Free Washington Landlord Forms
Every Washington landlord form we publish, organised by the stage of the tenancy it belongs to, each one paired with the RCW behind it — including the rent cap that arrived in 2025 and the mailing rule that changed twice in fourteen months.
Every form linked on this page is free, fillable in your browser, and downloadable as a PDF with no account, no membership and no paywall. Washington tenancies run on the Residential Landlord-Tenant Act, RCW chapter 59.18, with unlawful detainer procedure in chapter 59.12. Three of its most important rules changed between May 2025 and June 2026, and a great deal of published guidance — including at least one major legal publisher — is still serving the superseded version.
The short version
- Nonpayment — fourteen days, on a mandatory statutory form carrying specific resource information.
- Mailing a notice now adds FIVE days, not one. Changed 27 July 2025.
- Certified mail is no longer required. That requirement lasted less than a year and was repealed on 11 June 2026.
- A landlord cannot end a month-to-month tenancy without cause. There are sixteen just-cause grounds, each with its own notice period.
- Rent increases are capped — the lesser of seven per cent plus CPI, or ten per cent. The 2026 maximum is 9.683 per cent.
- Rent increases need ninety days’ notice, on a statutory form.
- No deposit may be collected at all without a written agreement and a signed condition checklist.
- Deposit return is thirty days, not twenty-one. Changed in 2023.
Mailing a Notice Adds Five Days — and Certified Mail Is No Longer Required
This is the single most dangerous number on any Washington landlord page, and it changed twice.
27 July 2025 — the mailing extension went from one day to five, and a certified mail requirement was added.
11 June 2026 — the certified mail requirement was deleted. The five days stayed. Ordinary first-class mail posted from within Washington now suffices.
RCW 59.12.040 today: “when service is made by mail five additional days shall be allowed before the commencement of an action based upon such notice”, and service is complete “when such copy is deposited in the United States mail from within Washington state properly addressed with postage prepaid”.
A well-known legal publisher still serves this section stamped as current with “one additional day” and the old “in the county in which the property is situated” wording. That text was repealed over a year ago. Anyone counting one day is filing four days early.
The service methods themselves are a three-tier ladder. Personal delivery first. If the person is absent from the premises, leave a copy “with some person of suitable age and discretion” and mail a copy to their residence. If the residence is unknown or no suitable person is found, affix a copy “in a conspicuous place on the premises”, also deliver to any person residing there, and also mail a copy to the tenant at the premises. Hotel and rooming-house guests are served by affixing in two conspicuous places.
One further content rule applies to every termination notice: it “shall specify in the notice the date by which the person to whom the notice is sent must vacate or, if applicable, comply”.
The Fourteen-Day Notice Is a Statutory Form
Washington’s pay-or-vacate period has been fourteen days for RLTA tenancies since 2019 — the three-day figure survives only for non-RLTA tenancies such as commercial lettings. But the day count is the easy part.
The notice “must be in substantially the following form”, and the statutory form carries resource information that has to be on the page: the Attorney General’s landlord-tenant website; the Eviction Defense Screening Line on 855-657-8387; the Northwest Justice Project’s online application; 2-1-1; the CLEAR line on (888) 201-1014, weekdays from a quarter past nine to a quarter past twelve; (888) 387-7111 for seniors aged sixty and over; Washington LawHelp; and the dispute resolution centres.
Two things people add that are not Washington law. There is no DSHS resource requirement in the notice. And there is no landlord duty to serve in the tenant’s language — the translation duty runs to the Attorney General, who “shall produce and maintain on its website translated versions of the notice” in the top ten languages spoken in Washington. That misconception appears to be imported from California, and a landlord acting on it would be doing work the statute does not ask for while possibly missing what it does.
The other chapter 59.12 notices are: ten days to comply for a lease violation — and the tenant, subtenant or mortgagee may cure within those ten days and “save the lease from such forfeiture”; and three days to quit for waste, unlawful business or nuisance, with no cure right. See our Washington eviction notice laws guide.
