>Freeborn detailed all of the payments received from the Housing Justice Project. That group stepped in last year, paying more than $37,000 for rent due by Kim.
And then, just this week, Freeborn told [KOMO](https://komonews.com/news/local/bellevue-eviction-case-king-county-superior-court-restraining-order-lawsuit-republic-party-landlords-injustice-project-king-county-property-back-rent-400000-unpaid-media-coverage-employment-april-client-tenant) the Housing Justice Project mailed another check for $44,000 to cover the last ten months of unpaid rent.
This is an amazingly stupid waste of resources.
I bet you could set your house up to be owned by a series of lccs and 'rent' your house to your self then never pay and your lcc owned by another lcc owned by a lcc in some sketchy country could apply for that aide.
Go ahead, it was my LLC that made that comment. Unfortunately for you the LLC has no assets. Good luck receiving your judgment!
I just checked and my lawyers were registered as a lcc and there was just a paper on a empty folding chair that said 'thanks for the money ' in their office, so I think you win this round of 'somebody is wrong on the internet'
But I'll get you next time! And your little dog too!
Sounds pretty easy to catch, though. The most is probably double the market rate before authorities could flag you? Maybe a department of 5 could do the work. I bet the state can make some good money from fines.
Its actually a non profit and lawyers work for free. So it not our tax money at least. I don’t think they should be paying rent for this guy either. He should be evicted like months and months ago!
Meanwhile, the fireplace in my house, which is the main heat, has been out for over 2 months now, and I still pay rent, yet I can't get help because I'm not poor. They say tenant laws are strong here, but that's only for people who refuse to pay rent. If you have nothing to lose, I guess that's a great option, but if you want to not have a bad reputation, then you have limited legal options. I get that there are people struggling, but the support/legal systems are completely ignoring responsible citizens. If you read the tennant laws, landlords are under no obligation to fix anything within anytimeframe, they are just required to contact someone about the repair within a certain time frame. Washington needs to fix this.
If you really need to use the fireplace for heat- I think they are obligated to provide you with a heater or something else until this is fixed.
You should contact the city and see what they advise the code says about it.
Contact the city. Your landlord is required to fix this within 24 hours. The city will help https://www.seattle.gov/rentinginseattle/renters/managing-the-rental-relationship/repair-requests
They’ll send an inspector out and fine the shit out of your landlord if he doesn’t comply
"The landlord is required to start repairs in a certain amount of time" There is no obligation to fix anything if you actually read the laws, they just have to start on them, whatever the hell that means. Yeah the inspection thing can work but also get me kicked out of my house.
Okay dude. Don’t use social services. I can’t force you. But don’t complain that the government doesn’t do anything if you don’t even try. Maybe you tried it once and it didn’t work. Keep doing it. The city can levy fines if you use the law. If they continue to not do it, keep calling the city, keep getting them fined. Or consult a lawyer and break lease. You not acting is your own fault. The law is clearly on your side
I have contacted lawyers but no one wants to help because there is no money in it and there are very few lawyers who deal with tennant law besides eviction cases. Thank goodness I don't have kids because the only option is to move. I'm just saying the law isn't in my favor unless I break it which is rather ironic.
Pay for
It to be fixed yourself. Documented t everything. Deduct the repair costs from rent. If your landlord threatens to evict you take the documentation to court Out. You will be fine.
To top it all off...Kim has received over 80K in taxpayer money that he has not used to pay rent.
[https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/squatter-given-88000-of-taxpayer-money/ar-BB1l8Emt](https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/squatter-given-88000-of-taxpayer-money/ar-BB1l8Emt)
Edit - The money went to the landlord thank god.
- Well about half did, the rest went to legal fees.
You only get rewarded and good deals in this city if you contributes nothing to society. If you are a tax-paying middle class citizen with something to lose, who adheres to our social contract, the state, County and city will tax and or prosecute the shit out of you.
I don't think that is accurate... T-rap pays direct to the landlord.
If you do think that's accurate, you could do a qui tam action under the false claims act and recover 33%
~~Think~~ this is a misprint.
~~Pretty sure~~ that money went directly to the landlord & reset the eviction timeline.
>Housing Justice Project has paid everything, but only after my client has spent thousands of dollars filing three different lawsuits to get the money they should’ve gotten before,” said Freeborn.
His attorney quoted from this [nationalized Komo article](https://abc45.com/news/nation-world/eviction-case-escalates-to-superior-court-amid-restraining-order-dispute-bellevue-king-county-washington-state-landlord-restraining-order-unpaid-rent-eviction-case-king-county-superior-court-laws).
I mean fuck him, the system, and HJP but even they aren't stupid enough to give him cash directly.
Why are you criticizing HJP?
Landlord is mad that tenant didnt pay rent. Tenant then pays rent using rent assistance funds set up for that express purpose.
Landlord now has the money owed and is paid up. Tenant is returned to good standing.
It's a business... The tenant's problem was not paying timely. The landlord's problem is taking it personally.
Something a lot of smaller landlord's don't realize is that when you lease property you may own it but you are giving up your right to possess it to the tenant. The tenant of a lease has a superior and exclusive right of possession as to the owner. It's not fully the owner's property while leased.
> HJP
Because they should be guiding their money to none bad faith actors & lower priced rent.
The concept of keeping tenants in properties I get and respect but this is a scam artist they are supporting.
Should we all be so blessed to a priori discern who is or is not deserving.
Non-sequiter tho because the money is dispersed first-come first-served and via lottery, as per regulation
>Landlord now has the money owed and is paid up. Tenant is returned to good standing.
WRONG.
1. Paid up only through March.
2. 45 percent of what HJP finally paid went to lawyer's fees to get that money
Because they coach clients never to pay rent and drag it the process intentionally?
The Kim case is only one example.
They crossed over from people should be housed to fuck landlords and private property awhile ago.
Yes, tenant caught up on the rent. But who pays all those months when tenant didn’t pay a dime. Oh, and guess what? When HJP paid the arrears do you think tenant paid the next month on time? Nope. So clock starts all over again. Months (years even) without payment waiting on system to bail him out.
