Local Rental Housing Regulation Watch - August 2025

The RHAWA Government Affairs Team is once again updating you on the recent pieces of legislation being discussed at the local level. As you already know, local city councils are busy passing their own pieces of legislation now that legislative session is a few months behind us.

This year, while there have been several local jurisdictions discussing rental housing policy, city councils generally have been doing a better job of gathering feedback from their community when developing and presenting rental housing regulations. RHAWA is appreciative of the city councils who are engaging in the hard work in order to develop more fair and balanced policy and, of course, appreciative of the members who are showing up and sharing their perspectives.

As always, if you have any questions you can reach out to the RHAWA Government Affairs Team for clarification.

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BELLINGHAM

In June, the Bellingham City Council unanimously passed Ordinance No. 2025-06-010 aimed at eliminating so-called “junk fees” in rental housing and manufactured home parks. Effective August 1, these laws prohibit housing providers from charging fees for common services such as in-unit appliance use, payment processing, or collecting mail. The ordinance also caps several routine charges including security deposits, application fees, pet fees, late rent fees, and lease violation fees, and requires full disclosure of all fees in rental listings, advertisements, application form, and "conspicuously" on the first page of the lease agreements. RHAWA has developed a "coversheet" that will serve this purpose.

Importantly, these new regulations allow tenants to pursue civil remedies if a landlord fails to comply. The council described these actions as part of a broader effort to protect renters from hidden costs and strengthen affordability across the city.

The restrictions include:
  • Disclosure of Fees Required: A landlord must disclose in any advertisement, listing, or application form of a dwelling unit, unless infeasible due to size constraints, unavoidable word limits, or similar impediments, as well as in the rental agreement:
    ○ The monthly rent of the dwelling unit,
    ○ All utilities for which the tenant is responsible;
    ○ Any utilities included in the monthly rent; and
    ○ The amounts of any optional or mandatory fees.

  • Limits on Application Fees: Establishing a cap on fees for application & screening of $50 per tenant.

  • Limits on Late Fees: Establishing a cap on fees for late payment of rent at 2% of a tenant's monthly rent.

  • Limits on Pet Deposit: Pet deposit shall not exceed 30% of one month’s rent.

  • Ban on "Unfair or Excessive Fees": The following fees are deemed unfair and prohibited:
    ○ Any fee for the use of an in-unit appliance by a tenant;
    ○ Any additional fee to rent month-to-month rather than a fixed term lease, or vice versa;
    ○ Any fee for a tenant's access to common areas (this does not apply when the fee is associated with providing the tenant exclusive access to a common area facility on a temporary basis, such as the rental of a clubhouse for a private event);
    ○ Any fee to accept rent payments or other payments by personal check, money order, cashier’s check, or ACH. If the landlord uses a third-party payment vendor where the landlord may opt to either pay an additional fee or for the tenant to pay an additional fee to use a rental payment method such as ACH, the landlord is prohibited from opting to have the fee imposed on the tenant;
    ○ Any fee for mail and package collection and distribution;
    ○ Any single-time or periodic fee required for a pet to occupy the unit, except as provided for in BMC 6.16.030(3); and
    ○ Any fee for the performance of a landlord duty required under RCW 59.18.060;
    ○ A fee for a partial change of tenancy at the end of the current lease, such as adding or removing a tenant to the rental agreement (this does not include application fees under BMC 6.16.030(1)).

These provisions went into effect on August 1, 2025.

While the City Council did engage in a thorough stakeholder process in order to develop these regulations, RHAWA is disappointed to see the regulations pass in their current form. The regulations as passed impose significant administrative and financial burden on small housing providers in the City and will result in higher costs for both tenants and housing providers.

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BURIEN

Burien members get excited! Significant changes have been made to Burien rental housing code.

The City of Burien is taking a different approach from other cities in Washington State and rolling back some of its rental housing regulations in order to align themselves with state law. This is a huge win for housing providers in the City of Burien and we are grateful to both the Burien city council and especially Mayor Kevin Schilling who is endorsed by RHA PAC in his race for State House District 33.

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OLYMPIA

The City of Olympia has discussed limiting screening information for new residents in previous months, however, these policies have not moved forward in some time. RHAWA will continue to monitor this situation as it is deeply concerning for a city to limit the information we are able to use to verify our residents qualify for tenancy. In a proposed ordinance discussed in May, the city council discussed limiting information on criminal history, rental history, credit history as well as barring social security number requirement. While we have seen other cities ban requirement of SSN, Olympia is one of the first cities attempting to limit information on credit history and rental history. Seattle being the only other city who has limited information on criminal history in the state so far.

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SEATTLE

In June, the Seattle City Council unanimously passed a policy to prohibit setting rental prices with algorithmic services such as RealPage. The original version of this council bill would have gone much further than the passed ordinance and could have impacted the way in which small housing providers set their rental rates. However, RHAWA engaged in several meetings with Seattle councilmembers in order to explain the negative impacts the original version of this bill would have created. Resulting from this, the policy as passed will likely not have a significant impact on small housing providers in City of Seattle. The vast majority of small rental housing providers use more traditional methods of market analysis that would not be in violation of the recent Seattle legislation.

The ordinance specifically prohibits using a service provider that “[collects] historical, anticipated, or contemporary prices, price changes, supply levels, occupancy rates, or lease or rental contract termination and renewal dates of residential dwelling units from two or more landlords, from private databases, or from public databases; and analyzing or processing the information described through the use of a system or software that utilizes an algorithmic or other automated process to provide recommendations regarding rental prices, lease renewal terms, or occupancy levels to more than one landlord.” — Seattle CB 121000

The ordinance will go into effect 30 days after it receives signature from the Mayor. As of the time of writing this article, it has been delivered to Mayor Harrel, but is not yet signed.

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VANCOUVER

Vancouver is in the process of launching a new Rental Registration Program, which was reviewed and advanced during council discussions in July. The ordinance requires landlords to register each rental unit annually, with a $30-per-unit fee starting in January 2026. The program will also phase in property inspections beginning in 2027 and includes a provision to establish a tenant relocation assistance fund. This fund is intended to support renters displaced due to unsafe housing conditions or landlord non-compliance.The city council has largely supported the proposal, with some members requesting refinements to ordinance language. These developments signal Vancouver’s intent to increase oversight of the local rental market while improving transparency and accountability from housing providers.

What You Can Do

It is important to keep in mind that our advocacy efforts are reliant on our memberships involvement to make changes at all levels of government.When you receive a call to action for upcoming council discussions in your area, it is crucial that you engage with your lawmakers by sending a message or providing testimony at the city council meeting.

Changes in policy result from opinions of the public and we must take every opportunity to share our perspectives to give elected officials a better understanding of how their actions will impact small business owners in their city. Make sure you are keeping up to date with communications from RHAWA’s advocacy department in order to effectively advocate for yourself and all housing providers in the state.