You Cannot End a Month-to-Month Tenancy Without Cause
RCW 59.18.650(1)(d): “for tenancies of an indefinite period on a month-to-month or periodic basis, a landlord may not end the tenancy except for the causes enumerated in subsection (2)”. And a fixed term does not simply end — “Upon the end date of the tenancy of a specified period, the tenancy becomes a month-to-month tenancy”.
The twenty-day notice is the TENANT’s right, not yours. It runs “given by the tenant to the landlord”. Any page telling a Washington landlord to serve a twenty-day no-cause notice is describing law that was displaced in 2021.
Two narrow exceptions exist, both requiring at least sixty days: an initial agreement of six to twelve months, ended at the initial period; and a fixed term of twelve months or more that never converted to periodic and has never been periodic since inception.
The sixteen just-cause grounds
| Ground | Notice |
|---|---|
| (a) Default in rent | 14 days (the RCW 59.12.030(3) period) |
| (b) Substantial breach of a material lease term, a subsidised-housing programme requirement, or a tenant obligation imposed by law | At least 10 days, specifying the acts or omissions |
| (c) Waste, nuisance, unlawful activity, or substantial or repeated unreasonable interference | At least 3 days to quit |
| (d) Owner or immediate family to occupy as a principal residence, with no substantially equivalent vacant unit in the building | At least 90 days — and a rebuttable presumption of bad faith if not occupied for sixty consecutive days during the ninety after the tenant left |
| (e) Owner elects to sell a single-family residence | At least 90 days; “elects to sell” means reasonable attempts within thirty days of vacancy |
| (f) Demolition, substantial rehabilitation or change of use | At least 120 days |
| (g) Withdrawal for condominium conversion | Per the conversion statutes |
| (h) Certified or condemned uninhabitable, where continued habitation would expose the landlord to penalties | At least 30 days |
| (i) Owner shares the unit, or a common kitchen or bathroom, with the tenant | At least 20 days |
| (j) Transitional housing — programme expiry, aging out, or completion | At least 30 days |
| (k) Tenant will not sign a proffered new agreement | Must be proffered at least 30 days before expiry, on reasonable terms. Does not apply to periodic tenancies |
| (l) Intentional, knowing, material misrepresentation or omission on the application | At least 30 days |
| (m) Other good cause — “a legitimate economic or business reason” | At least 60 days; the court may stay the writ up to 60 further days on continued rent |
| (n) Four or more cured violations within twelve months, each with a written warning notice | At least 60 days, with strict content rules for each warning |
| (o) Tenant required to register as a sex offender during the tenancy, or failed to disclose it | At least 60 days |
| (p) Unwanted sexual advances or sexual harassment directed at the owner, manager, employee or another tenant | At least 20 days |
Every just-cause notice must do two things. It must be served in the manner RCW 59.12.040 prescribes, and it must “Identify the facts and circumstances known and available to the landlord at the time of the issuance of the notice… with enough specificity so as to enable the tenant to respond and prepare a defense”. A bare recital of the ground will not carry it.
Getting it wrong is expensive: a wrongful eviction costs “the greater of their economic and noneconomic damages or three times the monthly rent”, plus fees and costs.
Every Washington Landlord Form, by Stage of the Tenancy
An alphabetical list is the least useful arrangement, because a landlord arrives knowing what has happened, not what the document is called. The index below is ordered by where you are in the tenancy.
Starting the tenancy
- Washington residential lease agreement — and note that a written agreement is a precondition to collecting any deposit at all. There is also a Seattle version, because the city layers its own rules on top.
- Lead-based paint form — required by federal law, not Washington law, for any dwelling built before 1978.
- Move-in / move-out condition checklist — in Washington this is not good practice, it is a precondition. Without it you may not collect a deposit, and the penalty is the deposit itself.
During the tenancy
- Notice to enter the property — two days for entry, one day for showings, and the notice must specify the exact time and date or the earliest and latest possible times.
- Rent increase notice — ninety days, on a statutory form, and subject to the cap. This is the most changed area of Washington law and is covered in full below.
