How much notice must a Seattle landlord give to raise the rent?

One hundred and eighty days. SMC 7.24.030.A provides that any rental agreement or renewal for a residential rental unit in Seattle entered into after 8 November 2021 shall include or shall be deemed to include a provision requiring at least 180 days prior written notice whenever the periodic or monthly housing costs to be charged a tenant are to increase. An income-based subsidized tenancy takes 30 days instead. The statewide floor in RCW 59.18.140(3) is 90 days, so a lease copied from a Washington template promises half the notice Seattle requires. SMC 22.206.180.H separately makes the increase itself unlawful without that notice.

How much can a Seattle landlord charge as a late fee?

Ten dollars per month, and nothing else. SMC 7.24.034.A provides that any fee for late payment of rent shall not exceed ten dollars per month and that no other fee may be charged for late payment, including a fee for the service of any notice required under state law. SMC 7.24.034.B separately forbids any fee associated with issuing a notice to a tenant, including preparing and delivering a late-rent notice, a pay-or-vacate notice or a notice of noncompliance. Washington itself caps no residential late fee, which is why statewide templates get this wrong inside the city.

What is the maximum security deposit in Seattle?

The security deposit and nonrefundable move-in fees together may not exceed the first full month rent, under SMC 7.24.035.A, and the nonrefundable move-in fees alone may not exceed ten per cent of that rent under SMC 7.24.035.B.4. Those are two ceilings, not one. Washington sets no deposit maximum at all, so the limit is entirely municipal. It does not apply to a tenant who rents a housing unit in a single-family residence that is the owner's principal residence, because SMC 7.24.035.H disapplies the section to that tenancy.

Can a Seattle tenant pay the deposit in instalments?

Yes, and the landlord may not charge for it. SMC 7.24.035.C gives the tenant six consecutive equal monthly instalments for a term of six months or longer, no more than four equal amounts for a term between 30 days and six months, and two instalments for a month-to-month tenancy, or an alternative schedule if the landlord agrees, which must then be described in the agreement. No fee, interest or other cost may be imposed because the tenant elects instalments. The election disappears only where both limbs of SMC 7.24.035.C.4 hold: the total does not exceed twenty-five per cent of the first full month rent and last month rent is not required at inception.

Does Seattle require just cause to evict?

Yes, under SMC chapter 22.205, which is separate from and additional to the state just cause statute at RCW 59.18.650. SMC 22.205.010 lists sixteen causes, lettered A through P, and says those reasons and no others constitute just cause. The chapter was recodified from the old SMC 22.206.160.C, and the Code Reviser prints a note recording the move at the foot of SMC 22.206.160. Three things defeat an eviction regardless of cause: the unit not being registered with SDCI, non-compliance with the renewal-offer rule in SMC 7.24.030.J where the reason is expiry of the term, and the seasonal defences in SMC 22.205.080 and 22.205.110.

Can a Seattle landlord evict a tenant in winter?

Sometimes, but SMC 22.205.080 creates a defence with three cumulative limbs. The eviction would have to make the tenant vacate at some time between December 1 and March 1; the tenant household must be a moderate-income household as defined in SMC 23.84A.016; and the unit must be owned by a person who owns more than four rental housing units in the City of Seattle, counting any ownership interest. The test counts the owner's units citywide, not the units in the building, and the threshold is more than four rather than four or more. Nine causes and several nuisance notices are carved out by SMC 22.205.080.D.

What is Seattle's school-year eviction defence?

SMC 22.205.110 makes it a defence to eviction that the eviction would result in the tenant having to vacate during the school year, where the tenant is a child or student, a person with legal custody of a child or student, or an educator. It has no income test and no ownership test at all. Educator is defined to include custodians, cafeteria workers and maintenance workers as well as teachers, substitutes, paraprofessionals, administrators, counselors, social workers, psychologists, school nurses and speech pathologists. The school year is the academic year set by Seattle School District No. 1, taking the earliest first day and the latest last day where several exist.

Does a Seattle landlord have to offer a lease renewal?

Yes. SMC 7.24.030.J requires the landlord to offer a tenant whose fixed term is expiring a new tenancy on reasonable terms for the same unit, made between 60 and 90 days before expiry and before the unit is offered to any third party, delivered under RCW 59.12.040, with 30 days for the tenant to accept or decline. Four exceptions exist, including a just cause asserted with its supporting facts in the same window. Failing to comply makes the landlord liable for the cost of three months rent plus costs and fees under SMC 7.24.030.J.4, and SMC 22.205.010 separately bars an eviction based on expiry of the term.