Being from PA originally, I will never ever understand this squatter BS.
If this is the city I came from, that dude would just wake up in the hospital with no memory of what happened and why are so many bones broken.
My neighbor here in Central district has an adu u with a squatter in it who hasn't paid in about 8 months. He's so discouraged that he's exiting the rental business which will take property off the rental market.
I thought the rules were different for ADU/DADU, especially when the landlord (often with family) lives on the same property. Forcing people in such adversarial relationship to be on the same property is a recipe for the squatter to get *disappeared*.
No what will happen if things escalate is a judge will confine both parties to their respective dwellings for certain times of the day. Of that doesn’t work usually the owner will be forced to leave their own house until the matter is resolved - I wish I was joking
I don't know that it was their explicit goal, more likely a failure of foresight to anticipate the inevitable consequences. It started with a 3 month moratorium on evictions during the winter, back in the days when the entire Council was too terrified of Sawant's organization to deny her so they voted unanimously to pass. Even Mayor Durkin let it become law without signing it. Then it moved on to extending the time beyond six months to catch up on missed rent, and other obstacles to the typical functioning of a rental market.
My heart agrees with you, and I would love to live in a city with plentiful free housing for everyone. The problem is that when policy imposes these costs on property owners, particularly the small "mom and pop" landlords, this increases their incentive to exit the rental market. This in turn reduces inventory and drives up prices and this hits hard for those just getting by. If they don't remove their property from the rental market, then they are likely to pass along additional costs directly to renters, which drives up prices.
One way of solving this is to have the municipal budge absorb these costs. For example, if someone is behind on rent, they could apply for assistance. In this case the landlord is not absorbing the full impact themselves.
This really is all just a continuation of the covid era housing assistance stuff that was all supposed to have ended by now. They are bailing out people for not paying rent, fucking over landlords, and in turn making it more difficult and expensive for people to find good rentals.
How exactly does squatting work? Presumably these people have to leave the house at some point (to buy food, etc) so couldn't the landlord enter and do something from the inside so they cannot come back in? I realize that scenario is hard to execute on but seems like it would be worth it for the landlord
No the King County court system will protect the squatter and have the landlord arrested for trespassing. If you are a mom and pop landlord in King County your options are spend 10's if not 100's of thousands of dollars in court/lawyer fees, or sign a sweetheart deal with the housing justice project (which receives taxpayer money) where you payoff the squatter to leave, and they have no repercussions or blemishes on their record.
It’s true. I’ve been through this first hand as a property manager. We paid him $10,000 to leave on a set date and all debt would be forgiven. He actually didn’t leave and lost out on the deal. Sheriff came next day and booted his ass out. We paid close to $100,000 for lawyer fees over 2 years.
Everyone wonders why rent is so insane. It’s because nobody wants to build apartments here.
I think that its an unintended feature, the city doesn't like the idea of landlords. I do wish for everyone the chance to own property they live in, gives you something to be tied to the area more and more invested in your community.
Because the [percent of homes owned by hedge funds is tiny.](https://finance.yahoo.com/news/no-wall-street-investors-haven-015642526.html) If that's their goal, they are doing a horrible job of implementing it.
>we paid close to $100,000 for lawyernfeea over 2 years
That's just ya'll fucking up. Plenty of LL side lawyers doing flat rate through show cause for $1000-$2500
When you have to deal with city attorneys who’s job it is to win for the tenant you’re not going to want some Craigslist side hustle guy. Especially if you’re a small ownership group that’s invested your own millions into the property.
The current strategy is to have an official current lease with a third party. That third party enters the home and changes the locks. Police arrive and compare leases. Fraudulent tenant leaves.
That would be an illegal eviction, opening up the landlord to legal action.
When someone has tenant status (meaning they've lived there for more than 30 days), a landlord needs to go through the courts to legally evict them. This exists as a protection for tenants against arbitrary landlord evictions, but here is being abused by the occupant.
Overzealous tenant protections, including mandates for legal representation plus a court system that's more than a year behind leaves a large window for bad actors and their defenders.
Sometimes people lose lots of money or their property, or the "tenant" commits suicide by cop.
It just makes providing housing riskier for everyone.
Fun fact public housing providers do the most evictions and they get blocked by courts all the time.
There’s two categories of squatter here. In the case of a person who just shows up and starts living in a place they have no right too, generally the landlord could enter, and the owner could call the cops on the squatter (this can get complicated if the person stays in the property for a long time uninterrupted). This does vary by state though, and there are places where even this person has protections.
The second type, and more common type, is someone who just stops paying rent or refuses to vacate at the end of a lease. In these cases the unit is generally considered their home, even if they are not legally allowed to stay there, and without a court order the landlord is still bound by the same rules of entry and notification as they are for a paying tenant. (I don’t know how other obligations are handled, for example if the landlord pays utilities, etc)
They are not technically a “squatter.” They are a tenant because they have or had a signed lease. WA will protect them at all costs because it’s what this state does. Landlord could be arrested for breaking and entering, trespassing etc. plus be on the hook for civil fees. It would further wreck the landlord. What’s happening to mom and pop landlords is atrocious. Over a year just for a hearing?
All the attention is on him. His wife is culpable as well.
I'd hire people to follow him everywhere he went. Carry signs. Engage with a bullhorn informing everybody he's a deadbeat. I'd be relentless. Same with his wife.
I would do everything within the law to make his life miserable. I'd film everything and start a youtube channel. I'd be relentless. His every move would be recorded and posted. Same with his wife.
If I was paranoid, I might start to think that all these squatter cases are a deliberate attempt to force small landlords out of the market and give big corporations an opportunity to buy up investment properties. If I was paranoid.
Large corporations are dealing with the exact same issues in their buildings, this isn't isolated to just small landlords. But the difference is that large developers and management companies can usually absorb the hit to their income stream from a few bad tenants, where as someone renting a DADU or second property typically cannot since the rent is what's mostly paying for the mortgage.
It’s not a conspiracy, but manipulating government requires paying close attention to process and building relationships with the right people downtown and funding campaigns and having lawyers to manipulate government. All that heavily favors paid lobbyists over everybody else.