- Late rent notice — and remember no late fee may be charged for rent paid within five days of its due date.
- Lease Extension Agreement
- Month-to-Month Rental Agreement
- Roommate Agreement
- Sublease Agreement
When the tenant breaches
- Fourteen-day notice to pay or vacate — the statutory form, with the resource information intact.
- Notice to comply or vacate — ten days for a lease violation, with a genuine right to cure.
- Unconditional quit notice — three days for waste, nuisance, unlawful business or unlawful activity.
Ending the tenancy without fault
- Notice of non-renewal — use it for the ninety, one-hundred-and-twenty or sixty day just-cause grounds. There is no general no-cause route.
- Tenant notice to vacate — the twenty-day notice, which in Washington genuinely is the tenant’s document.
After the tenant moves out
- Security deposit itemisation — “a full and specific statement of the basis for retaining any of the deposit”, with estimates or invoices attached.
- Security deposit return letter — on a thirty-day clock.
The 2025 Rent Cap, and the Number for 2026
House Bill 1217 took effect on 7 May 2025 under an emergency clause, and it expires on 1 July 2040. It is the biggest change to Washington landlord practice in a generation.
| Rule | Detail |
|---|---|
| First-year freeze | No increase at all “during the first 12 months after the tenancy begins” |
| The cap | In any 12-month period, no increase “in an amount greater than seven percent plus the consumer price index, or 10 percent, whichever is less” |
| Which CPI | The June twelve-month percent change for all urban consumers, all items, for the Seattle area |
| 2025 maximum | 10 per cent |
| 2026 maximum — current | 9.683 per cent, in effect 1 January to 31 December 2026 |
| Vacancy decontrol | The landlord may adjust rent by any amount “after a tenant vacates the dwelling unit and the tenancy ends” |
It is the LESSER of the two figures, not the greater, and not a flat seven per cent. Pages describing Washington’s cap as “seven per cent” or “seven per cent plus CPI” are both wrong — the ten per cent ceiling binds whenever CPI exceeds three per cent, which is exactly why the 2025 figure was ten and the 2026 figure is under it.
The exemptions, and the trap inside them
Seven categories are exempt: a unit whose first certificate of occupancy was issued twelve or fewer years before the date of the notice; units owned by a public housing authority, public development authority or qualifying nonprofit where rents are otherwise regulated; qualified low-income housing developments owned by such entities; federal low-income housing tax credit developments with an enforceable regulatory agreement; a unit where the tenant shares a bathroom or kitchen with the owner, who maintains a principal residence there; a single-family owner-occupied residence, including one renting no more than two units or bedrooms with an accessory dwelling; and a duplex, triplex or fourplex where the owner occupied one unit as a principal residence at the beginning of the tenancy.
But the last three do not apply if the owner is a real estate investment trust, a corporation, or a limited liability company with at least one corporate member. A great many small Washington portfolios are held in an LLC, and if any member is a corporate entity the owner-occupied exemptions fall away entirely.
Notice, and the form you must use
A rent increase needs at least ninety days’ prior written notice — thirty for an income-based subsidised tenancy, and sixty only under a narrow transition rule for leases entered or renewed before 7 May 2025. An increase “may not become effective prior to the completion of the term of the rental agreement”.
And the notice is not a letter. The landlord “must provide a tenant with notice of rent increases in a form that is substantially the same as the form provided in subsection (3)” — a statutory “Rent and Fee Increase Notice to Tenants” with exemption-certification checkboxes. If you are claiming an exemption you “must include facts supporting any claimed exemptions in the written notice”. See our Washington rent increase laws guide.
Enforcement
The tenant must first “offer the landlord an opportunity to cure… by providing the landlord with a written demand to reduce the increase”. They may then terminate at any time before the increase takes effect on twenty days’ notice, owing rent only for the month of vacating, with no fines or fees. Damages run to the excess paid, up to three months of unlawful rent or fees charged, and fees and costs.
