If you’re a homeowner in or landlord in Island, Jefferson, Clallam, Kitsap, or San Juan County, “no lease” situations can be some of the most stressful:
- A friend or relative who won’t move out.
- A roommate who never signed anything.
- Someone who paid you rent in cash but there’s no paper trail and has since stopped paying
- A guest who just… never left.
In Washington, once they are considered a tenant you can’t just change the locks or throw their stuff outside. Whether there’s a written lease or not, you usually have to go through court.
If you’re reading this article, you may have already had your local law enforcement tell you so: “We can’t do anything without a writ of restitution. You need to go to court” – or simply – “It’s a civil matter”. What process you use now depends on whether or not the law sees the unwanted tenant as having formed a landlord-tenant relationship with you.
1. The “normal” expedited eviction process when there is a lease
When there’s a written rental agreement, Washington typically uses the unlawful detainer process under RCW 59.12 and the Residential Landlord–Tenant Act (RLTA), RCW 59.18.
You generally:
- Serve the appropriate notice (for example, a 14-day notice to pay rent or vacate for nonpayment, or other “just cause” notice under RCW 59.18.650).
- If they don’t comply, file an unlawful detainer in Superior Court.
- The court sets a show cause hearing on an expedited timeline (much faster than a regular lawsuit).
- If you win, the judge signs a writ of restitution, which the sheriff uses to physically remove the tenant if they still don’t leave.
This path is relatively “fast” in court terms – often a matter of weeks, not months.
2. “No written lease” but rent was paid: implied month-to-month tenancy
Here’s where some landlords get surprised:
You can have a legally recognized landlord-tenant relationship even without anything in writing.
Washington law treats many “no lease” arrangements as month-to-month tenancies:
- If the premises are rented for an indefinite time,
- If monthly or other periodic rent is paid and accepted, the law construes the arrangement as a tenancy from month to month (or other rent period) under RCW 59.18.200.
- You have a verbal rental agreement without a specified end date, or
- You have some other arrangement like providing services (childcare, work) in exchange for a place to live. Nothing in the RLTA says that rent must be in the form of cash-money.
What this means in practice
If your “no lease” situation involves any of the following, a court will very likely see them as a tenant with rights and remedies under the RLTA (“Residential Landlord Tenant Act”).
- They pay you rent, even in cash.
- You repeatedly accept money or other goods/services for use of the property.
In that case:
- You cannot call the sheriff and ask them to remove a “trespasser.”
- You must use the unlawful detainer process and comply with the RLTA, including Washington’s “just cause” requirements for eviction under RCW 59.18.650.
Bottom line:
If rent is being paid (or services are clearly exchanged for housing), you almost always have a tenant, even with no written lease, and you must evict them like any other tenant.
While this can be a frustrating realization for unsuspecting ‘landlords’, it is usually better than the alternative scenario of when there is no history of rent payments and no implied landlord-tenant relationship. This is because the landlord-tenant relationship that arises from the rental payments, even without a lease, generally allows you to avail yourself to the unlawful detainer procedure. This is usually a lot faster than filing a normal civil suit against the unwanted guest and asking the court for a writ of ejectment, which is what you have to do if there is no landlord-tenant relationship.
3. When there truly is no lease and no rent: guest vs. tenant vs. trespasser
This is the situation many clients I represent in Oak Harbor, Port Townsend, Port Angeles, Bremerton, Friday Harbor, and surrounding areas face:
- A family member moves in “temporarily” for free.
- A romantic partner or friend stays for months but never pays rent.
- Someone stays for a period of time and then refuses to leave.
Our region has a demographic that tends to be laid back, older, and open to the kind of informal arrangements that give rise to these situations. Situations where, what starts as a generous offer to help out a friend or family member, turns into something they would not have anticipated.
So how does Washington sort this out?
A. Long-term guest who has basically moved in
Even without rent, someone can start to look like an occupant with housing rights if:
- They have lived there for an extended period (weeks or months).
- They have a bedroom, keep their belongings there, and use the place as home.
- They get mail there or changed their driver’s license address.
- You’ve allowed this arrangement for a while.
The RLTA can still apply to non-traditional arrangements where someone is allowed to live in a place instead of paying rent in the usual way.
If law enforcement in Jefferson, Kitsap, Clallam, Island, or San Juan County shows up and the person says:
- “I live here,”
- “I’ve been here for months,”
- “My stuff is here; this is my home,”
the officers will often refuse to treat it as a simple trespass and tell you it’s a civil eviction issue – meaning an unlawful detainer or ejectment proceeding in Superior Court. If you do think there’s even a chance of them being considered a tenant of the property, rather than a trespasser, you are risking civil liability by having law enforcement remove them without going through the proper channel – your county’s Superior Court.
