New WA law caps rent increases. Will renters actually notice the difference?

Last month, Governor Bob Ferguson signed HB 1217 into law, which caps the amount by which a landlord can increase a tenant’s rent in a given year.

The law, which went into effect immediately, is still in its early days and its long-term effects remain to be seen. But putting aside the controversy around rent control and related measures, how will the law actually affect the process of renting in Washington?

What does Washington rent stabilization measure do?

The new law caps the amount by which a landlord can increase a tenant’s rent in a given year at 7% on top of inflation or 10% total, whichever is lower.

Scott Crain, director of advocacy at the Northwest Justice Project, which provides several legal resources for tenants, said the law won’t stop rents from rising but will make sure those rises are reasonable.

“The bill is geared toward preventing shocks to tenants by exorbitant rent increases during their tenancy,” Crain said in a video call with McClatchy. “So before this law was passed, the legislature was hearing about tenants having their rent doubled, having to pay $500 a month extra for the privilege going month to month, for example.”

The flip-side of that is landlords could start raising rent steadily to stay ahead of the cap, according to Sean Flynn, executive director of small landlord advocacy group Rental Housing Association of Washington. Previously, it was common for landlords to let a tenant’s rent remain steady for a few years, only to realize that it was below market value and raise it all at once. Now, Flynn says yearly increases could become the norm.

“We would have just let that person slide until maybe they moved out or whatever,” Flynn said. “Now, we’re stuck, because if we don’t raise the rent now, we don’t get to raise it the same percentage next year… So I’m not going to give that person another four years of no rent increases. They’re going to get a rent increase every year, right? Like clockwork.”

What if a landlord raises rent too much?

If a landlord notifies their tenant that they’re raising rent by more than 10% (or 7%-plus-inflation), the tenant has three primary options, according to Crain.

“The first thing is, the new law also requires a landlord to give a specific rent-increase notice,” Crain said. “That rent-increase notice has to explain, if the landlord claims that they’re exempt, they have to say why the rent increase is legal. And then, if the tenant believes the rent increase is illegal, they send a written demand to the landlord asking them to stop the increase or reduce it to a legal amount.”

If the landlord still won’t budge, the tenant can wait for eviction proceedings, although Crain said that option can have negative consequences.

“We would always recommend people send the demand first to try to head off a lawsuit, because just the filing of an eviction action can harm your tenant history,” Crain said.

A less risky option would be to bring the case to the office of the state’s Attorney General, according to Crain.

“The third option, which we also recommend people do, is to file a complaint with the Washington State Attorney General’s Office,” Crain said. “Their Consumer Protection Division now has the authority to investigate and sue landlords who are doing illegal rent increases. They didn’t have that authority before, and now they do, as a result of this law.”

According to Crain, allowing the Attorney General to investigate illegal rent increases could end up being one of the most significant impacts of the law.

“I would say giving the Attorney General increased authority to investigate and and go after landlords who are violating the law is a big deal, because for many years, the AG’s office has been sort of shut out of the landlord-tenant consumer relationship by a Supreme Court opinion from a number of years ago,” Crain said.

Exemptions to WA rent increase cap

There are also several exceptions to the new law, including ones for some low-income housing and newer buildings, so it won’t apply to many landlords and renters.

“A lot of non-profit, low income housing providers are exempted. So if a property sets rent based on the tenants income, like public housing or some Section VIII properties, those properties are going to be exempt,” Crain said. “Public housing authorities that manage portfolios of affordable housing, those will be exempt as well. New developments within the first 12 years of their… occupancy, a landlord can be exempt from the limits as well.”

Will WA renters notice the difference?

A 1981 state law prohibits cities from instituting their own rent control measures, so in that sense, the new law represents a significant shift for the whole state.

But will renters notice the change, or were rent increases typically below the 10% threshold in the first place?

“I think people will notice it in the sense that they won’t get eye popping rent increases,” Crain said.

According to Crain, dramatic rent spikes have become increasingly common in recent years, especially in cases where an apartment building changes hands.

“We were hearing a ton of those increases over the last couple of years after the eviction moratorium lifted,” Crain said. “Even before COVID, I think you would have situations where private investors would swoop in and buy affordable housing… They’ve come in, slapped some paint on the walls and then doubled the rent.”

However, Flynn said that the public tends to think of rent increases as the result of greedy landlords, but in reality, they mean that the landlord had been letting the tenant rent under market value. Accordingly, Flynn said the new law makes it less likely tenants will be able to rent for less than their unit’s market value.

“How common was it that housing providers and tenants let a unit get more than 7% under market? Because there’s two sides of every rent increase story,” Flynn said.

Other effects of WA rent stabilization law

In addition to capping rent increases, the law has a few notable effects.

“The timeline statewide for rent increase notice is now 90 days statewide… It was 60 days before,” Flynn said

Flynn, who added that some cities have their own timeline as well, said the law will change how landlords notify their tenants of rent increases.

“The notice has to be very specific,” Flynn said. “There’s a state-specific form that you’ve got to give… Now it has to be served like a pay or vacate notice, so that someone has to physically give it to you or post it to your door and mail it to you.”

The law also changes how much a landlord can charge for a tenant to lease on a month-to-month basis.

“It also prohibits landlords from charging people a lot more money just for the privilege of month to month,” Crain said. “The rents offered for your lease and a month to month lease have to be within 5% of each other.”

That could have unintended consequences, though, according to Flynn. Where landlords would have previously offered a deal on a short-term lease during the slower months of the year for the housing market, Flynn said he expects they’ll now wait for a busier month so they’re not locked into a below-market lease.

“We can’t do that, and unless we keep it within 5% of the original amount,” Flynn said. “What that means is, there’s no more deals in January. People [will be] like, ‘Well, screw it, I’ll just wait until spring.’”

Flynn also worries about the unintended long-term effects of the law. Despite the exemption for new buildings, Flynn suspects the law will disincentivize developers from building anything but high-end housing and worsen Washington’s housing shortage, a common concern with rent-control measures.

“I’m like, ‘Okay, cool. I got this great investment. We’re going to invest in this asset, and it can only go up a certain percentage a year. It could go down to zero, that is true. It could get totally wiped out, but it’s capped at how much it’ll increase. Now I’ve got this other investment that is not capped at all. Which one do you want to put [your] retirement money in?’” Flynn said.

However, Crain said that it shouldn’t change the math for landlords, as much as it prevents them from

“They’ll still get rent increases, of course, and landlords will be able to increase their rent. Then also if a tenant moves out, they can charge whatever they want to the new tenant,” Crain said. “So it doesn’t fundamentally change the landlord’s business as much as it does protect the tenant from unbearable shocks to the increase in their rent amount.”

Flynn questions that way of thinking, though, arguing that if a landlord charged too much, the tenant can always move, and that if every other rental is too expensive as well, it’s likely a supply issue.

“They treat the tenant as if they’re this infantile person who can’t make decisions on their own. ‘Oh, no, they’ll just sit there and keep paying this person money.’ I’m like, ‘No, they won’t.’ That’s not how anything that you buy or sell works,” Flynn said.

This story was originally published June 27, 2025 at 2:31 PM.