The Attorney General may sue without the tenant’s cure demand, with civil penalties of not more than seven thousand five hundred dollars per violation. And the landlord may not report the tenant to a screening service for non-payment of the unlawfully increased portion. One further rule catches lease-structuring: there may be no more than a five per cent difference in rent between lease types for the same unit, and that difference may not push the rent past the cap.
No Checklist, No Deposit
RCW 59.18.260(2): “No deposit may be collected by a landlord unless the rental agreement is in writing AND a written checklist or statement is provided by the landlord to the tenant at the commencement of the tenancy”. Not “should”, and not “within a reasonable time”.
The checklist must specifically describe condition, cleanliness and existing damage to the premises, fixtures, equipment, appliances and furnishings, “including, but not limited to: (a) Walls, including wall paint and wallpaper; (b) Carpets and other flooring; (c) Furniture; and (d) Appliances”. It must be signed and dated by both parties, with a copy to the tenant and one free replacement copy on request.
The penalty for skipping it is the deposit itself — the landlord “is liable to the tenant for the amount of the deposit”, plus costs and fees.
| Rule | Detail |
|---|---|
| Trust account | Deposits must “promptly be deposited… in a trust account… in a financial institution… or licensed escrow agent located in Washington”. The landlord keeps the interest unless otherwise agreed in writing. A written receipt and written notice of the depository’s name, address and location are required |
| Return — 30 days | Changed from twenty-one in 2023. “Within 30 days after the termination of the rental agreement and vacation of the premises”, or thirty days after the landlord learns of abandonment |
| Documentation | Copies of estimates received or invoices paid. Where the landlord or an employee does the work: a bill, invoice or receipt for materials (or a vendor price list for stock materials) and a statement of time spent and the reasonable hourly rate |
| Four absolute bars | Wear from ordinary use; carpet cleaning unless documented wear beyond ordinary use; anything whose condition “was not reasonably documented in the written checklist”; and amounts exceeding the cost of repairing the damaged portion |
| Penalties | A late or missing statement makes the landlord liable for the full amount of the deposit and bars any claim or defence for retaining it. Intentional refusal allows the court to award up to two times the deposit |
| Reporting bar | Undocumented or ordinary-wear damages “may not be charged to the tenant, reported to any consumer reporting agency, tenant screening service, or prospective landlord, or submitted for collection” |
| Limitation | For agreements initiated on or after 23 July 2023, a suit for sums exceeding the deposit must be commenced within three years |
A foreclosed-upon owner who fails to refund or transfer deposits is liable “for damages up to two times the amount of the deposit”, and the tenant’s claim ranks ahead of any creditor, trustee in bankruptcy or receiver even if the funds were commingled. See our Washington security deposit laws guide.
Non-refundable fees and instalments
A non-refundable fee may not be called a deposit and must sit in a written agreement clearly specifying that it is non-refundable. No written agreement means the landlord is liable for the fees; a failure to specify converts it into a refundable deposit.
On written request the landlord must allow deposits, non-refundable fees and last month’s rent to be paid in instalments — three equal monthly instalments for terms of three months or more, otherwise two — with no fee, interest or cost for electing them. The exemption is where the total is twenty-five per cent or less of the first full month’s rent. Refusing costs a statutory penalty of one month’s rent plus fees. A holding fee may not exceed twenty-five per cent of the first month’s rent.
Entry: Two Days, One Day for Showings, and a Two-Way Penalty
RCW 59.18.150 requires “at least two days’ written notice of his or her intent to enter”, and entry only at reasonable times. The notice must specify “the exact time and date or dates of entry” or, for a period, “the earliest and latest possible times of entry”. Showings to prospective or actual purchasers or tenants need only one day’s notice, and the tenant “shall not unreasonably withhold consent”.
Entry without consent is permitted in an emergency or abandonment. Otherwise “the landlord has no other right of access except by court order, arbitrator or by consent of the tenant”. Entries to look over the unit may not take place between seven in the evening and eight in the morning, nor on a Saturday, Sunday or legal holiday, unless the owner or tenant specifies a preference.
