(PHOTO: Crosscut) Jennifer doesn’t fit the stereotype of a tenant facing eviction. Two years ago, she thought she was on her way to buying the house she rents in an upscale King County neighborhood. She scraped together a $50,000 earnest payment, then borrowed another $50,000. But when she had trouble securing a mortgage for the balance, the LLC that owns the property wouldn’t let her back out of the contract. The sale was off, and she could stay if she kept paying rent, but they were pocketing her $100,000.
“Everyone assumed we were working it out, and it was so informal, there was never a lawyer,” Jennifer explains. (Crosscut is using a pseudonym to protect the tenant’s privacy.) “I thought it was all kosher and then they got brutal.”
