A Korean tenant refused to pay the rent and stayed in the house for more than two years before moving out.
On February 9, Jonathan Choi, a one-man independent media outlet in Seattle, posted a post on social media X titled “Breaking News: Rogue Tenant Kim Finally Evicted from Rental House.”
Choi said, “After numerous legal rulings against them, the Kims were supposed to vacate by Saturday,” and “But they went past the deadline and left a mess.”
The illegal occupation of the rental housing by the Kim couple’s family was made known to Choi and the community through protests and social media reports in March last year.
According to the Seattle Korean media, the Kim couple, who live in the Bellevue area near Seattle, agreed to pay $4,400 a month to the landlord Jaskaran Singh on the condition of renting a nine-month single-family home in July 2022.
Afterwards, the Kim couple paid rent for only three months after moving in, and then began to illegally occupy the house. The landlord, Mr. Xing, filed a lawsuit against Mr. Kim and received the outstanding rent by May 2023.
However, the Kim couple continued to occupy the house illegally without paying the rent. Eventually, about 30 people, including Choi and Cory King County Republican Party Vice Chairman, held a protest in front of the house that the Kim couple had illegally seized since March last year.
At the time, local residents gathered in front of the house that the Kim couple had illegally occupied and urged them to stop their habitual illegal occupation. Korean Americans pointed out that the Kim couple were ‘frauds’ and were having a negative impact on the local Korean community.
The landlord who rented the detached house to the Kim couple, Mr. Singh, also joined the picket line with the residents and complained about the injustice. In an interview with a local media outlet, Singh said, “He was not ready to pay the rent. He abused the current rental system.”
In particular, while landlord Singh claimed that the rent owed was $80,000, the Kim couple reportedly requested free legal assistance from a non-profit organization for tenants and fought the eviction suit on the grounds of “being unemployed.”
The Kim couple’s illegal occupation ended after two years of community condemnation and litigation. On February 9, Choi visited the single-family house that the Kim couple had illegally occupied and filmed them moving out, which he posted on X. The Kim couple prepared a moving truck and left the house in a car with their children. The video has been viewed 3.26 million times.
During the pandemic, illegal tenant occupation has emerged as a problem in cities across the country, including Los Angeles. These tenants cause economic damage to the owners by not paying rent after moving in after signing a rental contract or by occupying vacant houses without permission and resisting eviction.
The City of Los Angeles has a tenant protection regulation that limits the conditions for eviction. Building owners cannot evict tenants unless they have not paid the rent based on the size of the unit ($1,534 for a studio, $1,747 for a one-bedroom, $2,222 for a two-bedroom, and $2,888 for a three-bedroom).
If the landlord gives the tenant an eviction notice, the landlord must explain it to the tenant in writing and notify the City Housing Authority within three days. When the tenant receives an eviction notice, he or she must submit a response to the court within 10 days.
BY HYOUNGJAE KIM [kim.ian@koreadaily.com]
