In Washington State you can raise rent by at most 7% plus inflation or 10%, whichever is less, in any 12-month period: 9.683% for increases taking effect in 2026 and 10% for 2027, the figures the Department of Commerce publishes each July. No increase is allowed in the first 12 months of a tenancy, and every increase takes at least 90 days' written notice on the state's statutory form, the Rent and Fee Increase Notice to Tenants.
It is a Tuesday in late May, and unit 4C's lease started last September 1. Under the first-year rule the earliest its rent can move is this September 1, and 90 days before that is June 3, eight days from now. The renewal conversation penciled in for July was already too late before anyone noticed. And the notice itself is not a letter. It is the state's form, and it ends with a box you have to check.
The market-neutral spine of a rent increase, cadence, notice, service, and the file, is covered in How and When to Raise Rent: Scheduling, Notice Periods, and Documentation. This guide is the Washington layer: the cap and its annual figure, the two clocks, the 90-day notice on a form the legislature wrote into the statute, the exemptions, and what an unlawful increase costs. Operator education, not legal advice, every rule named to its official source.
How much you can raise rent in Washington State
Washington's limit comes from House Bill 1217, enacted as Chapter 209, Laws of 2025, in force since May 7, 2025, and codified at RCW 59.18.700 (app.leg.wa.gov, verified August 2026). During any 12-month period of a tenancy, rent may not rise by more than 7% plus the consumer price index or 10%, whichever is less; the index is the June 12-month change in the CPI for all urban consumers in the Seattle area, published by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The Department of Commerce calculates the resulting maximum for the following calendar year and publishes it each July: 10% for the rest of 2025, 9.683% for increases between January 1 and December 31, 2026, and 10% for 2027 (commerce.wa.gov, verified August 2026).
The limit covers rent and every other recurring charge for the unit together, which is why the statutory notice is titled rent and fee; a parking or storage fee that climbs counts against the same ceiling. A landlord may not charge more than a 5% rent difference between a month-to-month arrangement and a longer lease. And the limit has an end date: RCW 59.18.700 and its companion sections expire July 1, 2040.
The first year, and the twelve-month clock
No increase is allowed during the first 12 months after a tenancy begins, and after that the ceiling applies across any 12-month period (RCW 59.18.700). The statutory notice form states the rule the way operators should read it: once every 12 months, by up to the year's maximum. Separately, RCW 59.18.140 provides that an increase may not take effect before the term of the rental agreement is complete, so a fixed-term lease holds its rent until it ends.
Put together, each lease carries one annual slot: the first at month 13 at the earliest, and each later one no sooner than 12 months after the last. With 90 days of notice in front of every slot, the decision for month 13 is made in month 10. A slot missed by a week does not move by a week; the next effective date is the first rent day a compliant 90-day notice can still reach, and the old rent runs until then.
The notice: 90 days, on the statutory form
Washington's rent increase notice requirements sit in two sections. RCW 59.18.140 sets the time: at least 90 days' prior written notice of any increase, up from 60 before May 7, 2025, with 30 days for a subsidized tenancy whose rent is set by the tenant's income (app.leg.wa.gov, verified August 2026). RCW 59.18.720 sets the paper: the notice must be in a form substantially the same as the Rent and Fee Increase Notice to Tenants set out in the statute itself, served under RCW 59.12.040; the one carve-out is a subsidized tenancy whose rent is a percentage of the tenant's income, and portable voucher tenancies still get the form. The legislature wrote the form into the law; there is no agency PDF to fill, and Commerce posts a copy on its HB 1217 landlord resource page.
Service under RCW 59.12.040 takes one of three routes: handing the notice to the tenant; leaving it with a person of suitable age and discretion at the premises and mailing a copy; or affixing it in a conspicuous place and mailing a copy. The statute adds five days to a mailed notice before anything can rest on it, so the safe count for mail is 95 days, and proof of service is the server's affidavit.
Cities can add to the state floor, and Seattle does: any housing cost increase there takes at least 180 days' written notice, served personally or by posting plus first-class mail, on the state format with the City's tenant-rights language added, and an increase of 10% or more in a 12-month period must carry an Economic Displacement Relocation Assistance notice (seattle.gov, Renting in Seattle, verified August 2026). There, the state's 90 days is a floor under a much longer lead.
