What’s the plan for rental regulations in Seattle? Small landlords would like to know.
On July 29, the City Council quietly appointed a new slate of tenants to serve on the Renters’ Commission, a 15-member board established in 2017 “to meet regularly and pass ideas directly to City Council members who make laws, and to other officials who help shape and enforce them.”
Since its formation, commission members have been frequent panelists at council meetings, pushing a tsunami of municipal laws that go far beyond the state’s residential landlord-tenant act — from “first in the nation” ideas like First in Time — that requires landlords to offer a rental agreement to the first qualified applicant who provides a complete application — and the Roommate Law — that states, among other protections, that additional family (very broadly defined) cannot be denied occupancy. There’s also the $10 cap on late fees and permanent winter and school-year eviction bans.
The snarled regulations are designed to protect low-income renters but apply to all. They are problematic when done at scale, especially as Seattle is in the top five metros with the highest share of wealthy renters. They’ve led to numerous unmitigated consequences for renters at large (e.g., more restrictive application criteria, inability to resolve safety issues, diminished selection of rentals).
No housing providers were included in the creation of Seattle’s complicated stew of ordinances, and by 2023, the city’s Rental Registration and Inspection Ordinance registry showed a 19.77% decrease in one- to 20-unit rental properties, losing 9,578 units of “missing middle” rentals, which Seattle supposedly is working to expand. Most “naturally affordable housing” occurs in small, privately owned properties, yet Seattle has no strategy for turning the tide. Registrations in 2024 continued tracking far below baselines set in 2018 and 2020.
In 2023, the city auditor studied why people had stopped operating rentals: 74% said Seattle’s laws are too burdensome or difficult. Only 1% purchased new rental property within the city, indicating it’s uniquely problematic to invest here. In reading raw survey responses from over 600 former landlords, the themes are clear:
● It’s not worth the effort anymore to be a small landlord, too much risk and too many constantly changing rules.
● I don’t feel like I can protect all of my tenants [nor] my private property … I don’t feel physically safe landlording with Seattle landlord laws.
● I’m a mom & pop operator, a senior myself & believe the rules are prohibitive for landlords that provide low or reasonable rents.
● I sold my rental, partly because you’ve made it incredibly clear that small time landlords are enemy #1 in the city. Time for a new approach, folks!
When new council members took office in 2024, we hoped reasonable reforms would encourage more people to provide rental housing, not fewer. As chair of the Housing & Human Services committee, Councilmember Cathy Moore paused new appointments to the Renters’ Commission and dedicated listening time to a wide range of affordable-housing providers, small landlords and tenants.
In our experience, Moore was well on target in identifying key impacts, consequences and solutions to Seattle’s flawed, high-risk laws. However, she resigned before being able to present the revisions, which included draft legislation to replace the Renters’ Commission with a balanced Rental Housing Commission representing diverse tenant and landlord stakeholders. A strong rental housing environment requires tenants and landlords to work together.
What’s next?
Remaining councilmembers sent a strong business-as-usual message recently, with autopilot appointments of a nonrepresentative range of renter activists to the existing commission.
Meanwhile, where’s the executive branch and “One Seattle” leadership? For five years, we’ve reached out constructively to city departments and policymakers but have found no point person for small rental operators to work with in strengthening the supply of Seattle’s family-sized and small-operator owned rental housing.
Will any coalition step forward to implement the auditor’s 2023 recommendation to enact policies that support small rentals and to involve stakeholders? For the health of our rental ecosystem, we hope the council and mayor turn a corner in broaching the operational realities of Seattle’s regulatory quagmire, but the brave politics of collaborative problem-solving have yet to receive more than fleeting support.
