Housing Provider Comes Home to Apartment Full of Dog Poop
Local Seattle Housing Provider Can’t Evict Man with Hundreds of Pounds of Dog Poop in His Apartment
SEATTLE, WA – Seattle housing provider Carl Haglund got more than he bargained for when completing renovations and repairs at his Admiral Court apartment complex last week. Haglund was conducting routine upgrades on his units when he entered one apartment and found all the rooms filled with dried dog feces. Apparently, the renter and owner of the dog had not been taking the dog out for walks and had filled the rooms with dog poop. “The place was unbelievable” Haglund said, “Every room was covered from wall to wall with large, dried dog stools. The smell almost knocked me over.”
Haglund says he has been encountering all types of strange behavior since the onset of the Covid pandemic, but this one toped them all. “I’ve seen drugs, rooms filled with hypodermic needles, trashed apartments, appliances striped down, but I have never seen anything like this.” What made this discovery particularly frustrating for Haglund is that the tenant had not paid any rent in the past 16 months. But, when Haglund discovered the piles of dog poop, he also found boxes and boxes of expensive shoes the tenant had been buying. “This guy was refusing to pay rent and hiding behind the eviction moratorium, but he had plenty of money to buy a house full of expensive, high-end shoes. Not only that, he was also buying bags of ‘organic dog food’ to feed his dog. He can’t pay rent, spends thousands of dollars on shoes but at least he is going organic for environment” Haglund said wryly.
As if the story could not get any crazier, it turns out the tenant cannot be evicted under Seattle law. In order for the tenant to be removed, he must be an “imminent threat” to his neighbors. Although the smell is overpowering and the feces creates a health hazard, the tenant is technically not an immediate danger to his neighbors. Therefore, under the current eviction moratorium Haglund must allow the tenant to stay while continuing to pay no rent. “I’m basically providing a free dog crap service for this man. And Seattle tells me I have to do it…for free.” According to Haglund’s records, the tenant currently owes approximately $28,000 in back rent.