Saturday October 5, 2013 I received a notice on my apartment door at 521 4th Ave West around 8:30 PM at night ( not a good time to be disturbing tenants ). This notice demanded entry to the apartment on the dates of 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 from 10 AM to 7 PM. That is 45 hours!

Past experience has taught me that management will come into the apartment any time they feel like, with or without notice. According to the City of Seattle tenant laws ( which reflect the state laws ) the landlord must provide written notice of the need for entry and also obtain the consent of the tenant in all cases except emergency. Because I wanted to make sure this was the case I called the City of Seattle, told them the situation and asked a few questions. Here is the basic response I was given:

• In order to enter the apartment you need my consent, not just a paper posted to the door.
• You have too many dates and too much open time listed on when you need to enter ( 45 hours ). You need to contact me to talk about the specifics of why so much time is needed as it is deemed unreasonable. All entry into the apartment should be kept to a minimum and only scheduled for the time needed.
• Any time after 5 PM is considered unreasonable entry time unless explicit consent is given.
• The stated reason on the notice is too broad and generic. I need to know specifically why you require entrance to the apartment and what you will be intending upon doing once inside the apartment.
• Even though your notice says you may enter the apartment at a later date to re-inspect this is not legal. In order to regain entry at a later date you will need to schedule a new time to enter with my consent.

As you expected the law was completely ignored. Not only was the law ignored, John came into the apartment while I was not there and then came back after I returned at 8:30 PM and stayed till after 9 PM! That is unreasonably late! Not once have I received a phone call. I asked John to leave three times and he refused to leave and then threatened me as he was leaving. That he was going to come back every day…

A couple times during the conversation as I was pointing to specific RCW codes in the law John told me that he does not need to follow local city law.

Here is a copy of the letter I sent management after speaking with the helpful folks at the City of Seattle.