What happens if a Seattle rental is not registered?

Two things, and the second matters more. SMC 22.214.086 imposes a cumulative civil penalty of one hundred and fifty dollars per day for the first ten days and five hundred dollars per day thereafter, with five thousand dollars for a knowingly falsified certificate of compliance. And SMC 22.214.075.A together with the opening paragraph of SMC 22.205.010 bars the owner from issuing a notice to terminate tenancy at all for an unregistered unit, with the registration having to exist before the notice is issued. An unregistered unit cannot lawfully be emptied.

Does a Seattle landlord have to give the tenant the Renter's Handbook?

Yes, and it has teeth. SMC 7.24.080.A requires a copy of the SDCI summary packet to be provided to any tenant or prospective tenant when a rental agreement is offered, new or renewal, and requires it to be distributed annually to month-to-month tenants. Voter registration material goes with a new agreement under SMC 7.24.080.B. Under SMC 7.24.060.B a failure lets the tenant terminate the rental agreement by written notice and recover actual damages, attorney fees and a penalty of up to five hundred dollars, or up to one thousand dollars where a court finds the failure deliberate.

How much is Seattle tenant relocation assistance?

State it as a mechanism. SMC 22.210.130.A sets a base of two thousand dollars and requires the amount to be adjusted annually by the percentage change in the housing component of the Consumer Price Index published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, with the adjustment published in a Director's Rule. The current rule is SDCI Director's Rule 10-2026, published 23 April 2026 and effective 15 May 2026, superseding DR 4-2025, which sets the amount at five thousand five hundred and fifty-two dollars for tenant relocation licence applications submitted on or after that date. The owner pays half and the City pays half under SMC 22.210.110.A.

What is Seattle economic displacement relocation assistance?

A separate scheme in SMC chapter 22.212, triggered by a rent increase rather than by anything done to the building. A required rent-increase notice is one for a one-time increase of ten per cent or more, or an increase of less than ten per cent which combined with other increases in the shorter of the preceding twelve months or the tenancy produces a cumulative ten per cent or more. A low-income household that vacates, or gives written notice of the date it will vacate, after receiving the notice and before the increase takes effect is entitled to three times the average monthly housing costs per household. There is no dollar figure and no annual publication, because the payment is a formula.

Can a Seattle landlord charge monthly pet rent?

No. SMC 7.24.038.E provides that other than the pet damage deposit authorized by SMC 7.24.038.A, the landlord may not charge the tenant any fee for keeping a pet. The pet damage deposit itself is capped at twenty-five per cent of the first full month rent regardless of when it is paid, may not be required at all where the pet serves as an assistance animal, must be stated in the agreement or in an addendum where the pet arrives later, and may be paid in three equal monthly instalments at the tenant's election.

Can a Seattle tenant add a roommate?

Largely yes. For agreements entered into after 30 June 2020, SMC 7.24.030.I lets the tenants, a tenant's immediate family, an additional resident who is not immediate family, and that resident's immediate family occupy the unit within lawful occupancy limits. The landlord may not impose conditions or additional screening criteria on a non-tenant beyond those imposed on a tenant, may not exclude a member of the tenant's immediate family on the basis of a screening report, and may not reduce the number of persons allowed to occupy the unit if someone leaves early. The tenant must give the landlord each additional person's name within 30 days.

Is Seattle's first-in-time rule still in force?

Yes. SMC 14.08.050 makes it an unfair practice to fail to give notice of the screening criteria and their minimum thresholds, to fail to note the date and time each completed application is received, to fail to screen in chronological order, or to fail to offer the tenancy to the first applicant meeting all the criteria. The Washington Supreme Court upheld it in Yim v. City of Seattle in 2019, and it was amended as recently as Ordinance 127305 in 2025. It does not reach an accessory dwelling unit where the owner keeps a permanent residence on the same lot.

Can a Seattle landlord ask about criminal history?

The position changed in 2023 and most templates have not caught up. The Seattle Office for Civil Rights states on its own criminal-history-protections page that, following the Ninth Circuit decision in Yim v. City of Seattle, it will no longer enforce the portion of the Fair Chance Housing Ordinance that bans a landlord from inquiring about a tenant's or applicant's criminal history, but will continue to enforce all other portions, including the bans, subject to exceptions, on requiring a tenant or applicant to disclose their criminal history and on taking an adverse action based on that history. The chapter is SMC 14.09, whose current title is Use of Screening Records in Housing.

