Housing Providers File Class Action Challenging COVID Eviction Moratorium

Olympia, WA — December 18, 2025

A group of mom-and-pop housing providers has filed a class action lawsuit in Thurston County Superior Court against Washington State, Governor Bob Ferguson, and numerous municipalities across the state, alleging that Washington’s COVID-19 eviction moratorium caused uncompensated financial harm and resulted in an unconstitutional taking of private property.

The lawsuit was filed by a class of housing providers who assert they were never fairly compensated for prolonged non-payment of rent, damage to rental units, and diminution in property value during Washington’s nearly two-year statewide eviction ban. During that period, housing providers were prohibited from evicting tenants—including for non-payment of rent or significant property damage—while continuing to bear operating costs such as mortgages, taxes, insurance, and maintenance.

According to the complaint, many housing providers accumulated years of unpaid rent and were unable to remove tenants exhibiting behavioral or drug-related issues. The plaintiffs emphasize that many members of the class are retirees who depended on rental income to fund their retirement and basic living expenses.

“These housing providers were not able to collect monthly rent and in the same instance were not able to lawfully exclude non-paying residents from their legally owned properties,” said Sean Flynn, Executive Director of the Rental Housing Association of Washington and spokesperson for the plaintiff group. “We believed and still do believe that this qualifies as a per-se taking of property, and we will take this all the way to the United State Supreme Court if necessary.”

The lawsuit also raises broader concerns about the scope and limits of emergency powers exercised during the COVID-19 pandemic. Plaintiffs argue that while public-health emergencies may justify temporary restrictions, the prolonged duration of the moratorium—combined with the absence of full compensation—shifted the economic burden of the crisis onto a narrow group of private property owners.

“Housing providers and developers really want to know that this will not happen again during another season of emergency powers. The Washington Supreme Court has given no explicit guidance or assurances that this will not happen at another point in time,” said John DiLorenzo, a partner with Davis Wright Tremaine, who is representing the class in the lawsuit. “These are not big property owners. They are small housing providers who were compelled to retain residents who paid no rent on their property without just compensation even after the COVID-19 crisis was in the rear view mirror.”

The case will next proceed through preliminary motions in Thurston County Superior Court, where the defendants are expected to file motions to dismiss before the court considers whether the claims may advance.

Potential Legal Implications If the Case Proceeds

If the lawsuit survives initial motions to dismiss, it could have significant implications for the legal treatment of emergency powers, housing regulation, and property rights in Washington and beyond.

Courts have traditionally afforded governments broad discretion during emergencies, but this case focuses on whether prolonged eviction moratoria—particularly those lacking adequate compensation mechanisms—exceed constitutional limits. A ruling allowing the claims to proceed would suggest that emergency housing policies are subject to meaningful judicial scrutiny when they impose concentrated financial losses on a discrete class of property owners.

Such a development could prompt state and local governments to reassess how future emergency measures are structured, potentially requiring clearer time limits, compensation programs, or narrower tailoring. It could also encourage similar litigation in other states that adopted extended eviction bans during the pandemic.

For housing providers, developers, and lenders, the case represents a potential inflection point in defining how far emergency authority can extend before triggering constitutional protections for private property.

https://www.rhawa.org/blog/plaintiffs-file-class-action-suit-over-covid-eviction-moratorium

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