The penalty runs both ways, and it needs a warning first. A landlord or tenant who continues to violate the section after “being served with one written notification alleging in good faith violations… listing the date and time of the violation” is liable for up to one hundred dollars for each violation after receipt of the notice. The prevailing party recovers costs and reasonable attorney’s fees.
See our Washington landlord entry laws guide.
Late Fees, and Which Payment Goes Where
- No late fee for rent paid within five days of the due date. If rent is more than five days late, fees may be charged “commencing from the first day after the due date”.
- Nothing stops a pay-or-vacate notice being served at any time after rent becomes due.
- A tenant whose primary income is a monthly governmental assistance payment arriving after the due date may demand a changed due date in writing, and the landlord shall agree, to a date within five days of the original.
- Payments must be applied to rent first — “before applying any payment toward late payments, damages, legal costs, or other fees, including attorneys’ fees”. And possession “may not be conditioned on a tenant’s payment or satisfaction of any monetary amount other than rent”.
On bounced cheques, the statute permits “a reasonable handling fee for each instrument” and states no dollar figure. The forty-dollar figure people quote is a cap on collection costs in a suit on the cheque, not a cap on the handling fee — so “Washington’s forty-dollar NSF cap” is a myth as usually stated. See our Washington late fee laws guide.
Court, Costs and the Show Cause Hearing
Unlawful detainer is a superior court matter — small claims is “for the recovery of money only” and cannot decide possession. But the filing fee is deliberately low: a forty-five dollar case-initiating fee for an unlawful detainer, against two hundred for a general civil action. Small claims itself runs to ten thousand dollars for a natural person, five thousand otherwise.
| Stage | Rule |
|---|---|
| Summons response | By 5:00 p.m. on the stated date. “If you mail the response letter, you must do it 3 days before the deadline”. Response may be personal, by mail, by facsimile (complete on successful transmission), or as the civil rules allow |
| Show cause hearing | “not less than seven nor more than thirty days from the date of service of the order upon defendant” |
| At the hearing | The defendant may answer orally or in writing and assert any legal or equitable defence or set-off arising out of the tenancy |
| Writ of restitution | Issued “returnable ten days after its date”. A pre-judgment writ requires a bond |
| Tenant’s pay-to-stay | “within three days after the service of the writ of restitution issued prior to final judgment”, in a nonpayment case, by paying all rent found due into court plus monthly rent pending judgment |
| If the writ is denied | Trial within thirty days |
| Sheriff’s execution | Served forthwith, but the sheriff “shall not execute the same for three days thereafter” |
A trap at the very end of the process. Partial payments after the writ do not invalidate it unless there is a written agreement signed by both parties and a copy is given to the sheriff — and the statute makes that the tenant’s responsibility. A landlord who accepts money after the writ and assumes the matter is resolved may find the eviction proceeding anyway.
Washington also has a right to counsel, though a conditional one: “Subject to the availability of amounts appropriated for this specific purpose, the court must appoint an attorney for an indigent tenant in an unlawful detainer proceeding”. Indigent covers a range of benefit recipients or an after-tax income at or below two hundred per cent of the federal poverty level. See our Washington eviction process guide.
There Is No Statewide Court Form Set — the Forms Are in the Statute
Washington’s pattern-forms index contains no eviction, unlawful detainer or landlord-tenant category at all. We checked the complete enumerated list. What exists instead is unusual and more useful: the key forms are prescribed by statute.
- The Eviction Summons (Residential) — “shall be substantially in the following form”, RCW 59.18.365(3).
- The fourteen-day pay-or-vacate notice — RCW 59.18.057, with translations published by the Attorney General.
- The rent and fee increase notice — RCW 59.18.720.
- The fee-in-lieu-of-deposit statement — RCW 59.18.670, which the Attorney General must publish in the twelve most commonly spoken languages.
So the right question in Washington is not “which court form number do I need” but “does my document match the statutory wording”.