If they have truly never paid rent – you are probably looking at an ejectment action rather than an unlawful detainer action. An ejectment action is a “normal” civil action to resolve who has the superior right to possession/title when there is no landlord-tenant relationship and the unlawful detainer statutes therefore don’t fit. The main downside to an ejectment action for most homeowners is that it follows the normal lawsuit timeline rather than the expedited timeline of an unlawful detainer. There are ways to speed up the process, such as:
- Being ready with an order directing issuance of a writ of ejectment and immediately moving for a default judgment if they do not reply in the statutorily allotted time (Civil rule 4).
- If they do answer, motion for summary judgment and then ask to shorten time.
- If they are committing waste to the property or creating a safety issue, ask the court for injunctive relief limiting their use of the property while the action is pending.
One key difference between an ejectment action and an unlawful detainer is that Washington’s 2021 right-to-counsel law (SB 5160, codified at RCW 59.18.640) does not apply to ejectment cases. In unlawful detainer actions, the court must appoint an attorney for an indigent tenant. In an ejectment case, there is no such requirement. Practically, this means that in an ejectment case the unwanted occupant is more likely to simply ignore the lawsuit, allowing you to obtain a default judgment – rather than having a state-appointed attorney actively defending the case and delaying their removal from your property.
B. Short-term guest or trespasser
On the other hand, someone is more likely to be treated as a trespasser if:
- They never had your permission to stay overnight at all,
- Their permission was clearly revoked immediately, and
- They have not established the property as their residence (no belongings moved in, no mail, no period of regular occupancy).
Some examples:
- A party guest who refuses to leave.
- Someone who breaks in or enters after being told not to.
- A person won’t leave your property or an outbuilding after their presence is discovered by you.
In those scenarios, police in your county are more likely to treat it as a criminal trespass issue, and you do not go through landlord–tenant eviction procedures.
The line between tenant and trespasser can be very fact-specific, and courts in different counties on the Olympic Peninsula may weigh facts slightly differently, but length of stay and use of the property as a home are major factors.
For the police to remove a trespasser without going to court, you may be required to fill out the declaration specified in RCW 9A.52.115. It is important to fill this out honestly, as misleading the officers here can result both in civil liability and a criminal charge. The last thing you want is the unwanted occupant to turn around and sue you for 3x the monthly rental value of your property and noneconomic damages (eg. emotional destress) under 59.18.650 after you think you are done dealing with them.
4. Hotels, motels, and short-term rentals: why they’re different
You might wonder about why your situation as a homeowner differs from a hotel. Why must you engage in a judicial proceeding when a hotel could just call the cops if someone doesn’t leave at the end of their booking?
That’s because the RLTA does not apply to certain transient lodging:
“Residence in a hotel, motel, or other transient lodging whose operation is defined in RCW 19.48.010” is expressly exempt from the RLTA.
For short stays (classic hotel guests, many Airbnbs, etc.):
- The guest is not a “tenant” under the RLTA.
- The relationship is more like a license to occupy.
- The hotel can usually lock out a guest who doesn’t pay, subject to innkeeper rules and other regulations.
However, Washington law recognizes that long-term hotel/motel guests can turn into tenants if:
- The hotel is effectively acting like a landlord, and
- The guest is using the unit as a primary dwelling over time.
Once that threshold is crossed, the safer route may be to treat the person as a tenant and use unlawful detainer rather than just locking them out.
6. Local help for landlords in Island, Jefferson, Clallam, Kitsap, and San Juan Counties
Because Washington’s landlord–tenant laws have changed significantly in recent years (especially RCW 59.18.650’s “just cause” rules and the overlay of local procedures), it’s easy to misjudge a “no lease” situation and:
- Wrongly treat a tenant as a trespasser and risk wrongful eviction claims; or
- Wrongly assume there is no landlord-tenant relationship, which deprives you of the fast-track unlawful detainer option
If you’re a landlord dealing with any of the following on the North Olympic Peninsula or in the North Sound:
- A family member or friend who won’t leave your house
- A roommate or “cash renter” with no written lease
- A squatter or stranger claiming tenant rights
it’s smart to talk with a Washington landlord attorney who understands how things are done locally. For example, Bremerton and Port Townsend have layered additional local rules that landlords must follow on top of the state law discussed in this article.
Important disclaimer
This article is general information, not legal advice for your specific situation. Landlord–tenant law changes frequently, and local practice can vary. Before you act – especially before changing locks or removing anyone’s belongings – get advice tailored to your exact facts.