Can a Seattle tenant take back an agreement to move out?

Yes. SMC 22.205.120 lets a tenant who has agreed to terminate a tenancy, including within a rental agreement or in a separate termination agreement, rescind by delivering written notice of rescission to the landlord within ten business days after signing. The tenant may also rescind more than ten business days after signing where the tenant signed without representation by an attorney or other tenant advocate, or outside a proceeding mediated by a neutral third party, and the ordinance states no outer deadline for that route.

Does Seattle set a minimum indoor temperature?

Yes, and Washington does not. SMC 22.206.160.B.3 requires the owner of a building containing rented housing units to maintain heat in all habitable rooms, baths and toilet rooms at an inside temperature of at least 68 degrees Fahrenheit between 7 a.m. and 10:30 p.m. and 58 degrees between 10:30 p.m. and 7 a.m., from September 1 until June 30, measured three feet above the floor and two feet from exterior walls, unless the tenant is contractually obligated to provide heat.

Can a Seattle lease waive any of these rules?

Almost never, and never in a template. SMC 7.24.030.L makes any provision violating SMC 7.24.030 null and void; SMC 22.205.020 makes void any provision waiving a right created by the just cause chapter; and SMC 7.24.100.A bars any waiver of chapter 7.24 rights except on four cumulative conditions in SMC 7.24.100.B, the second of which is that the waiver may not appear in a standard form written lease or rental agreement, and the fourth of which requires the tenant's attorney to approve it in writing.

What does including a prohibited clause cost a Seattle landlord?

Up to three thousand dollars for merely including it. SMC 7.24.060.A.2 makes a landlord who includes a provision prohibited by SMC 7.24.030.B, 7.24.035, 7.24.036 or 7.24.038 in a new or renewed agreement liable to the tenant for up to three thousand dollars plus reasonable attorney fees and costs, without any need to enforce it. Attempting to enforce a non-compliant provision costs actual damages, double any City penalties and double any deposit unlawfully charged or withheld under SMC 7.24.060.A.1, and RCW 59.18.230(3) adds statutory damages of up to two times the monthly rent at state level.

How does Seattle treat a voucher when screening for income?

The subsidy comes off the rent before any ratio is applied. SMC 14.08.040.F makes it an unfair practice to apply income screening criteria such as an income-to-rent ratio inconsistently with two rules: any payment from a Section 8 or other subsidy program that reduces the amount of rent for which the tenant is responsible must be subtracted from the total of the monthly rent, and all sources of income must be included in the tenant's total income except where the unit is subject to income or rent restrictions under a regulatory or subsidy agreement that determines income differently. SMC 14.08.040.H adds duties to cooperate with subsidy paperwork and to accept a qualifying written pledge to pay arrears.

Can a Seattle lease make the tenant pay the landlord's attorney fees?

No, and the reason is state law rather than city law. RCW 59.18.230(2)(e) provides that no rental agreement may provide that the tenant agrees to pay the landlord's attorneys' fees, except as authorized in chapter 59.18 and awarded by a court pursuant to a judgment. Both limbs of that exception point away from the lease, so a reciprocal prevailing-party wording does not cure it. This form contains no fee field and generates no fee clause. Seattle then adds at least six fee entitlements of its own, in SMC 7.24.030.J.4, 7.24.050, 7.24.060.A, 22.205.070, 22.206.295 and 22.206.305, and every one of them runs toward the tenant.

Does Seattle have its own retaliation rule?

Yes, and it is harder to rebut than the state one. SMC 7.24.110 makes it a violation to retaliate against a tenant or prospective tenant for exercising rights under chapter 7.24, and defines retaliation as refusing to provide, accept or approve a rental application or agreement; applying more onerous terms, conditions or privileges including increased rent; misrepresenting any material fact when providing a rental reference; and threatening to allege to a government agency that a tenant, prospective tenant or family member is not lawfully in the United States. Any of those within 90 days of the exercise of a chapter 7.24 right is presumed retaliatory, and the presumption may be rebutted only by clear and convincing evidence. The state rule at RCW 59.18.250 uses a lower standard and supplies three counter-presumptions the city rule does not.

Does the Washington statewide rent-increase limit still apply in Seattle?