What Changed, and What Is Coming
| Change | Effective | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Rent stabilisation — the cap, the exemptions and the statutory increase form | 7 May 2025 | In force; expires 1 July 2040 |
| Mailing extension one day to five, plus a certified mail requirement | 27 July 2025 | In force as to the five days |
| Certified mail requirement deleted | 11 June 2026 | In force — ordinary mail from within Washington now suffices |
| Portable cooling devices — tenants may install them; the landlord may not prohibit them or charge a fee, subject to listed exceptions, on two days’ tenant notice | 11 June 2026 | In force |
| Deposit return twenty-one days to thirty, and the no-checklist penalty | 2023 | In force |
| Smart access systems — the landlord must offer a non-biometric, non-app alternative on request | 1 January 2027 | NOT yet in force |
| A revised version of the just-cause section | 1 January 2028 | NOT yet in force; the only identified change is a dropped cross-reference in ground (g) |
Two provisions are dead and still widely cited. RCW 59.18.375, on paying rent into the court registry, was repealed in 2021. RCW 59.18.660, the Eviction Resolution Pilot Program, shows “Expired July 1, 2023”. Neither should appear in a current Washington process description.
Which Washington Form Do I Need?
- The tenant has not paid rent. The fourteen-day statutory form — and add five days if you mail it.
- A lease term has been broken. Ten days to comply, and the tenant may cure within them.
- There is waste, nuisance or unlawful activity. Three days to quit.
- Nobody is at fault. There is no no-cause route — find your ground among the sixteen and use its notice period.
- You want to raise the rent. Check the cap, check the exemptions, then ninety days on the statutory form with your supporting facts stated.
- You need to get into the property. Two days, or one for a showing, with the exact time or a stated window.
- You are taking a deposit. Written agreement and a signed checklist first, then a trust account and a written receipt naming the bank.
- The tenant has moved out. Thirty days for the statement and the balance, with estimates or invoices attached.
How to Fill Out a Washington Fourteen-Day Notice
- Start from the statutory form. It must be “substantially” that form, including the resource contacts.
- Name every tenant and describe the premises as the agreement does.
- State the rent owed — and remember “rent” means recurring and periodic charges identified in the agreement for use and occupancy, which may include utilities.
- Specify the date by which the tenant must vacate or comply. That is a statutory content requirement for every termination notice.
- Serve it correctly — personally, or by substituted service plus mailing, or by posting plus delivery plus mailing.
- Add five days if any part was by mail. Not one.
- Post from within Washington. Service is complete on deposit in the mail from within the state.
- Do not use certified mail because you think it is required. It was, briefly; it is not now.
What Happens If the Form Is Wrong
The distinctively Washington failure right now is counting one day for mail. It is the number every stale page carries, and it puts your filing four days early.
The second is serving a no-cause notice on a month-to-month tenancy. That route closed in 2021, and the exposure is three times the monthly rent.
The third is a rent increase on a plain letter, or at sixty days, or above the cap without a stated exemption.
And the fourth happens before the tenancy even starts: collecting a deposit with no signed checklist, which makes you liable for the deposit itself regardless of what the tenant did to the property.
What This Page Does Not Have
We would rather scope this honestly than promise documents we do not host. Washington landlords also commonly want a rental application, a sublease, a roommate agreement, a commercial lease, a pet addendum, a lease amendment and an adverse action notice. Those are not published here as Washington-specific forms.
Three limits we want to state plainly rather than paper over.
Local ordinances are not covered here. Seattle, Tacoma, Federal Way, Burien, Kenmore, Auburn, Olympia and Bellingham all impose stricter notice, entry, late-fee or relocation rules that stack on top of state law. Everything on this page is the statewide position. Our Seattle lease form exists precisely because that city is different.
Manufactured and mobile home tenancies are a different chapter. The 2025 rent legislation imposed a separate, lower cap for those tenancies, and we have not verified it. Do not assume the figures on this page carry over.
And we publish no statewide dollar cap on late fees, because we could not find one in the statute. That is a verified absence at state level only — your city may cap them.
Common Washington Landlord Form Mistakes
- Adding one day for mailing. It has been five since July 2025.
- Using certified mail because a 2025 page said it was required. Repealed June 2026.
