'My Worst Nightmare': Seattle Homeowner Lives in a Van While Deadbeat Tenant Rents His Home on Airbnb

This story out of Seattle really is a nightmare. A homeowner named Jason Roth fixed up a home which he planned to rent out while he worked toward getting his commercial pilot’s license. Roth lived in a small apartment instead so he could use the extra money for his pilot training. The person he rented his house to in March of this year looked good on paper and seemed nice in person but almost immediately couldn’t pay the rent. Now almost eight months later, Roth is still trying to get the deadbeat renter, who owes him more than $33,000, out out of the house. He also discovered the basement of his house was being rented out on Airbnb. This Kiro 7 story was published last month.

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Jason Roth lives in a van with his dog Wally. He’s both homeless and a homeowner, all at the same time.

“It’s frustrating, extremely frustrating. It’s something I can’t fully wrap my head around,” he said.

Jason is making mortgage payments for his Rainer Valley home and paying for pilot school. He is owed five months’ rent – a total of some $29k in back rent, plus utilities…

Jason’s deadbeat renter is listing the downstairs living space on Airbnb for $434 a night. Jason believes he is generating at least $2k a month, and possibly closer to $3k or possibly even $4k, depending on the month.

The Airbnb rental was apparently cut off thanks to the Jason Rantz show which featured Roth’s story back in August. A state representative named Chris Corry heard the story and decided to try to help by presenting information about Roth’s situation to Airbnb advocates/lobbyists who interact with lawmakers.

“We gave them the listing the contact information, all the details,” Corry told “The Jason Rantz Show.” “I went in and got the King County parcel data before I even went over there just to confirm what was going on. And, obviously, once we got that information to them, they said, ‘We’ll look into it.’ And then I got a call Monday morning, (and they said), ‘Yep, we’ve taken it down, this should not have happened.’”…

“Representative Corry called me, which was incredible,” Roth told “The Jason Rantz Show.” “Because I got a couple of emails from certain people, you know, expressing their concern, wanting to help, but he actually gave me a phone call, which was awesome.”

Roth said he dealt with constant bureaucratic gymnastics while trying to reach out to his socialist council member Tammy Morales.

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So his deadbeat tenant is no longer making income off his property, but still hasn’t been evicted because of a months-long backlog of similar cases in Seattle. Meanwhile, Roth is still paying the mortgage and the utilities for the house. That meant he couldn’t afford his small apartment anymore. He was forced to couch surf with friends and eventually move into a van with his dog. He is essentially homeless until this gets resolved.

“I feel like I’m just constantly getting robbed, like every day,” Jason Roth told Fox News. “This is my worst nightmare.”…

He finally got a court hearing this week, but the judge granted a continuance. The next available court date wasn’t until mid-March, past the end of the original lease.

“I’m sick of sleeping in my van and on couches. I just want to be back in my house,” the homeless homeowner told KIRO after the hearing.

Maybe Roth will finally get his day in court in March or maybe his tenant (and the free lawyer he got from the King County Bar Association’s Housing Justice Project) will come up with another excuse for delay. What’s pretty clear is that the city of Seattle isn’t on his side.

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