What the form makes you declare
The Rent and Fee Increase Notice to Tenants is a short document with a long tail. After explaining the limit and the exemptions to the tenant, it states the increase (the effective date, the percentage, the dollar amount per month, and the new total) and then makes you check one of three boxes: the increase is lower than the maximum allowed by state law; it is the maximum; or it is authorized by an exemption under RCW 59.18.710. The third box opens a certification section, where you name the exemption, state the percentage, and include supporting facts or attach documents; for a new building, that means the date of the first certificate of occupancy.
In most markets the notice is a number and a date. In Washington it is a number, a date, and a statement of your legal position on the number, over your signature. A wrong box is not a typo: a notice that claims an exemption it cannot support, or calls an above-limit increase the maximum, is the document a tenant or the Attorney General holds up later. New York runs a similar rule through a separate enclosure, the Good Cause applicability notice that travels with every 226-c increase (New York Rent Increases: Market-Rate Notice Rules and the Stabilized Boundary), and California makes the single-family exemption depend on written notice given in advance (California Rent Increases: The AB 1482 Cap, Exempt Properties, and Local Ordinances). Washington puts the declaration on the notice itself.
Exempt properties
RCW 59.18.710 lists the tenancies the limit does not reach (app.leg.wa.gov, verified August 2026). The one most operators will meet is new construction: a unit whose first certificate of occupancy was issued 12 or fewer years before the date of the notice. The window is measured to each notice, so a building delivered in 2016 is exempt this year and covered in 2029, the rolling pattern California's 15-year window follows. The rest are narrower: program-regulated affordable housing (public housing authorities, public development authorities, nonprofits, and tax-credit developments under a regulatory agreement with the state housing finance commission) and three owner-occupied arrangements (a shared bathroom or kitchen with a resident owner, a single-family home renting at most two units or bedrooms, and an owner-occupied duplex, triplex, or fourplex), the last three unavailable to a real estate investment trust, a corporation, or an LLC with a corporate member. An exemption is claimed, not assumed: the notice carries the box, the percentage, and the supporting facts, or the limit applies.
What an unlawful increase costs
RCW 59.18.700 carries its own enforcement (app.leg.wa.gov, verified August 2026). A tenant who receives an increase in violation of the section may end the tenancy before it takes effect on 20 days' written notice, owing rent for the full month in which they vacate. A tenant or the Attorney General may sue for the excess paid, damages of up to three months of any unlawful rent, fees, or other costs charged, and reasonable attorneys' fees and costs, and the Attorney General may add a civil penalty of up to $7,500 per violation without waiting for the tenant to offer a cure (atg.wa.gov, verified August 2026). The served notice and its proof of service are what show an increase was inside the limit, on time, and on the right form.
Washington's rent increase rules, at a glance
The table collects the rules above with their sources, for the renewals file.
| Rule | Washington's answer | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Cap on the amount | 7% plus CPI or 10%, whichever is less: 9.683% for 2026, 10% for 2027 | RCW 59.18.700; Department of Commerce |
| First year | No increase in the first 12 months of a tenancy | RCW 59.18.700 |
| Frequency | Once every 12 months, within the cap | RCW 59.18.700; RCW 59.18.720 form text |
| Notice | At least 90 days' written notice, never before a fixed term ends; 30 days for income-based subsidized tenancies | RCW 59.18.140(3) |
| Form | Substantially the statutory Rent and Fee Increase Notice to Tenants | RCW 59.18.720 |
| Service | Personal delivery, or substitute service or posting plus mail; five extra days when mailed | RCW 59.12.040 |
| Exemptions | New construction for 12 years from the first certificate of occupancy; regulated affordable housing; three owner-occupancy cases | RCW 59.18.710 |
| Local layers | Seattle: 180 days' notice, City language, EDRA notice at 10% or more | seattle.gov |
| Remedies | Tenant may terminate on 20 days' notice; up to three months of unlawful rent plus fees; AG penalty up to $7,500 per violation | RCW 59.18.700(5) |
| Sunset | The sections expire July 1, 2040 | RCW 59.18.700 to 59.18.720 |
The Washington procedure, start to finish
Run this per lease, counted backward from the intended effective date:
- Find the slot. Past the first 12 months, 12 months since the last increase, and any fixed term ended by the effective date.
- Read the year's maximum. Commerce's figure for the calendar year the increase takes effect, and whether this property holds an exemption it can support.
- Set the number. Count every recurring charge, keep the lease-type difference within 5%, and stay at or under the maximum unless the exemption is real.
