Every person is guilty of a forcible detainer who either—(1) By force, or by menaces and threats of violence, unlawfully holds and keeps the possession of any real property, whether the same was acquired peaceably or otherwise; or—(2) Who in the nighttime, or during the absence of the occupant of any real property, enters thereon, and who, after demand made for the surrender thereof, refuses for the period of three days to surrender the same to such former occupant. The occupant of real property within the meaning of this subdivision is one who for the five days next preceding such unlawful entry was in the peaceable and undisturbed possession of such real property.
RCW 59.12.020
Forcible detainer defined.
Applied in 3 court decisions — leading case 41 Wash. 2d 101 - Priestley Mining & Milling Co. v. Lenox Mining & Development Co. (1952)
Most recently applied in 16 Wash. App. 233 - Lees v. Wardall (September 1976)
1891 c 96 s 2; RRS s 811
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
Official source: Washington State Legislature. Reproduced from public-domain Washington statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.