Some Seattle landlords are suing over the city’s new policy requiring them to choose among qualified renters on a first-come, first-served basis.
The landlords say the policy — believed to be the first of its kind in the nation — violates their right to rent property in a nondiscriminatory manner to the people they choose at the price they choose.
Their King County Superior Court lawsuit says the policy violates the state constitution and seeks a permanent injunction to bar the city from enforcing it.
“Each of the plaintiffs has suffered immediate and ongoing harm because the city appropriated their constitutionally-protected right to choose whom they will house and work with in these often-lengthy and interpersonal landlord-tenant relationships,” says the lawsuit filed Thursday.