Advice, Please: Level III Sex Offender in Olympia (renters, sex offenders)

[leaux_rhyder]

Hello. This is my first post, and I would like your advice and tips, if you have any.


Friends of mine are in an uncomfortable predicament. They moved into a rental duplex last fall. They are married with a now 16 month-old daughter. They researched the area before moving in and found no sex offenders in their area, but upon moving in, they found that a level III sex offender (rape of a female child) lived across the street.



This man sits outside in his garage, which is his right; however, he began to exhibit rather predacious behavior upon noticing my friend's wife and baby girl. He recently took pictures of their house from his garage with a camera. He comes to the foot of the driveway when she gets the mail. He steps forward from the garage if she leaves or comes to the house.



She has called the man's probation officer, and he says this is not a problem. She recently found out that the home he rents is a halfway house for sex offenders.


I have some questions and would love some advice, any, that anyone could offer:


1.) If the offender is a level III, are any laws being broke by allowing him to reside within 100 feet of a child?


2.) Were the renters (my friends) deserving of any notice by their landlord that such a person lived nearby?


3.) When they moved in, this person was not registered at this address, even though he lived there. I have suggested that they look in to certain Internet engines to show that this was so, such as the WayWayWay Back Machine. Would this matter to their being able to recoup any moneys for a move or getting out their lease?


4.) What, exactly, constitutes behavior by the offender that would cross the lines of his probation?



They want to move, seeing as this person is behaving in a way that causes them unease and concern. Taking pictures, coming to the foot of the driveway only when the mom comes out, and constantly being outside and staring may not necessarily cross boundaries of probation, but they are behaviors that would cause any reasonably intelligent parent great concern. They are at least some sort of game the offender enjoys. Does this constitute creating an environment that would be uncomfortable enough to merit a reasonable breaking of a lease?


Thank you for any input. I am researching sex offender rights and responsibilities along with neighbors' rights.


I hope someone can help me out, even if it is links to sites with decent information or support. Again, the probation officer does not seem to care that the offender takes pictures and makes his presence known.

[Diana Holbrook]

I really sympathize with the situation and the impact it must have on their sense of peace and safety. I think the best answers for most of your questions about what would constitute actionable behavior on his part, if not from his probation officer, will come from a meeting or two with either the Olympia Police Department (if you are in the city of Olympia) or the Thurston County Sheriff’s Office. Both will have an officer, or a department even, dedicated to sex offenders... and they will know this person and what your rights are.

They should be on notice of the concerns and have some advice going forward until she can move.

[oregonwoodsmoke]

There are rules about distance from schools, not distance from houses where kids live.


Tell your friends to not leave their baby unattended out on the lawn or in the car. I also suggest some sort of simple alarm on the windows that will shriek loudly when the window is opened.


They can move at the end of their lease. The landlord is not required to keep track of every possible potential danger in the neighborhood. That is the tenant's responsibility, although I don't know why they expect the landlord to even know about the guy across the street if your friend didn't find him when they checked the area.


The other possibility is to pay a lease break fee and move out now. No guarantees that their new place to live won't have a sex offender somewhere close by... or even miles away. Many sex offenders have cars and travel in search of victims. They should be using standard protective measures whether they are aware of a local predator or not.

[Diana Holbrook]

I do agree that we all need to take steps to protect ourselves, because for every threat we know about, there are others we don't. Always be careful.

That said, if this is actually some kind of sanctioned halfway house for sex offenders in any kind of official way, that that changes the dynamic to something that both the governing agencies involved, and then, in turn, the landlord (once notified) has a responsibility to inform the neighbors and potential residents about.

It also makes it less about this guy... because if he's arrested, another will replace him. The threat won't go away.

It might be really *interesting* to know if the landlord knew, or had any way of knowing, what was going on next door, but if it were me, I think the primary mission now should be to move.

[reenzz]

Originally Posted by Diana Holbrook

I do agree that we all need to take steps to protect ourselves, because for every threat we know about, there are others we don't. Always be careful.

That said, if this is actually some kind of sanctioned halfway house for sex offenders in any kind of official way, that that changes the dynamic to something that both the governing agencies involved, and then, in turn, the landlord (once notified) has a responsibility to inform the neighbors and potential residents about.

It also makes it less about this guy... because if he's arrested, another will replace him. The threat won't go away.

It might be really *interesting* to know if the landlord knew, or had any way of knowing, what was going on next door, but if it were me, I think the primary mission now should be to move.

Diane...with all due respect, please post the law that requires a landlord to notify a potential tenant of halfway homes and/or sex offenders.

[oregonwoodsmoke]

HUD considers any information that might affect where people choose to live as "steering". They are so "progressive" that I don't have any problem believing that HUD would consider telling applicants that a child molester lives across the street as an attempt to sidestep the law against rejecting children. Because that would be a good way to keep children out.

Landlords are not supposed to give any information about anything in the neighborhood. They aren't supposed to give information about who lives in the neighborhood. It's a Fair Housing issue.

If the state is required to send out notices to neighbors when a sex offender moves into a neighborhood, they only send the notice to neighbors and not to the owner of the property if he isnt living at that address.

If no one sends a notice to the landlord and the creep across the street isn't listed on the sexual preditor website ( OP's friend looked and found nothing). How would the landlord even know.

[Diana Holbrook]

Originally Posted by reenzz

Diane...with all due respect, please post the law that requires a landlord to notify a potential tenant of halfway homes and/or sex offenders.

I don't think I really need to, my opinion is a moral one, not a legal one... but here...

https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclope...sclosures.html

Two quotes:

• details on landlord-tenant law, such as local rent control rules, and other information such as registered sexual offender database

• Part of a landlord’s responsibility to provide habitable premises includes the obligation to warn tenants about hidden (not obvious) aspects of the rental property that could cause injury or substantially interfere with tenants’ safe enjoyment and use of the dwelling...

You are free to seek your own legal counsel, but when in doubt, I would advise disclosure. I think one can argue that an established halfway house for sex offenders, if the landlord knows about it, is a hidden and not obvious aspect of the rental property that could cause injury or substantially interfere with tenants’ safe enjoyment and use of the dwelling... wouldn't you?

I sympathize with landlords when people like this move in next door. They have no control over that. And if this is a home repeatedly used by a stream of sex offenders... that's even worse for him. But I would not want to be in the position of NOT warning of such a thing, in the event someone got really hurt.

[Diana Holbrook]

Originally Posted by oregonwoodsmoke

HUD considers any information that might affect where people choose to live as "steering". They are so "progressive" that I don't have any problem believing that HUD would consider telling applicants that a child molester lives across the street as an attempt to sidestep the law against rejecting children. Because that would be a good way to keep children out.

Landlords are not supposed to give any information about anything in the neighborhood. They aren't supposed to give information about who lives in the neighborhood. It's a Fair Housing issue.

If the state is required to send out notices to neighbors when a sex offender moves into a neighborhood, they only send the notice to neighbors and not to the owner of the property if he isnt living at that address.

If no one sends a notice to the landlord and the creep across the street isn't listed on the sexual preditor website ( OP's friend looked and found nothing). How would the landlord even know.

ows... at least so far... Sex offenders are NOT protected by fair housing laws.

[Ruth4Truth]

I''m really wondering why the halfway house didn't turn up on a search for sex offenders in the area.

[Diana Holbrook]

Originally Posted by Ruth4Truth

I''m really wondering why the halfway house didn't turn up on a search for sex offenders in the area.

Curious too.... Could be it was very new, or even.... not yet operating. OP did say "at the time" and references the wayback machine to prove it, so it must be there now.