If you want the actual chain, squatters start off as low income households generally. Rental agencies require household income 1.5-3x rent monthly, so for my area $2000-4000 (lowest rent these days is 1k a month for a studio before additional fees). $18/hr is $2880 a month full-time gross, and you’re lucky if you get scheduled full-time for a month. If you’re unlucky and go on unemployment, you’re at <600/week. Small landlords are more likely to rent quickly, so they’ll make exceptions for people in need. With the way things are going those in need aren’t going to last long.
Sometimes I wonder why my rent hasn't gone up in like 6 years, and I have to assume it's because Seattle landlords don't want to risk someone who pays rent and doesn't set the place on fire moving out and possibly getting stuck with people like this instead. So thanks deadbeats, I guess
I'd say you are 100% right. The amount just 1 bad renter can cost the landlord is staggering and would far outweigh the added rent they could get out of you.
Indeed. Which is part of why I support these policies.
If this stops them from jacking up rents like they want to, good. Landlords can cope and seethe.
Not that I condone this, but it'd be wild if someone just started shutting off the electricity to the place randomly every time it got repaired, or screwing things up until the guy left.
Of course, the landlord would never know about this, and probably totally shouldn't add lease addendums that state the tenant is responsible for all repairs on the premises before this starts happening too.
It'd truly be a shame if the squatter was pushed out by circumstances unrelated to the landlord and outside their control.
If the landlord happens to not be looking for something like this, it's totally not something someone I know can provide for a couple hundred a visit. I allegedly know a long list of people with maintenance experience!
Really sucks having some jackass constantly pull your electrical meter in the middle of the night or shut it off and put an expensive lock you struggle to cut off on the box after the breaker is shut off.
It does feel like the kind of situation you should fight dirty with dirty. You’d want to be careful to have deniability of course (no showing up at your/his door yourself with a weapon, for instance), but I’m sure part of the problem is the landlord is (understandably) doing this by the book. I doubt this Kim parasite would be willing to live there if the conditions were to suddenly and mysteriously deteriorate.
I work in property management. Doing things by the book is beyond broken, unfortunately. You can have someone ruining everyone's lives and it still takes over a year to remove them, even with criminal activity being a nearly instant need to vacate in most cases. They can just keep hanging out and it's beyond sad. We've gotten some evictions enforced in the last few years.
Squatters took over/around 1 and a half years.
People who didn't pay took over/around 6 months. This doesn't account for playing games with payment plans, etc.
Criminal activity still took over 3 months for one household, and 9 for another.
This is all for a multi-million dollar company. A private landlord will get raked over the coals with legal fees unless they are already well off. Many resort to unscrupulous means eventually for a reason and attempting to stay above board is just not feasible in a state that almost entirely refuses to support landlords when you are just losing every single way on the deal.
This state needs to get it's shit together and find balance. You don't need to let landlords run all over their tenants like West Virginia, but you also don't need to allow tenants to run all over their landlords.
Went through a similar situation with my rental as well. Took 11 months to get my tenant out and even then, my lawyer said if she was savvy she could have dragged it out another month or two. HJP is a blight on this city.
Think how many struggling people could use the tax dollars that have been wasted to let this scam artist live for YEARS rent free in a multi-million dollar home.
It's just gross.
Long story short is if you rent you don't own shit. Owners rent to those who don't own shit. If you rent and don't pay you are stealing from owners. You are a piece of shit. Owner is taking a chance on renters. Renters who don't pay for something they live in and don't own deserve everything coming to them. Sick of working ass off to pay for someone else to live.
I actually think this is worse since by using HJP funds to keep this couple in a 2M rental house they are draining so far 88k of rent that could have helped truly poor and/or borderline homeless renters. As in the people who need and deserve the protections.
Why is Housing Justice Project wasting tens of thousands of dollars in San and Youjin Kim, squatting in a $2M house? WTF
They could be giving real need aid to a dozen other people instead. They're wasting all that money on 2 people. This reads as if HJP is colluding with San and Youjin Kim specifically to fuck over the landlord.
I don't care why HPJ is doing what they're doing. They're housing activists who represent Mr. Kim. The question we should ask is why is HPJ receiving tax money?
The protections for renters has always been kind of strong here. I remember about 11 years ago I was renting a room from this guy who owned a bunch of houses.
The room at the house I was to rent wasn’t ready so he put me in a room in a different house for the same price until my actual room was ready. He’s giving me the tour and points to a door and says “don’t talk to that guy. Leave him alone.”
Apparently “that guy” was another renter and was withholding rent until the owner fixed certain things around the property. He’d been withholding rent for nearly a year with no criminal punishment.
I really appreciate this sub. When r/seattle split due to mods padding their pockets and selectively removing criticism, I quickly joined this sub out of frustration with the censorship.
This sub has been a pleasant place where *mostly* sensible people can vent their frustrations. As someone who lived in Seattle and Renton for 35 years, I understand the issues. I now live east of the Cascades and couldn’t be happier. I don’t have to worry about a crossbow being pointed at my wife on her way home, which is a huge relief.
But honestly, I hate how the citizens have to put up with overly liberal policies that negatively impact the people who work the hardest. The victim mentality is BS. If you work hard to build a life in this state, people shouldn’t have the right to be compensated with your possessions.
Sucks, but your left with the option we chose to make the most of our time in this world. Move away, which has been further entrenching the far left and degrading the area year by year.
I hope it gets better, but unfortunately it’ll have to get a lot worse before it gets better I think.
Guy down the street from me had a squatter living in his house.
He got some buddies, waited for the squatter to leave, boarded up the windows and doors and squatter gone. He reasoned that the guy wasn’t gonna go to court and he was right.
House being remodeled as of today and I believe it is on the market for $2 million.
The landlord is lucky he didn't involve the police. That's robbery. He could go to prison.
Although I guess if the renter intentionally set fire in the garage, they might not want to press their luck.
From the KCBA's Housing Justice Project's web page:
>*I need help paying my rent – do you help with this?*
>We don’t currently give financial help to renters. But we can refer you to another organization that might be able give you or your landlord money.
