City of Seattle extending eviction moratorium to Sept. 30

Speaking to Brandi Kruse on Q13 News Friday morning, Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan announced that the city's eviction moratorium will be extended through Sept. 30.

Initially established in March 2020, the moratorium is an attempt by the city to stave off evictions of people who lost jobs because of the pandemic and fell behind on their rent payments.

Seattle’s moratorium applies to residential, nonprofit and small-business tenants, with small businesses defined as those with 50 or fewer employees.

Most evictions are prohibited for those tenants, including evictions for nonpayment of rent, though tenants remain legally obligated to pay rent and can accumulate debt.

Seattle is requiring landlords to offer payment plans and has banned late charges and interest. Evictions can be sought in dangerous situations.

"We're going to really be working with the governor's office and with federal authorities. As you know, there's a lot of money coming for rent relief. We want to make sure that rent relief can get to the places it needs to get, particularly to our small landlords, as quickly as possible. And so our focus is really going to be on how do we get that money flowing and make it as easy as possible for those landlords to also get paid because they have to pay their taxes and mortgages as well," Durkan said. 

Washington state's eviction moratorium is set to expire on June 30. 

Advocacy groups have called on Gov. Jay Inslee to push that date back until measures were in place to ensure renters wouldn't be kicked out of their homes. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

RELATED: Eviction moratorium causing issues for landlord with Seattle property

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