- Serving a three-day pay-or-vacate. Fourteen days for any RLTA tenancy.
- Drafting the fourteen-day notice as a letter without the statutory resource information.
- Believing you must translate the notice. That duty is the Attorney General’s.
- Ending a month-to-month on twenty days’ notice. That is the tenant’s right, not yours.
- Reciting a just-cause ground without the facts that let the tenant prepare a defence.
- Treating the rent cap as seven per cent. It is the lesser of seven plus CPI, or ten — and 9.683 per cent for 2026.
- Assuming an owner-occupied exemption applies to an LLC with a corporate member. It does not.
- Giving sixty days’ notice of a rent increase. Ninety, on the statutory form.
- Collecting a deposit with no written agreement or no checklist. The penalty is the deposit.
- Returning the deposit in twenty-one days and thinking that is compliant. It is thirty.
- Deducting carpet cleaning without documented wear beyond ordinary use.
- Applying a payment to fees before rent. Rent comes first.
- Giving twenty-four hours’ notice to enter. Two days, or one for a showing.
- Accepting money after the writ without a signed written agreement lodged with the sheriff.
- Citing the repealed registry statute or the expired resolution programme.
Free Fillable Forms Versus the Paid Washington Form Sites
Washington’s results page has an unusual shape: the deepest ranker is not a form index but a document page carrying about two thousand one hundred and seventy words of statute detail, and the two hub-shaped competitors are shallower than it. Nobody ranks on the file alone.
That tells you the intent precisely — people want the document and the rule that makes it enforceable. And in Washington that rule has moved three times in fourteen months. Publishing the current mailing extension, the current cap figure and the current deposit deadline is worth more than another copy of a generic lease.
Every form linked from this page is free, fills in the browser, and downloads as a finished PDF. There is no account, no trial and no upsell attached to the documents themselves. What we ask in return is straightforward: if you are about to hand keys to someone, run the screening first, because nearly every dispute described on this page is cheaper to prevent than to litigate.
Washington Landlord Forms: FAQ
How many days is a Washington notice to pay or vacate?
Fourteen days for a tenancy under the Residential Landlord-Tenant Act, RCW 59.12.030(3). Three days survives only for non-RLTA tenancies such as commercial lettings. The notice “must be in substantially the following form” set out in RCW 59.18.057, including specified legal-aid and assistance contacts.
How many days does mailing add to a Washington notice?
Five days — “when service is made by mail five additional days shall be allowed before the commencement of an action based upon such notice”. It was one day until 27 July 2025. A certified-mail requirement added at the same time was deleted on 11 June 2026, so ordinary first-class mail posted from within Washington now suffices.
Must a Washington landlord serve notices in the tenant’s language?
No. The duty runs to the Attorney General, who “shall produce and maintain on its website translated versions of the notice” in the top ten languages spoken in Washington. There is no landlord-side language duty in the statute.
Can a Washington landlord end a month-to-month tenancy without cause?
No. RCW 59.18.650(1)(d): “for tenancies of an indefinite period on a month-to-month or periodic basis, a landlord may not end the tenancy except for the causes enumerated in subsection (2)”. A fixed term becomes month-to-month on its end date. The twenty-day notice is the tenant’s right, given by the tenant to the landlord. Wrongful eviction costs the greater of the tenant’s damages or three times the monthly rent, plus fees.
What is Washington’s rent increase cap?
In any twelve-month period, no more than “seven percent plus the consumer price index, or 10 percent, whichever is less” — and no increase at all during the first twelve months of the tenancy. The CPI is the June twelve-month percent change for all urban consumers, all items, for the Seattle area. The maximum was 10 per cent for 2025 and is 9.683 per cent for 2026.
Which Washington properties are exempt from the rent cap?
Seven categories, including a unit whose first certificate of occupancy was issued twelve or fewer years before the notice, qualifying public and nonprofit housing, federal tax-credit developments, a unit where the tenant shares a kitchen or bathroom with the owner, an owner-occupied single-family residence, and an owner-occupied duplex, triplex or fourplex. The last three do not apply if the owner is a REIT, a corporation, or an LLC with at least one corporate member.
