A letter was received this week by The B-Town Blog that claims to be on behalf of approximately 500 families residing at the Alcove at Seahurst apartments (aka Seahurst Gardens, Alturas, The Heights), blowing the whistle on inadequate parking practices and what signatories say is a “lucrative scheme” at harming working class residents.
“Our neighborhood has become a decent place to live over the last decade, but unfortunately, the landlord has never been able to fix its ‘parking problem’”, the joint letter states. “There isn’t adequate parking. Over time, it’s become a lucrative scheme, and this New Year, property management has crossed the line.”
The writer, who goes by Jesse G., shared:
“For the first time in several years, the neighborhood was set to have a new parking system in place, February 1st. People not keeping up with the scheme-cycle were caught New Years’ Day, and dozens were towed 20 miles out (the nearest tow company that will participate in this grimy policy) for $600 each. Many didn’t receive the email notices—especially in our multilingual community—and have spent the first week of the year losing their cars.”
The letter stipulated that “next week it will be their jobs and then next month their home.”
Calling it a “predatory scheme” targeting the working class “too busy to check their emails about a decades-old cycle of exploitation,” the letter added, “It pits neighbors against each other, doing the dirty work of ‘fixing’ the parking problem temporarily with a tow bill that can ruin their neighbor’s life indefinitely. This is violent, unjust, and drowning a community already struggling enough as it is.”
Residents are asking anyone with authority to “please press forward in our demand for an immediate halt to this inhumane practice and accountability for those responsible for providing a viable parking option.”
The B-Town Blog has reached out to property managers for comment. This is a developing story.
Thank you so much for bringing this parking story to us! These types of ripoffs to hard-working citizens seem to be becoming more and more common at many large apartment complexes in the area.
My daughter was caught up in the towing situation and was heartbroken hearing about other residents at the towing company who couldn’t afford to pay their bills. Today, she came home to find her newly assigned parking spot taken by the manager’s golf cart, leaving her anxious that if she parks anywhere else, her car might be towed again! This is an absurd situation!
If I were your daughter I’d call the office and tell them to move that cart!! She’s right, she could parks elsewhere then end up being towed!! Thankfully we now have until February 1st to worry about it. They delayed it so other residents can get their permits and space numbers.
As a fellow resident I agree that she should call the office immediately. But I don’t agree that we should be thankful for the “delay” office gave people to “power” to tow when they didn’t have the authority to do so. They informed us parking would start on the 1st of February but then Enacted the parking January 1st oh wait. They enacted it January 3rd but said it was supposed to start the 1st of January.
Even though all paperwork has previously said February 1st.
I am very unhappy with how they handled the situation especially since It has forced me to park in a different neighborhood.
This is a blatant example of predatory practices targeting vulnerable tenants. The towing scheme and lack of proper notice, is exploitative and unjust. Property management companies and towing services profiting off the hardships of hardworking families must be held accountable. This community deserves fair treatment and transparency, not financial strain caused by unethical behavior. The authorities must step in to protect tenants’ rights and put an end to these predatory schemes.
By washington state law only people put on the contract by management are allowed to tow so the tow companies are only doing what is asked by property manager and all the prices are regulated in washington so any crooked stuff usually starts with property management and with as many tow companies have been contracted over the years probably says alot about management and why won’t any local companies tow for them anymore
Please have management justify what they are doing to their tenants. Is this in their leases?
As a resident, it is NOT in our lease agreement. They’ve even put out a notice that they will be charging an extra $25 per spot on our new lease if we decide to renew. I’ve talked to some of the tow truck drivers around here and one said he’s had a gun pulled on him twice in one day! It’s been really dangerous
So disappointing to see such a gross abuse of power, hope those effected can receive the justice they deserve!
It’s upsetting to see power being so severely misused. I truly hope justice is served for those who were impacted.
How can you rent living spaces to people and than not have any form of parking available?! And than to have management profiting and targeting the families that they have left with out options!! This is complete abuse of power and someone should look into the legality of all this. If they keep abusing the working class soon they won’t have a working class.
Very often that tenants have more people live in their room than what they signed in the lease and those extra people take over parking space of other actual tenants and park all over the neighborhood. Burien is a mess! SW 126th St is an example!
And to add insult to injury they are charging us $25 for a parking spot a month on top of rent, utilities and insurance!!!! This is crazy charging for parking after all the hell we have to put up with over the years.
Management notified us in Nov/Dec to get our parking permit & space number by 12/31/24. The email also stated we’d be charged $25/month for one space. If you have more than one car there are spots that are first come first served. They posted notices on the building doors. Then emailed us Jan 1 that we needed to be in our assigned spots and towing will commence. Jan 8 we receive another email stating they postponed it and it will actually begin Feb 1. My first thought was, did they compensate the residence they towed already? I’ve seen the tow truck out and about, taking cars.
