City must fix absent landlord problem

As a Northwest Neighborhood Block Watch captain for the past few years, I’ve been involved with over six separate “problem” tenant situations.

In each and every one of these cases the landlord did not reside at or near the rental address … furthermore city officials had real difficulty reaching the landlord.

The current system of searching Snohomish County property records in an effort to contact these landlords is neither effective nor efficient. Far too often the only contact information is a P.O. Box.

The problem that someone in our city government needs to “own” is that the police, code compliance officials and the city prosecutors office are at a major disadvantage in dealing with the landlord of “problem” tenants as they do not currently have an effective way of reaching these landlords immediately.

A secondary issue is: Why has no one ever stepped up to the plate to fix this broken system in the past? But let’s save that question for another day.

I propose, for the benefit of everyone involved (including the landlord) that the city (are you listening City Council members?) make it a requirement that all landlords supply better contact information so they can be reached 24/7.

Our police, prosecutors office, and code compliance people all deserve a better system.

Feel the same way? Then please call the Mayor’s office and let’s see if we can get this “broken” system” fixed once and for all.

Paul Donovan

Everett