How much notice does a Washington rent increase need?
At least ninety days, or thirty for an income-based subsidised tenancy. And it must be “in a form that is substantially the same as the form provided in subsection (3)” of RCW 59.18.720 — a statutory notice with exemption checkboxes. Any claimed exemption must be supported by facts stated in the notice.
Can a Washington landlord collect a deposit without a checklist?
No. “No deposit may be collected by a landlord unless the rental agreement is in writing and a written checklist or statement is provided by the landlord to the tenant at the commencement of the tenancy”, RCW 59.18.260(2). It must describe condition, cleanliness and existing damage including walls, carpets and other flooring, furniture and appliances, and be signed and dated by both parties. Skipping it makes the landlord liable to the tenant for the amount of the deposit.
How long does a Washington landlord have to return a deposit?
Thirty days after termination of the rental agreement and vacation of the premises — raised from twenty-one in 2023. The statement must be “a full and specific statement of the basis for retaining any of the deposit”, with copies of estimates received or invoices paid. A late or missing statement makes the landlord liable for the full deposit; intentional refusal allows up to two times the deposit.
How much notice must a Washington landlord give before entering?
Two days’ written notice for entry, and one day for showings to prospective or actual purchasers or tenants. The notice must specify the exact time and date, or the earliest and latest possible times. No notice is needed in an emergency or on abandonment. Entries to look over the unit may not occur between seven in the evening and eight in the morning, nor on weekends or legal holidays, unless a preference is specified.
Does Washington cap late fees?
There is no statewide dollar cap that we could find. What the statute does say is that “the landlord may not charge a late fee for rent that is paid within five days following its due date”, and that any payment must be applied to rent first before late fees, damages or legal costs. Local ordinances may impose caps.
Are there statewide Washington court forms for eviction?
No. The state pattern-forms index contains no eviction or landlord-tenant category. The key documents are instead prescribed by statute: the Eviction Summons (Residential) at RCW 59.18.365(3), the fourteen-day notice at RCW 59.18.057, the rent and fee increase notice at RCW 59.18.720, and the fee-in-lieu-of-deposit statement at RCW 59.18.670. Unlawful detainer is a superior court matter with a forty-five dollar case-initiating fee.
Related Washington Guides
- Washington landlord-tenant laws — the full statutory overview.
- Washington eviction notice laws — every notice and its service rule.
- The Washington eviction process — summons, show cause and writ.
- Washington security deposit laws — the checklist precondition explained.
- Washington rent increase laws — the cap, the form and the exemptions.
- Washington lease termination laws — the sixteen just-cause grounds.
- Washington breaking lease laws — early termination and mitigation.
- Washington late fee laws — the five-day rule and payment ordering.
- Washington landlord entry laws — two days, one day, and the penalty.
- Washington habitability laws — repair duties and tenant remedies.
- Washington pet and ESA laws — pets, deposits and assistance animals.
- Washington tenant screening laws — screening, reports and adverse action.
Published by Tenant Screening Background Check · Editorial Team
Established 2004. Our editorial team has spent two decades helping landlords and property managers run lawful tenant screening and follow state landlord-tenant codes across all fifty states. On the mailing rule, two publishers flatly contradicted each other. We did not pick a winner by reputation — we opened the enacted bill and found the amendment striking “one additional day” and inserting “five additional days”, then opened the 2026 act to confirm it had touched only the certified-mail clause. Both publishers were right on their own date; only one is right today.
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Last reviewed 2026. This page is general information about Washington landlord-tenant law, not legal advice. Three central rules changed between May 2025 and June 2026 and much published guidance is out of date, including at least one major legal publisher on the mailing extension. Two further provisions take effect in 2027 and 2028 and are not in force. Everything here is the statewide position; Seattle and several other cities impose stricter rules, and manufactured and mobile home tenancies fall under a different chapter with a separate rent cap we have not verified. Confirm the current position with your superior court or a Washington attorney before serving a notice or filing a case.
