or put his things outside. RCW 59.18.290(1) makes it "unlawful for the landlord to remove or exclude from the premises the tenant thereof except under a court order so authorizing," and RCW 59.18.650(4) makes a landlord who removes a tenant in violation of that section liable for the greater of the tenant's damages or three times the monthly rent, plus attorneys' fees.

What you can do:

1. Fix the rental period. If he pays monthly on the first, the period ends on the last day of the month; count back 20 days from that date to find your last day to serve.

2. Re-serve a written 20-day notice that names the end of a rental period as the vacate date, states that you share the dwelling unit or a common kitchen or bathroom with him, and cites RCW 59.18.650(2)(i) as the cause.

3. Serve it one of the ways RCW 59.12.040 allows and keep proof of service; if you serve by mail, add five days before filing anything in court.

4. If he is still there after that date, file an unlawful detainer action — that is the only lawful way to get him out. A lockout exposes you to damages and his attorneys' fees under RCW 59.18.290(1) and RCW 59.18.650(4).

⏱ Time limits apply. Under RCW 59.18.650(2)(i) the notice must be served at least 20 days before the end of the rental term or rental period. For a month-to-month tenancy ending on the 31st, that means serving on or before the 11th; miss it and the earliest lawful vacate date slides a full month. Serving by mail adds five more days before you can file suit (RCW 59.12.040). Have a Washington attorney look at the notice you already served this week to decide whether it stands or has to be re-served.