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Updated as of May 18; See update at end of article
For background, I’ve previously described the dispute between Landing Gear Works and the City of Renton here.
I was recently copied on an email that Landing Gear Works President Tom Anderson wrote to the Renton City Attorney’s office.
In the email Mr. Anderson explains he just received a formal 3-day notice to pay or vacate on leases that cover two of his small airplane hangers. (He has also received a separate notice for another lease that covers his two other buildings, and one of those buildings is the subject of the ongoing roof-repair dispute).
Since his small hanger leases are not in dispute, he went to the Airport Management office and made payment in full for these leases, per the three-day notice. He said he had been trying to pay on these particular hangers since November of 2023, but the city kept lumping his payments together with his other leased building, and this 3-day notice finally separated the payments on the distinct leases. His payments were marked “received” by Airport Office personnel.
But following receipt, the Airport Manager was contacted by his staff via phone, and he directed his staff to return the payments to Mr. Anderson. This prompted the email to the Renton City Attorney.
I phoned Mr. Anderson to get additional details. He supplied me with four documents that show his two payments marked “received” by the Airport Manager’s office on May 15, but says these payments were then returned to him.
He explained that following his email to the City Attorney’s office, the Airport Manager told him he could attempt to make a payment at Renton City Hall. Mr. Anderson says he drove the payment checks to Renton City Hall, where he said an assistant city attorney said she could take possession of the checks but warned him that she didn’t know if the city would cash them.
A tenant attempting to comply with a three-day notice should not need to engage an attorney to get their property manager to accept payment. The City of Renton should be modeling professional landlord practices, not creating doubts about whether they are going to accept funds when issuing a three-day pay-or-vacate notice.
The Renton Council has discussed setting new standards for private landlords in Renton, but until city officials demonstrates that they understand basic Washington landlord-tenant laws (and how to treat tenants properly and fairly under them), they are in no position to make suggestions for improvement. In a previous blog entry, I covered the illegal (and apparently retaliatory) canceling of access credentials to the Landing Gear Works, that was only remedied after I called it out. I also showed how nine months of incorrect billing by the city, and a 12-24 month lease that was too short for the tenant to pay for a desperately-needed new roof, contributed to this dispute and potential eviction. Later, the city claimed in a public statement that the buildings Mr. Anderson occupied had been “scheduled for demolition” since 2015, which was simply not true and would not be an excuse to neglect them in any case. This was all made worse by the City Attorney forbidding communication between the City Council (who have ultimate authority for leases) and Landing Gear Works, at a time when landlord-tenant communication was essential. Renton officials have unfortunately continued to take a low road in this dispute, and they cannot claim to be virtuous authorities on how other property managers should conduct their businesses.
I’ve included some of the documents below:
May 18th Update: Mr. Anderson received a letter yesterday acknowledging his payment and informing him the city has made another accounting error. According to the letter, the dollar amount the city specified in the three-day notice was incorrect. I’ve attached this May 17 letter as the final document below. Mr. Anderson’s email forwarding the letter to me expressed frustration, as he pondered “Does the Airport just make this up as they go?”
Email from Landing Gear President to Assistant City Attorney, Council Liaison, and others
Three-day notice with top marked (payment) received by Airport Office on May 15. The payment was returned later, prompting the email from Landing Gear Works.
Payment envelope marked received, but later returned to Landing Gear Works, even though payment occurred within three business days.
Instructions on three-day notice. One does not need to be a lawyer to know that Tuesday May 15 is within three business days of Friday May 10. Mr. Anderson’s payment seems compliant with this notice.
Letter received by Mr. Anderson two days after payment, as described in the May 18 update to this article.
If only the city had a world-class accounting system and tens of college graduates getting paid more than $100,000 annually to do the accounting.
Randy… come back. The city failed to get the amicus brief to the Cedar River lawsuit, and now it looks like we’re going to have over a mile of asphalt traffic added to Renton streets.
Thanks for the comment, Anonymous. I promise to come back soon. I’ve been enjoying some much needed family time, including family camping trips and the birth of a new grandson. I do want to try to help resolve the threat to our water system from the proposed asphalt plant, and I promise to write more about that soon. Please keep checking back!