ISO tennant-rights or progressive property-rights attorney in seattle

The City of Seattle is very pro-tenant, so you have that in your favor.

You might start by downloading some of the info the City provides regarding landlord-tenant issues. Visit: http://www.seattle.gov/dpd/Publications/Landlord_Tenant/default.asp

You'll be looking at things like "Just Cause Eviction". A new property owner cannot just evict because they feel like it, and they are limited in the amount of increase in rent that they can impose (as I recall, it's capped at 10%).

You can determine who exactly purchased the property by searching for info at the County Assessor's office. Look for the link to Excise Tax Affidavit towards the bottom of the page. The property owner info will give you the tax parcel ID, which can be useful in your research. http://www.metrokc.gov/assessor/eRealProperty/Disclaimer.asp

You can determine if any new projects have been granted a permit (by the DPD). Sometimes it takes a little poking/stumbling around to find the exact permit info. http://www.seattle.gov/dpd/permits/

A developer has to grant a certain amount of advance notice of eviction, and it can be tied to whether or not a permit has been granted.

All that being said, you might also contact attorney, Will Wright, a Biznik, "diverse"-friendly and more.

Grr...I'll see you tonight John.

Well said Leila.

John, if you have time to say more about what was depressing, please do. I'm curious; there might be something in my mental databank that would help, or alleviate the Bad News.

You can also find out who owns the company that is doing the developing by checking the City of Seattle Business Database of 78,400 businesses in Seattle: http://www.seattle.gov/biz/ as well as the Department of Revenue at http://dor.wa.gov and the Secretary of State's Office at http://www.secstate.wa.gov/corps/search.aspx

Once you have the owner's names, you can find out where they live and their date of birth (useful when looking up their litigation history if their name is common like Gonzalez) by looking up their Voter Registration at http://www.soundpolitics.com/voterlookup.html

Another thing you can also do is look up the local litigation history of the developer and the principals at http://dw.courts.wa.gov/index.cfm?fa=home.namesearchTerms

If you want to check their federal litigation history, you will need an account on PACER. Drop me a line to have me look it up for you.

It is very important to know your potential enemy.