Recent News

On June 2, 2020, Washington State Governor Jay Inslee issued Proclamation 20-19.2, which extends the statewide moratorium on evictions until August 1, 2020.  My colleague Todd Cook previously posted about the original moratorium and April modification to it here:  https://beresfordlaw.com/governor-inslee-expands-scope-of-eviction-moratorium-and-extends-moratorium-until-june-4-2020/.  This latest extension continues most of the same prohibitions as existed previously.  The moratorium prohibits… Read More

On June 3, 2020, the Washington Department of Health announced the launch of an updated COVID-19 risk assessment dashboard.  The dashboard includes detailed data relating to six topics:  Phases & Risk Assessment, COVID-19 Disease Activity, Testing Capacity, Healthcare System Readiness, Case Investigations and Contact Tracing, and Populations at Higher Risk.  In addition to identifying the… Read More

On May 31, 2020, Governor Jay Inslee issued his latest amendment to the “Stay Home – Stay Healthy” order.  The Governor originally issued his “Stay Home” order  on March 23, 2020.  Prior to May 31, the Governor amended the order three times, on April 2, 2020, April 27, 2020 and May 4, 5020.  Each of… Read More

May 28th, 2020 David Tingstad and Tom Over (from Vine Dahlen) speak, Q & A-style, about PPP loans. Read More

In nearly all circumstances, an easement entitles its holder to make only limited use of another’s land.  The default rule in Washington as in most jurisdictions is that even when an owner’s land (legally known as the “servient tenement” or commonly referred to as the “burdened property”) is encumbered by an easement in favor of… Read More

Beresford Booth has actively monitored the latest developments in the Paycheck Protection Program (“PPP”) along with the process by which PPP loans will be forgiven.  Last week, I gave a webinar discussing PPP loan forgiveness and its various aspects.  It can be found here. In addition to this presentation, I recently found a helpful website… Read More

Part 1 - David C. Tingstad speaks about the latest information on SBA PPP Loans and Forgiveness. .pdf download of David Tingstad's presentation Part 2 - Andrew M. McKenzie addresses the ramifications of Seattle's COVID-19 Eviction Moratorium. Read More

Over the past week, Washington has continued to progress quickly through the “Safe Start Washington” phased re-opening plan.  Entering this week, the state had granted early entry variances to ten low density counties to enter Phase 2.  Those counties included Asotin, Columbia, Ferry, Garfield, Lincoln, Pend Oreille, Skamania, Stevens, Wahkiakum and Whitman counties.  That left… Read More

Seattle has long had a reputation for tenant-friendly regulations.  In the wake of COVID-19, starting in March 2020, Seattle took several actions culminating in a lengthy moratorium on certain evictions.   On May 6, 2020, Mayor Durkan signed into law a bill unanimously passed by the Seattle City Council (full text here: https://seattle.legistar.com/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=4427723&GUID=0651D7FC-E708-40E6-8AFA-090008E8C4A4&FullText=1), known as Ordinance 126075, which… Read More