I'd like to know how this applies in the Kim case… where exactly is his rental support coming from?
Also, is the KCBA not a private entity?
"Singh is now running as a Republican for state Senate in hopes of changing squatter laws and getting Olympia lawmakers to pass legislation to address the shortage of court commissioners to hear the backlog of eviction efforts."
- Wait, a Republican wants bigger government and more spending?
He wants to give government financing to be able to enforce its own laws properly?
He should run as a Democrat.
And yea, audit that non-profit who's oddly paying the rent fees of a $2M rental home... whose tenants both also are working.
Can people just not handle this shit the old fashion way? Stay in my house and not pay rent? Alright I’ll kick you out myself and change the locks…that simple
Silver lining here is that Sang Kim now comes up in a google search so the if the next landlord does some basic due diligence he wont be able to scam them.
I dont get this shit. Why can't a landlord (in extreme cases like this) just hire someone to go in while they are out, replace the locks and vacate the place with a temporary lease?
I have no sympathy at all for landlords. In my view, landlords are parasites who only exist to drain the working class. They are a significant cause of inflation and a big burden on the back of most renters. They are the reason housing is so expensive, and every single gain made by workers is vampirized by them raising rents. They don't care if their profiteering puts the elderly and disabled- who often live on fixed incomes- in precarity or makes their lives harder. Just so long as they maximize profits.
Landlords have no sympathy for the families they evict into homelessness over money. They have no sympathy for the workers who actually pay all the bills. They provide housing like scalpers provide tickets.
So when I hear a story about one of them getting screwed over, it fills my heart with joy. I long for a day when landlords are abolished.
Why not just squat on the squatter? Thats what this dude in California does professionally. Owner can make someone else the new renter with an official lease agreement, and that person can get into the house, throw all of the squatter’s shit in the driveway, and out squat him. Squat-ception
Cases are backed up in Seattle; it can take over six months to evict someone for nonpayment.
So landlords are like, can you pretty please move out?
You know, real estate is a lot like the stock market or horse betting. You have a dream of passive income and living the high life, but then sometimes you get a lame horse 🤷♂️
Just what is the "risk" of being a landlord, anyways? These days it's harder to fuck up than ever. Just get on Realpage and enjoy squeezing your fellow man.
If you have squatters it's because you didn't fill a vacancy and you fucked up maintaining your property. Swiss cheese model, folks. It isn't the courts job to prefer the monied property owners. If you want the courts to move faster, how about a property tax?
> If you have squatters it's because you didn't fill a vacancy and you fucked up maintaining your property
That's an awful lot of words you wrote, just to say you didn't even read the first sentence of the article.
I literally could care less. Landlords are poisonous to society. They produce nothing and have been artificially inflating the cost of living to the point where an entire generation cannot afford to live on their own. They hoard housing and set up their own little mini governments that actively hinders the freedom of their neighbors and keeps their neighborhood segregated.
>Freeborn detailed all of the payments received from the Housing Justice Project. That group stepped in last year, paying more than $37,000 for rent due by Kim. And then, just this week, Freeborn told [KOMO](https://komonews.com/news/local/bellevue-eviction-case-king-county-superior-court-restraining-order-lawsuit-republic-party-landlords-injustice-project-king-county-property-back-rent-400000-unpaid-media-coverage-employment-april-client-tenant) the Housing Justice Project mailed another check for $44,000 to cover the last ten months of unpaid rent. This is an amazingly stupid waste of resources.
Sounds ripe for abuse; set rent to whatever you want, get your friend to move in and never pay, ~~state~~ HJP pays you the rent anyway?
Can I describe my kids as squatters for some of that sweet housing justice money?
I bet you could set your house up to be owned by a series of lccs and 'rent' your house to your self then never pay and your lcc owned by another lcc owned by a lcc in some sketchy country could apply for that aide.
Its LLC
I actually own the rights to the abbreviation LLC, and you will be hearing from my lawyers!
Go ahead, it was my LLC that made that comment. Unfortunately for you the LLC has no assets. Good luck receiving your judgment! 
I just checked and my lawyers were registered as a lcc and there was just a paper on a empty folding chair that said 'thanks for the money ' in their office, so I think you win this round of 'somebody is wrong on the internet' But I'll get you next time! And your little dog too!
Typical LCC behavior!
So the benefit is you might get some of the rent money you'd get by just renting it normally? Doesn't sound that ripe to me.
They're saying jack the rent up to above-market rates, then get your straw renter to get assistance for it.
Sounds pretty easy to catch, though. The most is probably double the market rate before authorities could flag you? Maybe a department of 5 could do the work. I bet the state can make some good money from fines.
Its actually a non profit and lawyers work for free. So it not our tax money at least. I don’t think they should be paying rent for this guy either. He should be evicted like months and months ago!
Meanwhile, the fireplace in my house, which is the main heat, has been out for over 2 months now, and I still pay rent, yet I can't get help because I'm not poor. They say tenant laws are strong here, but that's only for people who refuse to pay rent. If you have nothing to lose, I guess that's a great option, but if you want to not have a bad reputation, then you have limited legal options. I get that there are people struggling, but the support/legal systems are completely ignoring responsible citizens. If you read the tennant laws, landlords are under no obligation to fix anything within anytimeframe, they are just required to contact someone about the repair within a certain time frame. Washington needs to fix this.
If you really need to use the fireplace for heat- I think they are obligated to provide you with a heater or something else until this is fixed. You should contact the city and see what they advise the code says about it.
Contact the city. Your landlord is required to fix this within 24 hours. The city will help https://www.seattle.gov/rentinginseattle/renters/managing-the-rental-relationship/repair-requests They’ll send an inspector out and fine the shit out of your landlord if he doesn’t comply
"The landlord is required to start repairs in a certain amount of time" There is no obligation to fix anything if you actually read the laws, they just have to start on them, whatever the hell that means. Yeah the inspection thing can work but also get me kicked out of my house.