- Pick the effective date and count back. A rent-due boundary at least 90 days out, 95 if the notice is mailed, and 180 in Seattle.
- Complete the statutory form. The effective date, the percentage, the dollar amount, the new total, and the box the number earns; the exemption section with facts if one is claimed; Seattle's language where it applies.
- Serve it under RCW 59.12.040. Personally, or by substitute service or posting with a mailed copy, and keep the affidavit of service.
- Record it. The served notice and its date anchor the next 12-month window.
Key questions
Is there rent control in Washington State?
Yes, statewide, since May 7, 2025. House Bill 1217 limits increases to 7% plus the consumer price index or 10%, whichever is less, in any 12-month period, bars any increase in the first 12 months of a tenancy, requires 90 days' written notice on a statutory form, and runs until July 1, 2040 (RCW 59.18.700 to 59.18.720). New construction is exempt for 12 years from its first certificate of occupancy, among a short list of exemptions.
How much notice does a landlord have to give to raise rent in Washington State?
At least 90 days' written notice under RCW 59.18.140, and the increase cannot take effect before a fixed term ends. A subsidized tenancy whose rent is based on the tenant's income takes 30 days. Service follows RCW 59.12.040, which adds five days when the notice is mailed, and Seattle requires 180 days for any housing cost increase. The notice must be substantially the statutory Rent and Fee Increase Notice to Tenants.
How often can a landlord raise rent in Washington State?
Once every 12 months, as the statutory notice form states the rule, and never during the first 12 months of a tenancy. The statute caps the total increase in any 12-month period at the annual maximum, so two smaller increases inside a year cannot add up to more than one, and a fixed-term lease holds its rent until the term ends.
Which year's maximum applies to a rent increase in Washington?
The figure Commerce publishes for the calendar year the increase falls in: 9.683% for increases between January 1 and December 31, 2026, and 10% for 2027. Commerce publishes the coming year's figure each July, after the June inflation data, so a fall notice for a January effective date is set against a number that is already public. When the two figures differ and an increase straddles the year line, the lower figure is the conservative choice.
Is my building exempt from the Washington rent cap?
Possibly, and only if you claim it on the notice. RCW 59.18.710 exempts a unit whose first certificate of occupancy was issued 12 or fewer years before the notice, program-regulated affordable housing, and three owner-occupied arrangements closed to REITs, corporations, and LLCs with a corporate member. The form requires the exemption box, the percentage, and supporting facts; without them the limit applies.
How Scaalr runs a Washington increase
Scaalr treats a Washington rent increase as a scheduled, validated event on the lease rather than a form in a folder. The operator confirms the Washington market once, reviewing its cap, clocks, form, and service rules, before anything can send. Because Washington is a capped market, the rate resolves in layers: the profile carries the published maximum for the current calendar year (9.683% for 2026), an optional account rate policy can sit below it, and any lease can carry its own percentage; each notice records which layer set the number, and when a new annual figure publishes, the worklist asks whether to keep the maximum or set your own.
Validation runs at scheduling and again before service: the percentage against the cap, one increase per twelve-month window, the no-increase window in a tenancy's first twelve months, and the 90-day floor against the effective date. The floor is the statute's and the lead is yours, so the five days mail adds and Seattle's 180 days are set as a longer lead on the schedule, and the rent-increases worklist shows each lease's earliest lawful effective date and serve-by date. A renewal cannot reset either clock.
The notice is generated from the statute: Scaalr composes the Rent and Fee Increase Notice to Tenants from the text of RCW 59.18.720(3), fills the parties, the address, the effective date, the percentage, the dollar increase, and the new total, and marks the box the number earns, lower than the maximum or the maximum when the percentage reaches the year's figure. The exemption section is yours: the notice is built for increases within the limit, those boxes print unmarked, and an above-limit increase under a claimed exemption is a notice you prepare and certify yourself. Every notice is signed with a real signature image or held for approval, service is recorded as a staff task with its proof (Washington notices are not served by email in Scaalr), and the served record anchors the next twelve-month window. Jurisdiction-aware rent-increase notices are part of Growth and up.
Unit 4C, current
Back to the Tuesday and unit 4C. The schedule already knew the tenancy's first anniversary, so the serve-by date has been in the worklist since spring: notice generated from the statute with the right box marked, signature in place, service recorded when your team completes the task and files the affidavit. Next September's window is anchored to a served notice. Washington left you the number and the box. The clocks, the form, and the proof run on the system.