The problem is there are many families with more than one car. The complex is large, multiple family units. There’s no space for us all. Residences often have to park on the other side of the complex and walk to their apartments.
When they sectioned us off in different colored areas it really did help. But now we have to police our spot and turn our neighbors in if they park there so we don’t get towed having to park elsewhere? It doesn’t sit well with me.
Hey Rebecca I love your summary of the situation, wanted to add and potentially point out a potential oversight. The email they first sent In early January was actually sent on January 3rd, but enacted the parking ordinance 2 days prior on the 1st. Or at least that is the email I got. If you got one on January 1st that makes me even more upset that some of us got stuff other didn’t.
The management team created chaos between residents while they didn’t give enough notice. Last week end the towe truck block my way and refused to move, and caused me late from my business work which the result loss some money for me.
She should block it in! The manager is nor above the rules… and that ISN’T their spot!
I was one of the residents. The tow company damaged the electrical in my car. Management’s approach to dealing with this has been to respond with snarky replies such as reminding me when my lease is up which was unprofessional and felt like retaliation. I did see the email, I did go into the office to get my pass and was sent away due to them having wifi malfunctions. When I explained this to them, they got mad and said that it was impossible to be sent away due to wifi since it wasn’t needed to assign a spot and then proceeded to need to wifi to get my spot assigned. Once it was, you can imagine my surprise to come home and try to park in my designated spot and find managements golf cart parked in my spot. When I called the tow company they confirmed that management get a courtesy call about their vehicles…a courtesy that is NOT extended to residents. So disappointing to see the horrible mismanagement and devastating affects this entire situation has had.
This is too much what these people did, does anyone know if there is any way to file a lawsuit against them?, we should investigate what relationship they have with those of the tow truck since there were too many people affected, according to us a person in charge of a crane carried 10 cars in terms of 4 hours, each person had to pay 735 dollars to take out the car and then this fine would amount to more if it was left for several nights
How anout a tenant right office from the law? Or public law suit? I don’t know.
Hey folks, this is Josh from the Puget Sound Tenants Union (soundtenants.org). To those who have been impacted by this parking scheme, feel free to reach out to contact@soundtenants.org to talk more about how PSTU can support y’all as you organize against management’s predatory practices!
The Imagine Housing Tenants Union has seen this happen at Imagine properties in East King County. It’s time to come together and stop this and other tactics they use. Is Avalon at Seahurst allso a affordable tax credit property? Also I’ll be contacting Sound Tenants for our group.
This is what I wrote to the manager of the Raleigh apts.i had absolutely nowhere to park and I’ve been a tenant for over 20 years.after I got my car towed, I started taking pic of cars that were parked in the fire lane and the striped lane which none of them were ever towed.my car got towed :230 am Sunday DEC 2..I’m taking the manager to court.i have all the evidence I need .
Hi Ms.Nicole,This is my last plea to have the tow charge reimbursed,Like i said before,this is Rhandele Dusich,I have live here at the Raleigh along with my mom and sister for over 20years.We always paid the rent even when it was pandemic,not like other residents they owed thousands of dollars but my family always paid the rent even through the crisis.On Sat Nov 30 I came home about 12am from work when I got home I had absolutely nowhere to park all the parking spots were taken that’s why I had to park on the striped lines next to disabled.there is no no parking sign but there was a number in the space because it used to be a parking spot.people park there all the time it’s just when nisha took over as manager she would put warning sticker but never had the cars towed,What I don’t understand was when she became manager the first thing she did was take away assigned parking.When she did that I started noticing cars parked here that wasn’t even a tenant here.Every weekend the lot would be so full that tenants would be parking in the fire lanes and the striped parking.Had I found a parking spot on Saturday night I wouldn’t of parked on the striped stall.On Sunday morning that’s when I found out my car was towed,The tow place was closed.The managers office was closed.i had money set aside for Christmas for my family in which I had to spend to get my car out.Im asking for your kind consideration regarding this matter.My wife and I was crying because it might be a possibility that Christmas might be ruins this year..I promise that if I get reimburse the $800,I will keep it to myself and not let anyone else know if I get asked.Please I’m begging for my reimbursement .please.thank you.have a great day.hope to hear from you soon.
