A WA bill to cap rent increases just failed in the Senate. Here’s what your city can do

A bill that aimed to cap rent increases, failed in the Senate yesterday. HB 2114, which passed in the House by a 54-43 vote in mid-February, would have prevented your landlord from raising rent by more than 7% in a given year. Instead, current state law remains in place, meaning landlords can raise rent by as much as they want.

But just because there’s no statewide cap on rent increases doesn’t mean that your city can’t enact a cap of its own, right? Well, the answer is slightly more complicated than that.

Washington state prohibits rent control

State law doesn’t just ignore the issue of rent control, it bans it altogether. A 1981 Washington law deems rent control a statewide issue, and therefore not up to cities or counties to regulate.

What about rent stabilization?

The distinction between rent control and rent stabilization is vague in Washington state. In general, rent control prohibits landlords from raising a tenant’s rent at all, while rent stabilization limits rent increases at a certain amount.

Washington state law bans any measures “which regulate the amount of rent to be charged.” The obvious reading of this is that rent stabilization is banned too – “otherwise cities would have tried it,” State Sen. Sharon Shewmake told the Herald via text.

Are there ways around this?

With rents increasing across the state, some cities have tried to find creative ways around this ban.

“Bellingham and Tacoma both had initiatives adjacent to rent regulation,” Shewmake said. “They required the payment of moving fees if a rental increase was more than a certain percent.”

The measures, which were on the ballot in late 2023, got around the statewide ban by making landlords pay a relocation stipend to tenants forced out by steep rent increases, but not prohibiting them outright. Bellingham’s measure passed with 62% of the vote, while Tacoma’s proposal passed by a very (very) narrow margin but doesn’t contain a process to enforce the new law.

In August of last year, Seattle’s City Council considered adopting a rent control law that would have gone into place as soon as the statewide law is lifted. Had it passed, the measure presumably would have put pressure on the state legislature to reconsider the ban on rent control, but the measure was struck down in a 6-2 vote.

Rent hikes in Washington

According to Steve Walker, the executive director of the Washington State Housing Finance Commission, rent stabilization rose to the forefront of state politics as housing prices increased in recent years.

“It’s been the topic of discussion on and off for decades,” Walker said. “Given the real estate market, in particular the Puget Sound, but more generally the entire state – the entire west coast really – has been paying attention to the fact that we have under-built rental housing for 20 years.”

Rent has become increasingly expensive in Washington in recent years. According to the University of Washington’s Washington State Apartment Market Report in the third quarter of 2023, average rent across the state is up roughly 70% from 2014, although it only increased by 0.6% between 2022 to 2023.

“That, combined with [it being] a very popular place for people to move to, strong economy, has placed just incredible pressure on our rental housing inventory… the price point just keeps going up,” Walker said. “Unfortunately, that’s a very destabilizing impact on individuals, families, children, it goes on and on.”

This story was originally published February 27, 2024 at 12:42 PM with the headline "A WA bill to cap rent increases just failed in the Senate. Here’s what your city can do."