Yes. RCW 35.21.830 preempts a city or town from regulating the amount of rent, which is why Seattle regulates the notice, the fees, the deposits, the grounds for eviction and the consequences of displacement rather than the rent figure. The statewide limit in RCW 59.18.700 is unaffected by that preemption because it binds through state law, and it applies inside the city like anywhere else. A Seattle increase therefore has to satisfy the state percentage limit, the state prescribed notice form in RCW 59.18.720, the Seattle 180-day period, and the SDCI economic-displacement notice that SMC 22.212.020.B requires to accompany it.

Which documents must change hands when a Seattle tenancy starts?

Five. An executed copy of the rental agreement to each tenant who signs it under RCW 59.18.065; the signed and dated move-in checklist, which RCW 59.18.260 and SMC 7.24.035.E make a precondition to collecting any deposit at all; the SDCI information packet published as the Renter's Handbook, due when the agreement is offered under SMC 7.24.080.A; a copy of the current rental housing registration, due at or before possession under SMC 22.214.040.I; and the state disclosure set, including the fire safety and smoke detection notice signed by both parties, mold information from the Department of Health, landlord identification, and federal lead-based paint material for pre-1978 housing. Seattle adds a signed statement of understanding about the detectors under SMC 22.206.160.B.7.

Is a Seattle tenant liable for damage caused by an abuser?

No, on documentation. SMC 7.24.030.H provides that for agreements entered into after 31 December 2019 a tenant is not liable for damage to the landlord's property caused by a perpetrator of domestic violence, sexual assault, unlawful harassment or stalking, regardless of whether the damage occurred during an act of it, where the tenant notifies the landlord in writing and provides documentation signed and dated by a qualified third party covering five listed elements. The record given to the tenant must not include the alleged perpetrator's name. SMC 22.206.170.E carries the exemption into the tenant's repair duty, and SMC 7.24.033 runs a landlord mitigation program to reimburse the owner — conditioned, among other things, on the property being registered and the move-in checklist having been completed and signed.

Does this generator produce a Washington-compliant lease as well?

Yes. A Seattle lease is a Washington lease with the municipal layer added, so the document carries the full state set — the RCW 59.18.700 rent-increase limit stated as a mechanism with no percentage printed, the thirty-day deposit accounting under RCW 59.18.280, the two-day entry notice and its required contents, the fourteen-day pay-or-vacate framework, just cause under RCW 59.18.650, the prohibited provisions in RCW 59.18.230, and the state disclosure set — and then adds the Seattle sections on top. The statewide layer is set out in full on our Washington residential lease agreement page, which this page deliberately does not duplicate.

What could not be verified for this page?

One chapter. SMC chapter 14.09, the Fair Chance Housing Ordinance, would not render from the City's code publisher at any address attempted, returning a 193-character stub while the neighbouring chapter returned over seventy-eight thousand characters in full. We therefore cite the chapter and no section of it, and state the enforcement position at exactly the level the Seattle Office for Civil Rights states it on its own page. We also record, rather than smooth over, that SMC 22.206.180 as published skips from subsection I to subsection K — there is no subsection J — so any source citing 22.206.180.J should be treated as suspect. Nothing on this page turns on either point.

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Free Seattle Residential Lease Agreement

Seattle residential lease agreement walk-through

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A configurable Seattle residential lease agreement that generates a signable multi-page PDF. Built to the Seattle Municipal Code on top of state law — the 180-day increase notice, the ten dollar late fee ceiling, the one-month move-in cap, and just cause under SMC ch. 22.205.

Seattle SMC ch. 7.24 Just Cause RRIO Registration Free PDF 2026 Edition

Updated Q3 2026 By Tenant Screening Background Check Editorial Team Scope City of Seattle ~24 min read

A Seattle residential lease agreement is a Washington lease with a second body of law sitting on top of it. The state layer is the Residential Landlord-Tenant Act at RCW chapter 59.18, with eviction under chapter 59.12; the city layer is the Seattle Municipal Code, and it is one of the densest municipal landlord-tenant regimes in the country. Inside the city limits the rent-increase notice is 180 days rather than the statewide ninety — and SMC 7.24.030.A deems that term into the agreement whether it is typed or not. A late fee may not exceed ten dollars a month, and no fee at all may be charged for serving a notice. The security deposit and nonrefundable move-in fees together may not exceed one month’s rent, the fees alone may not exceed ten per cent of it, and the tenant — not the landlord — chooses whether to pay in instalments. A tenancy may be ended only for one of the sixteen just causes in SMC chapter 22.205, and not even then if the unit is unregiste