Effective May 10, 2021, RCW 59.12 and RCW 59.18 were amended to provide additional residential tenant protections. As you will see, they are very significant.
This will be part one of two posts, as there was another bill Governor Inslee signed on May 10 that also covers landlord-tenant issues.
More on this legislation after the jump break.
The bill originated in the House. After tweaks, it passed the Senate 28-21 on April 8. It went back to the House, where it passed 54-44 on April 13. Governor Inslee signed this into law on May 10.
The final bill is about 20 pages long. If you prefer reading that, here is a link, which works as of the time I post this. Since this is more intended to be a summary and not an all-inclusive dissection, I will leave it to you to read everything in its entirety if you need it.
With that said, I will go section by section with the main parts.
Section 1: "Lease" now has the same definition as a "rental agreement". Adds new definitions for "immediate family", "subsidized housing", and "traditional housing".
Section 2: The meat of the bill. This is a new section where a landlord will likely need a reason to evict a tenant. Tenants, however, are still free to provide 20 days' notice before end of calendar month to end tenancy.
It outlines specific ways to end a tenancy depending if the agreement ultimately becomes a periodic indefinite tenancy or not.
The landlord can evict a tenant after properly serving notice - one of the ways under RCW 59.12.040 - for one of the following:
- Nonpayment of rent
- Material breach of the agreement
- Waste/nuisance
- Unlawful activity
- Substantial/repeated and unreasonable interference of enjoyment
- Owner or owner's immediate family can live there and no other alternative equivalent
- Owner intends to sell the property
- Owner wishes to pursue conversion of property (i.e. to a condo)
- Tenant gets notice that the place is uninhabitable
- Owner faces civil or criminal penalties for having a tenant live there
- Owner also resides there or shares common area with tenant
- Transitional housing program expired or tenant no longer eligible for said program
- No new agreement signed, a set time has passed, and terms of new agreement were reasonable
- Tenant's intentional, knowing, and material misrepresentations on rental application
- Any other good cause business/economic reason (court may have leeway to stay the writ here)
- Four significant violations listed in subsection (n) within 12-month period, where tenant received specific written warnings, and also subject to several conditions the landlord must meet
- Tenant has to register as a sex offender or failed to tell landlord that
- Tenant engaged in sexual harassment or unwanted sexual advances
If a tenant vacates and there are other occupants remaining who were not previously on the agreement, the landlord must serve those co-tenants with a notice to sign a rental agreement or otherwise vacate.
If a tenant sues the landlord for violating this section and the tenant wins, tenant gets the greater of economic/non-economic damages or 3x rent. Landlords must also pay tenant court costs and attorney fees.
Section 3: Amends RCW 59.18.200. Mostly cosmetic changes (numerals for days). Amends language to reflect only the tenant can serve the 20-day no-cause notice that they are vacating. Eliminated the damages and attorney fees/costs provision, but likely because it was replaced by the penalty from Section 2 above. See last paragraph of Section 2, supra.
Section 4: Amends RCW 59.18.220 to be consistent with this new law.
Section 5: If the landlord knowingly uses a bad rental agreement containing provisions that Section 2 prohibits, the tenant can sue to get up to 2x the monthly rent, attorney fees, and court costs.
Section 6: Amends RCW 59.12.030 to be consistent with this new law.
Section 7: This law takes effect immediately.