I’m gonna talk about the parking but I’ll talk about the place in general as well. I’ve lived in the apartments for over 2 years now. This is my second time living here. I lived here when I was in elementary school as well. The area isn’t that great. The management sucks worse now then it did before. Lots of cars are broken in to. I see homeless people walking through all the time. My boyfriend dropped his new phone and some kid picked it up and ran off with it. Some guy/kid dressed in all black tried to blind me with a laser as I was leaving for work one morning at 3am. The fire alarms are always going off. I have a water leak and mold issue in my bathroom that still needs to be fixed and they say they just want to paint over it… the entire wall needs to be replaced. My gas stove doesn’t work half the time and you can’t read the numbers for the oven. I use an airfyer, microwave, wok, crockpot and rice cooker to cook all our meals, unless absolutely necessary. There are ants and cockroaches. The exterior light on my building has been out for months, they haven’t replaced it. At one point the fire alarm in the hallway was beeping for 6 months and even though maintenance had been in and out of the building they waited to deal with it. Someone kicked in the front door to the building so at one point it would get stuck shut, locking people in, then it got broken more and would not close. Its still broken but closes for the most park but doesn’t lock. There is no weather striping around my apartment door so during the winter it gets cold and summer it gets hot. The unit across from me has to have a window open during winter because their apartment gets humid and you can see the condisation on the windows from outside. People are constantly parking in front of the fire hydrants due to lack of sufficient parking. Some people have even parked and blocked the roads that lead behind the buildings. One person had to drive across the grass to get out. The same car has been parked in the same spot and hasn’t moved for over a month now. They can worry about people who are taking others people’s assigned spots but not vehicles that are broken down and taking up a unassigned spot. Maybe if they took away some of the big unused grass areas, they could put in more parking. Not like most of the residence who have dogs pick up after them anyways like they are supposed to. Plus there is only 1 area in the entire complex that I’ve seen that has a dog waste station. Take away some of their areas and maybe I wont have to constantly watch where I step when I take my dogs out. We’re supposed to have security patrolling but you never see them. When the parking was color coded, I parked next to my building and my boyfriend had to park his car out on the main strip. If there was no room there, they expected him to park in the “extra parking” over near the little store which is all the way on the other side of the complex. We both work early hours, him 6am, me 4am. Walking across the complex that early makes me uncomfortable. Well his 4 Runner was hooked and stolen from the complex and then striped. They decided to change the parking shortly after that. I had my car parked in front of my building and someone broke in and tried to steal it causing $5,500 in damage. But due to the fact that I had the ignition modified, they couldn’t steal it. I have to park my car behind my building to hide it but someone was back there messing with it because the side mirror was pushed back and so was the mirror on my boyfriends current car. I lock my car with a boot even though it can’t be stolen as a deterant and I have a camera in it and stickers that say there is a camera. I was worried they were going to put my assigned spot in the front of the building but they didn’t. They put it behind it, thankfully. But they put me in a spot that a electric vehicle was using so they could charge their car, and I think that persons spot is in front of the building forcing them to park in a no park area. I have to walk all the way around to the opposite end of the building to get to my car. My area has a bunch of open parking. More so then assigned. Most of the middle of the complex is all assigned with almost no guest parking. The management told us when we got our tags we could tow starting January 1st. I had someone in my spot and instead of having them towed, I simply left a note saying it was my assigned spot. They had until the next day to move and they did move. Management then decided they jumped the gun and pushed the right to tow back to February 1st. I don’t want to have to call and have someone towed. I know its expensive and not every one can afford that kind of bill. I prefer the first come first serve. But they need more parking. Also most of the complex is parallel parking. That takes up so much more space and I’m always seeing people hit other cars while trying to park which is another reason I don’t like parking out front or on the main strip. Hell, widen the main road and put in angled parking instead. That would get you more parking. But there is only 1 brain cell between all the people managing it that they can’t come up with a better solution. Parking was free, now they want to charge you more if you renew your lease…. that’s bull… any way they can get more money. Last time we were forced to renew because it was either renew and only pay and extra $50 a month or do a month to month and they charge us an extra $500 a month. So our $1550 rent would go up to $2050 without a lease. No way this place is worth that much. The paint is cheap and everything sticks to it, I can’t sit in bed without my hair sticking to the wall. The carpet gets ripped up everytime I vacuum and it’s not glued down or anything. The “hardwood” is not real hardwood… it vinyl. The walls are thin and the neighbors are loud.
That’s a good idea to pave the grassy areas for parking. There are areas that used to have playgrounds that could be used. The gazebos aren’t used, remove those and pave the area.
HELLO IM A TENANT HERE AND BETWEEN THE GANG MEMBERS TAGGING THE PROPERTY TO THE PARKING SCHEME , PLUS ROACH INFESTED TENANTS, DOG FECES ALL OVER THE SIDEWALK NOW DENYING ELDERLY PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES FOR CLOSE PARKS TO YOUR BUILDING. ALCOVE MANAGEMENT SHOWS RACIAL DISCRIMINATION TO AMERICAN BRONZE PEOPLE. DEFINITELY NEED TO BE STOPPED