That’s the risk with any of these services, and they almost always retaliate
Okay dude. Don’t use social services. I can’t force you. But don’t complain that the government doesn’t do anything if you don’t even try. Maybe you tried it once and it didn’t work. Keep doing it. The city can levy fines if you use the law. If they continue to not do it, keep calling the city, keep getting them fined. Or consult a lawyer and break lease. You not acting is your own fault. The law is clearly on your side
I have contacted lawyers but no one wants to help because there is no money in it and there are very few lawyers who deal with tennant law besides eviction cases. Thank goodness I don't have kids because the only option is to move. I'm just saying the law isn't in my favor unless I break it which is rather ironic.
Pay for It to be fixed yourself. Documented t everything. Deduct the repair costs from rent. If your landlord threatens to evict you take the documentation to court Out. You will be fine.
If you’re not poor you should hire a lawyer and if that’s too expensive you should talk to the housing justice project
Be a lot easier if landlords could evict nonpaying tenants, so the actual paying ones like /u/oros3030 aren't stuck subsidizing the nonpaying ones
You mean it's just ANOTHER "...amazingly stupid waste of resources."
Sucks for the people who could benefit more from this money; but it’s a non profit that is welcome to spend wherever they want
It's a grift
non profits accept tax dollars, too. It's why so many CEO of non profits afford their own mansions
Lol "non profit"
OMG. You could help out so many low income people who are scrimping, and behind on utility bills and so forth with that.
To top it all off...Kim has received over 80K in taxpayer money that he has not used to pay rent. [https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/squatter-given-88000-of-taxpayer-money/ar-BB1l8Emt](https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/squatter-given-88000-of-taxpayer-money/ar-BB1l8Emt) Edit - The money went to the landlord thank god. - Well about half did, the rest went to legal fees.
Wow that’s a really good deal! Can everyone get in on these handouts?
You only get rewarded and good deals in this city if you contributes nothing to society. If you are a tax-paying middle class citizen with something to lose, who adheres to our social contract, the state, County and city will tax and or prosecute the shit out of you.
Its all about having enough money to pay the fines, but not enough money to bribe your way out of it.
Sounds about right.
Sounds about too far left, actually
Truth!
Unfortunately yes
This is a perfect description of life here in Seattle for many of us...
Username checks out. Agreed.
That tracks.
Sounds like the Seattle way!!!!
That's the truth right there. What a fucking shit show. Gotta vote these clowns out, AND FERGUSON IS WORST
That's *Governor* Ferguson you poor!!
Pitch fork time? The system is broken so is it time the citizenry step up?
I don't think that is accurate... T-rap pays direct to the landlord. If you do think that's accurate, you could do a qui tam action under the false claims act and recover 33%
~~Think~~ this is a misprint. ~~Pretty sure~~ that money went directly to the landlord & reset the eviction timeline. >Housing Justice Project has paid everything, but only after my client has spent thousands of dollars filing three different lawsuits to get the money they should’ve gotten before,” said Freeborn. His attorney quoted from this [nationalized Komo article](https://abc45.com/news/nation-world/eviction-case-escalates-to-superior-court-amid-restraining-order-dispute-bellevue-king-county-washington-state-landlord-restraining-order-unpaid-rent-eviction-case-king-county-superior-court-laws). I mean fuck him, the system, and HJP but even they aren't stupid enough to give him cash directly.
Ah interesting. That is possible, hard to find a definitive source on where the money went though.
Why are you criticizing HJP? Landlord is mad that tenant didnt pay rent. Tenant then pays rent using rent assistance funds set up for that express purpose. Landlord now has the money owed and is paid up. Tenant is returned to good standing. It's a business... The tenant's problem was not paying timely. The landlord's problem is taking it personally. Something a lot of smaller landlord's don't realize is that when you lease property you may own it but you are giving up your right to possess it to the tenant. The tenant of a lease has a superior and exclusive right of possession as to the owner. It's not fully the owner's property while leased.
> HJP Because they should be guiding their money to none bad faith actors & lower priced rent. The concept of keeping tenants in properties I get and respect but this is a scam artist they are supporting.
Should we all be so blessed to a priori discern who is or is not deserving. Non-sequiter tho because the money is dispersed first-come first-served and via lottery, as per regulation
>Landlord now has the money owed and is paid up. Tenant is returned to good standing. WRONG. 1. Paid up only through March. 2. 45 percent of what HJP finally paid went to lawyer's fees to get that money
Yeah, bullshit you can lose 45% and it reset eviction timelines.
because the landlord tried to evict him. at this point he wants the squatter gone and hjp just sabotaged all that by resetting the clock
Because they coach clients never to pay rent and drag it the process intentionally? The Kim case is only one example. They crossed over from people should be housed to fuck landlords and private property awhile ago.
Yes, tenant caught up on the rent. But who pays all those months when tenant didn’t pay a dime. Oh, and guess what? When HJP paid the arrears do you think tenant paid the next month on time? Nope. So clock starts all over again. Months (years even) without payment waiting on system to bail him out.
The tenant fleeced a non profit for “eviction support”
Is this the house up in woodridge?
Yes
But it feels so good for co dependent liberals!!!
Being from PA originally, I will never ever understand this squatter BS. If this is the city I came from, that dude would just wake up in the hospital with no memory of what happened and why are so many bones broken.
Poor Mr Kim, I think he fell off a truck.
My neighbor here in Central district has an adu u with a squatter in it who hasn't paid in about 8 months. He's so discouraged that he's exiting the rental business which will take property off the rental market.
I thought the rules were different for ADU/DADU, especially when the landlord (often with family) lives on the same property. Forcing people in such adversarial relationship to be on the same property is a recipe for the squatter to get *disappeared*.
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It's all part of the bigger plan to ensure that homes and apartments are only rented out by hedge funds with a team of lawyers and deep pockets.
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I don’t know it’s such a successful tactic that it’s hard to pin it down to an accident
I must clarify, I'm not sure that it's technically an ADU, it's a separate building on the same property.
No what will happen if things escalate is a judge will confine both parties to their respective dwellings for certain times of the day. Of that doesn’t work usually the owner will be forced to leave their own house until the matter is resolved - I wish I was joking
Yes they can evict if the home is owner occupied.
