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This is what our office uses for every residential non-payment of rent eviction. It is a summons authorized under RCW 59.18.375, hence the name. That summons contains an additional paragraph requiring the tenant to do one of 2 things: either to pay the undisputed rent into the court registry or to file a statement sworn under penalty of perjury stating that they either do not owe the rent or that they have a legal or equitable setoff or defense.
If the tenant fails to do either of the above-listed items, at the show cause hearing, the court is required to at least issue the writ of restitution returning the apartment to the landlord. The court can set the monetary issues for trial, but must issue the writ.
There are two keys to a 375 summons: first, it is only effective after the tenant has been notified of the date that the case was filed and the cause number of the eviction (without a cause number, the tenant cannot deposit any money into the court registry). In the case of a summons and complaint that has been filed prior to service, this is not a problem. In the case of an unfiled summons and complaint, if the tenant answers the complaint and we have to set a show cause hearing, we also send a letter to the tenant (what our office calls a “375 letter” but which is captioned “notice of filing lawsuit” with the order to show cause. Because of the second key to the 375 summons set out below, our office also faxes a copy of that letter to the management and requests that you serve it on the tenant in the same way as you would serve any eviction notice on the tenant (personal service, knocking and serving any other person, or knocking and posting and mailing. We request that you serve the notice immediately. As you may have guessed by now, the second key to the 375 summons is that the tenant must be notifed of the date of filing the lawsuit and cause number in the same manner as they are served with an eviction notice.
If you have any questions about the use and requirements of the 375 summons, please give any attorney or paralegal at our office a call.
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