Being a landlord or a tenant has its own set of rights and responsibilities.

For the next few weeks we’ve invited our very own Royce Travis, a top-notch housing counselor here at Aberdeen Neighborhood Housing Services, to help lead us through the unique rights and responsibilities of landlords and tenants.

Thanks to the Washington State Landlord/Tenant Law, duties of both landlords and tenants are specifically laid out for the protection of both.

We’re going to start with the tenant side of things.

As a renter, if something in your house or apartment needs repair, you must notify the landlord in writing to ensure protection under the law.

Depending on the type of repair needed, the landlord has various specified times to fix the problem.

For instance, if you have no hot or no cold water, electricity or heat, or if there is a "condition imminently hazardous to life," the landlord has only 24 hours to fix the problem after receiving notice in writing.

If the problem is a broken refrigerator, range, oven or major plumbing fixture, such as a toilet, the landlord has 72 hours by law to fix the problem once receiving your request in writing.

For all other repairs, the landlord is given 10 days to make repairs under the law.

However, before a landlord must comply with any of the repair schedules, the renter must have both rent and utilities’ bills paid up.

If your landlord doesn’t repair the items as you requested under the law’s deadlines, you have five major options.

1. You can give written notice again. This time your letter will state that the landlord didn’t do what he was required to do and that you plan to move out. Under this option, you are entitled to a pro-rated rent refund as well as any normal deposit you would get.

2. Hire an attorney and go to court. (However, these matters cannot be heard in small claims courts.) Or, if both parties agree, go to a mediation service such as the Dispute Resolution Center.

3. You can hire someone to make the repairs. If the job requires, a licensed trade person must do the work. The tenant must submit an estimate ahead of time to the landlord. This estimate can be given to the landlord along with the original notice of the problem.

The tenant can then contract with the lowest bidder to have the work done. (However, the tenant must wait either 10 days after giving notice of the needed repair or five days after the landlord receives the estimate, whichever is later.) The tenant can then pay the repair person and simply deduct the cost of the repair from the rent.

If the tenant hires someone to do the repairs, the total cost of the repairs deductible from the rent cannot exceed one month’s rent per repair, and no more than two months rent in a year.

If the repair is large enough that it affects a number of tenants, they can join together to follow the proper procedure to have the work done.

4. If you’re handy, you can make repairs yourself – as long as it’s not the kind of work that requires a licensed trade person. If you do attempt the repair, you can deduct the cost from the rent – both labor and materials. But in this case, the cost cannot be more than one-half a month’s rent for one repair and no more than one month’s rent in a year.

5. Your last option is that after notifying your landlord of the needed repair, waiting the prescribed time for your landlord to fix it, and having the appropriate government certification of defect (such as the city code compliance officer), you can put your rent money in an escrow account. This procedure is very technical and cannot be fully described here.

With all of these options, remember that if you stop paying your rent or utilities, you lose all your rights.

That’s the biggest mistake that people make, Royce says.

She also strongly recommends that folks either deliver the notice personally or use certified mail with a return receipt to help establish a paper trail you may need to prove your claims. Keep a copy of all written communication.

Her parting bit of advice for successful complaint resolution: Make the complaint as soon as possible, and preserve your rights by knowing and keeping your responsibilities as a tenant

More next week on landlords and tenants.