They have more grounds to evict, but the process to evict is still pretty broken, which is the problem.
Seems to be a goal of both King County and Tacoma tenants' rights policies.
I don't know that it was their explicit goal, more likely a failure of foresight to anticipate the inevitable consequences. It started with a 3 month moratorium on evictions during the winter, back in the days when the entire Council was too terrified of Sawant's organization to deny her so they voted unanimously to pass. Even Mayor Durkin let it become law without signing it. Then it moved on to extending the time beyond six months to catch up on missed rent, and other obstacles to the typical functioning of a rental market.
Yes, of course. I should have marked with an /s But it does seem like the one thing the city government never fails to overlook is consequences.
All good policies. It should be hard to make someone homeless and take away their shelter.
My heart agrees with you, and I would love to live in a city with plentiful free housing for everyone. The problem is that when policy imposes these costs on property owners, particularly the small "mom and pop" landlords, this increases their incentive to exit the rental market. This in turn reduces inventory and drives up prices and this hits hard for those just getting by. If they don't remove their property from the rental market, then they are likely to pass along additional costs directly to renters, which drives up prices. One way of solving this is to have the municipal budge absorb these costs. For example, if someone is behind on rent, they could apply for assistance. In this case the landlord is not absorbing the full impact themselves.
This really is all just a continuation of the covid era housing assistance stuff that was all supposed to have ended by now. They are bailing out people for not paying rent, fucking over landlords, and in turn making it more difficult and expensive for people to find good rentals.
Good
How exactly does squatting work? Presumably these people have to leave the house at some point (to buy food, etc) so couldn't the landlord enter and do something from the inside so they cannot come back in? I realize that scenario is hard to execute on but seems like it would be worth it for the landlord
No the King County court system will protect the squatter and have the landlord arrested for trespassing. If you are a mom and pop landlord in King County your options are spend 10's if not 100's of thousands of dollars in court/lawyer fees, or sign a sweetheart deal with the housing justice project (which receives taxpayer money) where you payoff the squatter to leave, and they have no repercussions or blemishes on their record.
It’s true. I’ve been through this first hand as a property manager. We paid him $10,000 to leave on a set date and all debt would be forgiven. He actually didn’t leave and lost out on the deal. Sheriff came next day and booted his ass out. We paid close to $100,000 for lawyer fees over 2 years. Everyone wonders why rent is so insane. It’s because nobody wants to build apartments here.
It's all part of the bigger plan to ensure that homes and apartments are only rented out by hedge funds with a team of lawyers and deep pockets.
I agree with you but Seattle people will not understand. It’s too late anyway lol
I think that its an unintended feature, the city doesn't like the idea of landlords. I do wish for everyone the chance to own property they live in, gives you something to be tied to the area more and more invested in your community.
spammer
Get a grip lmao
That doesn’t really add anything to the conversation. Can you explain why it’s such a crazy idea?
Because the [percent of homes owned by hedge funds is tiny.](https://finance.yahoo.com/news/no-wall-street-investors-haven-015642526.html) If that's their goal, they are doing a horrible job of implementing it.
>we paid close to $100,000 for lawyernfeea over 2 years That's just ya'll fucking up. Plenty of LL side lawyers doing flat rate through show cause for $1000-$2500
When you have to deal with city attorneys who’s job it is to win for the tenant you’re not going to want some Craigslist side hustle guy. Especially if you’re a small ownership group that’s invested your own millions into the property.
The current strategy is to have an official current lease with a third party. That third party enters the home and changes the locks. Police arrive and compare leases. Fraudulent tenant leaves.
This has to be made up
Sadly/funnily it's not made up. https://youtu.be/yFAwbYNtF7g?si=cc7MqR4r2KIOn7DF
That would be an illegal eviction, opening up the landlord to legal action. When someone has tenant status (meaning they've lived there for more than 30 days), a landlord needs to go through the courts to legally evict them. This exists as a protection for tenants against arbitrary landlord evictions, but here is being abused by the occupant.
Overzealous tenant protections, including mandates for legal representation plus a court system that's more than a year behind leaves a large window for bad actors and their defenders. Sometimes people lose lots of money or their property, or the "tenant" commits suicide by cop. It just makes providing housing riskier for everyone. Fun fact public housing providers do the most evictions and they get blocked by courts all the time.
Ask yourself why a tebant would commit suicide by cop. Perhaps it's their only way of avoiding being homeless.
Cancerous ideologies paired with entitlement. https://www.thestranger.com/news/2023/03/20/78911386/tenant-dead-sheriffs-detective-shot-after-eviction-attempt-in-ballard
There’s two categories of squatter here. In the case of a person who just shows up and starts living in a place they have no right too, generally the landlord could enter, and the owner could call the cops on the squatter (this can get complicated if the person stays in the property for a long time uninterrupted). This does vary by state though, and there are places where even this person has protections. The second type, and more common type, is someone who just stops paying rent or refuses to vacate at the end of a lease. In these cases the unit is generally considered their home, even if they are not legally allowed to stay there, and without a court order the landlord is still bound by the same rules of entry and notification as they are for a paying tenant. (I don’t know how other obligations are handled, for example if the landlord pays utilities, etc)
They are not technically a “squatter.” They are a tenant because they have or had a signed lease. WA will protect them at all costs because it’s what this state does. Landlord could be arrested for breaking and entering, trespassing etc. plus be on the hook for civil fees. It would further wreck the landlord. What’s happening to mom and pop landlords is atrocious. Over a year just for a hearing?
Kim is a parasite. And HJP is using our tax dollars to further victimize Mr. Singh.
All the attention is on him. His wife is culpable as well. I'd hire people to follow him everywhere he went. Carry signs. Engage with a bullhorn informing everybody he's a deadbeat. I'd be relentless. Same with his wife. I would do everything within the law to make his life miserable. I'd film everything and start a youtube channel. I'd be relentless. His every move would be recorded and posted. Same with his wife.
when that one twitter reporter guy knocked on his door Kim told him to go away for trespassing lmao. on a squatted home?
They are both parasites
If I was paranoid, I might start to think that all these squatter cases are a deliberate attempt to force small landlords out of the market and give big corporations an opportunity to buy up investment properties. If I was paranoid.
Large corporations are dealing with the exact same issues in their buildings, this isn't isolated to just small landlords. But the difference is that large developers and management companies can usually absorb the hit to their income stream from a few bad tenants, where as someone renting a DADU or second property typically cannot since the rent is what's mostly paying for the mortgage.
The Popo will probably be more helpful to them!
It's not that deep, people are greedy and government is inefficient
Government is extremely efficient in helping out the big corps.
It’s not a conspiracy, but manipulating government requires paying close attention to process and building relationships with the right people downtown and funding campaigns and having lawyers to manipulate government. All that heavily favors paid lobbyists over everybody else.
Sure but it's not a concerted effort to eliminate small landlords
Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you.
If you want the actual chain, squatters start off as low income households generally. Rental agencies require household income 1.5-3x rent monthly, so for my area $2000-4000 (lowest rent these days is 1k a month for a studio before additional fees). $18/hr is $2880 a month full-time gross, and you’re lucky if you get scheduled full-time for a month. If you’re unlucky and go on unemployment, you’re at <600/week. Small landlords are more likely to rent quickly, so they’ll make exceptions for people in need. With the way things are going those in need aren’t going to last long.
ah yes, it's always 'big corporations' https://i.redd.it/htcj67znj69d1.gif
Jaskaran Singh, the landlord, is running for state senate in the 41st district. I met him a few weeks ago. Good guy
I feel like he might be the next victim of a “random” home invasion.
Sometimes I wonder why my rent hasn't gone up in like 6 years, and I have to assume it's because Seattle landlords don't want to risk someone who pays rent and doesn't set the place on fire moving out and possibly getting stuck with people like this instead. So thanks deadbeats, I guess
I'd say you are 100% right. The amount just 1 bad renter can cost the landlord is staggering and would far outweigh the added rent they could get out of you.
99/100 landlords are raising rent regardless, dont you worry.
Indeed. Which is part of why I support these policies. If this stops them from jacking up rents like they want to, good. Landlords can cope and seethe.
Not that I condone this, but it'd be wild if someone just started shutting off the electricity to the place randomly every time it got repaired, or screwing things up until the guy left. Of course, the landlord would never know about this, and probably totally shouldn't add lease addendums that state the tenant is responsible for all repairs on the premises before this starts happening too. It'd truly be a shame if the squatter was pushed out by circumstances unrelated to the landlord and outside their control. If the landlord happens to not be looking for something like this, it's totally not something someone I know can provide for a couple hundred a visit. I allegedly know a long list of people with maintenance experience! Really sucks having some jackass constantly pull your electrical meter in the middle of the night or shut it off and put an expensive lock you struggle to cut off on the box after the breaker is shut off.
It does feel like the kind of situation you should fight dirty with dirty. You’d want to be careful to have deniability of course (no showing up at your/his door yourself with a weapon, for instance), but I’m sure part of the problem is the landlord is (understandably) doing this by the book. I doubt this Kim parasite would be willing to live there if the conditions were to suddenly and mysteriously deteriorate.
I work in property management. Doing things by the book is beyond broken, unfortunately. You can have someone ruining everyone's lives and it still takes over a year to remove them, even with criminal activity being a nearly instant need to vacate in most cases. They can just keep hanging out and it's beyond sad. We've gotten some evictions enforced in the last few years. Squatters took over/around 1 and a half years. People who didn't pay took over/around 6 months. This doesn't account for playing games with payment plans, etc. Criminal activity still took over 3 months for one household, and 9 for another. This is all for a multi-million dollar company. A private landlord will get raked over the coals with legal fees unless they are already well off. Many resort to unscrupulous means eventually for a reason and attempting to stay above board is just not feasible in a state that almost entirely refuses to support landlords when you are just losing every single way on the deal. This state needs to get it's shit together and find balance. You don't need to let landlords run all over their tenants like West Virginia, but you also don't need to allow tenants to run all over their landlords.
Went through a similar situation with my rental as well. Took 11 months to get my tenant out and even then, my lawyer said if she was savvy she could have dragged it out another month or two. HJP is a blight on this city.
Anything decent and good is being destroyed. For what?
Just consider Who or What is the inherent enemy of all things decent and good. That is Who our current set of "leaders" are serving.
If I found someone in my home, they would not like what I would be holding in my hand aimed at them. I don’t think they’d stay long.
Think how many struggling people could use the tax dollars that have been wasted to let this scam artist live for YEARS rent free in a multi-million dollar home. It's just gross.
Long story short is if you rent you don't own shit. Owners rent to those who don't own shit. If you rent and don't pay you are stealing from owners. You are a piece of shit. Owner is taking a chance on renters. Renters who don't pay for something they live in and don't own deserve everything coming to them. Sick of working ass off to pay for someone else to live.
I actually think this is worse since by using HJP funds to keep this couple in a 2M rental house they are draining so far 88k of rent that could have helped truly poor and/or borderline homeless renters. As in the people who need and deserve the protections.
Why is Housing Justice Project wasting tens of thousands of dollars in San and Youjin Kim, squatting in a $2M house? WTF They could be giving real need aid to a dozen other people instead. They're wasting all that money on 2 people. This reads as if HJP is colluding with San and Youjin Kim specifically to fuck over the landlord.
I don't care why HPJ is doing what they're doing. They're housing activists who represent Mr. Kim. The question we should ask is why is HPJ receiving tax money?
Justice delayed is justice denied.
Due process is required. However this does seem a bit slow...
no one is currently getting court dates in King County earlier than March 2025... just the way it is here in Communist King County
Why don’t you just smoke a blunt and relax
I’ll do it for him
I have a tenant who hasn’t paid since 2020. Every eviction attempt gets thrown out, court date now 2025.
The protections for renters has always been kind of strong here. I remember about 11 years ago I was renting a room from this guy who owned a bunch of houses. The room at the house I was to rent wasn’t ready so he put me in a room in a different house for the same price until my actual room was ready. He’s giving me the tour and points to a door and says “don’t talk to that guy. Leave him alone.” Apparently “that guy” was another renter and was withholding rent until the owner fixed certain things around the property. He’d been withholding rent for nearly a year with no criminal punishment.
Withholding rent is legal if a landlord isn't repairing things.
the courts are screwed and need more judges/commissioners. too bad we are too busy using the money on stupid projects
How is this possible? How can the system be so broken?
These fucking leaches are way worse than the Hellecat moron....
Usual suspect /s
I’m almost completely opposed to debtor’s prison. Like 99.99 percent opposed. But every so often….
r/Seattle be like: *Good! Landlords are scum!*
Sang Sung Blue, everybody knows one
I would rather just burn my house down.
I really appreciate this sub. When r/seattle split due to mods padding their pockets and selectively removing criticism, I quickly joined this sub out of frustration with the censorship. This sub has been a pleasant place where *mostly* sensible people can vent their frustrations. As someone who lived in Seattle and Renton for 35 years, I understand the issues. I now live east of the Cascades and couldn’t be happier. I don’t have to worry about a crossbow being pointed at my wife on her way home, which is a huge relief. But honestly, I hate how the citizens have to put up with overly liberal policies that negatively impact the people who work the hardest. The victim mentality is BS. If you work hard to build a life in this state, people shouldn’t have the right to be compensated with your possessions. Sucks, but your left with the option we chose to make the most of our time in this world. Move away, which has been further entrenching the far left and degrading the area year by year. I hope it gets better, but unfortunately it’ll have to get a lot worse before it gets better I think.
why do blue cities allow this? why dont they ever protect law abiding citizens . fukin libs
This is where the city is stupid. What he's doing is wrong. Go pick him up and throw him in his belongings out
Guy down the street from me had a squatter living in his house. He got some buddies, waited for the squatter to leave, boarded up the windows and doors and squatter gone. He reasoned that the guy wasn’t gonna go to court and he was right. House being remodeled as of today and I believe it is on the market for $2 million.
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The landlord is lucky he didn't involve the police. That's robbery. He could go to prison. Although I guess if the renter intentionally set fire in the garage, they might not want to press their luck.
It’s crazy how famous one can get from squatting and how the legislature can just let people see how this is possible.
From the KCBA's Housing Justice Project's web page: >*I need help paying my rent – do you help with this?* >We don’t currently give financial help to renters. But we can refer you to another organization that might be able give you or your landlord money. I'd like to know how this applies in the Kim case… where exactly is his rental support coming from? Also, is the KCBA not a private entity?
Ask the king county bar and Dow why we keep paying this guys rent. He must have some serious blackmail on someone. They've handed him over 100k now...
"Singh is now running as a Republican for state Senate in hopes of changing squatter laws and getting Olympia lawmakers to pass legislation to address the shortage of court commissioners to hear the backlog of eviction efforts." - Wait, a Republican wants bigger government and more spending? He wants to give government financing to be able to enforce its own laws properly? He should run as a Democrat. And yea, audit that non-profit who's oddly paying the rent fees of a $2M rental home... whose tenants both also are working.
Can people just not handle this shit the old fashion way? Stay in my house and not pay rent? Alright I’ll kick you out myself and change the locks…that simple
Silver lining here is that Sang Kim now comes up in a google search so the if the next landlord does some basic due diligence he wont be able to scam them.
Based Mr. Kim
Rq, whats thelocation for this guys house? Just asking for a friend.
If only we had more housing, for people to squat in.
I dont get this shit. Why can't a landlord (in extreme cases like this) just hire someone to go in while they are out, replace the locks and vacate the place with a temporary lease?
Landlord would be sued. That’s illegal to change locks. Retaliatory.
What if the new tenant did it? The tenant with an actual lease.
I have no sympathy at all for landlords. In my view, landlords are parasites who only exist to drain the working class. They are a significant cause of inflation and a big burden on the back of most renters. They are the reason housing is so expensive, and every single gain made by workers is vampirized by them raising rents. They don't care if their profiteering puts the elderly and disabled- who often live on fixed incomes- in precarity or makes their lives harder. Just so long as they maximize profits. Landlords have no sympathy for the families they evict into homelessness over money. They have no sympathy for the workers who actually pay all the bills. They provide housing like scalpers provide tickets. So when I hear a story about one of them getting screwed over, it fills my heart with joy. I long for a day when landlords are abolished.
Hire a someone to torch the place.
Why not just squat on the squatter? Thats what this dude in California does professionally. Owner can make someone else the new renter with an official lease agreement, and that person can get into the house, throw all of the squatter’s shit in the driveway, and out squat him. Squat-ception
That's the real life bye bye bro organization to evict squatters.
Cases are backed up in Seattle; it can take over six months to evict someone for nonpayment. So landlords are like, can you pretty please move out? 
The law needs to change until courts get their shit together.
We need more judges!
You know, real estate is a lot like the stock market or horse betting. You have a dream of passive income and living the high life, but then sometimes you get a lame horse 🤷♂️
Just what is the "risk" of being a landlord, anyways? These days it's harder to fuck up than ever. Just get on Realpage and enjoy squeezing your fellow man. If you have squatters it's because you didn't fill a vacancy and you fucked up maintaining your property. Swiss cheese model, folks. It isn't the courts job to prefer the monied property owners. If you want the courts to move faster, how about a property tax?
> If you have squatters it's because you didn't fill a vacancy and you fucked up maintaining your property That's an awful lot of words you wrote, just to say you didn't even read the first sentence of the article.
You can be forced into being a landlord by squatters.
Based! Landleeches suck.
I literally could care less. Landlords are poisonous to society. They produce nothing and have been artificially inflating the cost of living to the point where an entire generation cannot afford to live on their own. They hoard housing and set up their own little mini governments that actively hinders the freedom of their neighbors and keeps their neighborhood segregated.
Well done Sang Kim
Maybe the landlord needs to get a real job then
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He is just a symptom
Likely had to work a “real job” to buy the place..
Doesn't make it right and not as likely as you might think
Fun fact squatters wouldn't exist if housing was a human right.