No. 1 · Tuesday, December 15, 2026 · Washington · 10 minutes | Two Washington laws start on Jan 1, and the yearly rent cap for 2027 is set at 10%. The one that reaches the most owners of a unit or two is three disclosures to the tenant: that the property may be in a flood hazard area, that the landlord’s insurance does not cover the tenant’s possessions, and that hazard information is available from the county. A lease entered into after Dec 31 is the one caught. | 17 days to Jan 1: 2 Washington laws. |
| Washington · Laws of 2026, ch. 234 (SSB 6237) Three flood disclosures join the landlord’s dutiesStarts Jan 1, 2027 What changed RCW 59.18.060, the landlord’s duties list, gains a subsection (13) with three disclosures to tenants: “That the property may be located in a special flood hazard area or an area of potential flooding”; that the landlord’s insurance does not cover the loss of the tenant’s possessions, with a pointer to renter’s and flood insurance for them; and “That information about hazards that may affect the property, including whether the property may be at risk of flooding, is available from the county government in which the property is located.” The words are may be located: the text sets no condition on the property’s actual flood status and asks for no finding about it. Who it reaches The landlord: the owner, lessor or sublessor of the unit or of the property it sits on, and a dwelling unit expressly includes single-family residences and units of multiplexes (59.18.030). No unit count, no owner-occupied line. Outside it: the living arrangements RCW 59.18.040 keeps out of the Act (institutions, hotels and transient lodging, farm-lease houses, seasonal farmworker housing, employee housing tied to the job, among others), and leases entered into on or before Dec 31, 2026 (13)(b). The trigger A lease entered into after Dec 31, 2026 (13)(b). The act itself has been in force since June; Jan 1 is the first day a lease can be caught. The price tag The statute names no penalty for this subsection. The immunity clause at (15) covers mold only; the general route in 59.18.070 opens when a landlord fails in the duties of 59.18.060, but it speaks of a defective condition, and whether a missing disclosure is one is not a question this letter answers. Starts Jan 1, 2027the act took effect Jun 11, 2026 (approved Mar 27, 2026); its application clause makes Jan 1, 2027 the first day a lease can be caught. Before it starts Dec 31: read the lease form in use for 2027 and check for the three statements; find the county office or page that holds hazard information for each property. The signed text |  | Washington · Laws of 2026, ch. 55 (ESSB 5937) Smart access systems: a plain key on request, and two privacy papersStarts Jan 1, 2027 What changed Three new sections. RCW 59.18.750: “If requested by a tenant, a landlord must offer the tenant an alternative key that does not use biometric identifier information or a software application operated on a tenant’s mobile phone or other similar electronic device”; a fob, a card, a physical key or a keypad all count. RCW 59.18.755: the landlord makes available any written privacy policy of the system’s developer or operator, and adds a plain-language policy of its own covering six listed items (data collected, guests’ data included; safeguards; retention; breach steps; destruction; adding a temporary user) where the first does not, delivered at the initial signing of a lease or within five days of installation. A landlord who keeps and sells none of the system’s data is compliant with the developer’s policy or a link to it, if that policy carries the required information. RCW 59.18.760 limits collection to the minimum authentication and reference data necessary, from a list of eight: name, unit and doors, preferred contact, biometric data if the system uses it, card or hardware identifier, passwords and contact information, lease dates, and the time and method of each entry, “solely for security and operational purposes”. Who it reaches A smart access building: a building with a dwelling unit that uses a smart access system, meaning any system using electronic or computerized technology, such as an RFID card, a phone app or biometric information, to gather information in order to grant entry (59.18.030). No unit count; a single-family rental fits the words, since the system may grant entry to an individual dwelling unit. Outside the definition: entry that relies solely on a keypad with a manually entered code, and a plain key; a camera or audio system that watches an entrance but does not open it is not authentication data. The key section (.750) says “a landlord”; the other two say a landlord of a smart access building. The trigger A tenant’s request (.750); the signing of a lease or the installation of the system (.755); any collection of data (.760). The price tag The statute names no penalty: none of the three sections names a fine, damages or a remedy, and they sit outside RCW 59.18.060, so the 59.18.070 route does not cite them. Starts Jan 1, 2027a date clause, section 5 of the act; approved Mar 16, 2026. Before it starts Dec 31: check every door and shared entry for one that opens by phone app, card, fob, fingerprint or face rather than key or keypad alone; find the written privacy policy of whoever makes or runs the system. The signed text | | Signed laws found as of Nov 6, 2026 We checked all 268 chapters of the 2026 session: each cover’s start date, and each full text searched for the landlord words we track, plus every RCW 59.18 section rewritten in 2026 and its history. Of the chapters dated into 2027, only ch. 55 reaches the landlord-tenant chapters, and ch. 234 joins by its application clause. Not checked: the 2025 session for delayed dates (our earlier read found none for this reader), regulations, court rules and forms, local ordinances. Through the Legislature’s file host as of Nov 5, 2026. Missed one? Write to hello@landlorddispatch.com. | | 10% The RCW 59.18.700 cap for 2027: Commerce’s figure for an increase between Jan 1 and Dec 31, 2027 is 10%. The limit is “seven percent plus the consumer price index, or 10 percent, whichever is less” in any 12-month period of the tenancy (59.18.700(1)(a)); the June 2026 index over June 2025 gave 11.53%, so the ceiling set it (2026 was 9.683%, set by the formula). No increase at all in the first 12 months of a tenancy, and 90 days’ written notice before one (59.18.140(3)); a new tenancy starts at any rent (1)(b). Outside the cap, among others: a unit whose first certificate of occupancy is 12 years old or less at the date of the notice; a single-family owner-occupied residence renting no more than two units or bedrooms; a duplex, triplex or fourplex where the owner lived in one unit at the start of the tenancy and still does; a tenancy sharing a bathroom or kitchen with an owner who lives there (59.18.710(1)). The three owner-on-site lines fail where the owner is a REIT, a corporation or an LLC with a corporate member (710(2)). An owner claiming one “must include facts supporting any claimed exemptions in the written notice of the rent increase” (700(2)). The price tag: excess rent paid, up to three months of unlawful rent, fees or costs, and attorney’s fees (700(5)); the Attorney General may add a civil penalty of up to $7,500 a violation. The state’s page shows the figure, the statute’s sentence and who is exempt: the Washington page. Commerce’s 2027 figure; RCW 59.18.700; RCW 59.18.710. Commerce’s page says the exemptions are defined in 59.18.700; they are in 59.18.710. | 30 days, documented, or the whole deposit is owedRCW 59.18.280 gives a landlord 30 days after the agreement ends and the tenant vacates to “give a full and specific statement of the basis for retaining any of the deposit”, with documentation, “together with the payment of any refund due the tenant” (1)(a). Miss it and the landlord owes the full deposit and may raise no claim or defense for keeping any of it; an intentional refusal risks up to twice the deposit, at the court’s discretion, and the prevailing party gets costs and a reasonable attorneys’ fee (2). The clock was 21 days when the story below began. The court story, in roles. A couple owned a house and had a management company run it; the tenants moved in May 2015 with a $1,695 deposit. At the May 2018 move-out walk-through the manager’s agent signed a checklist saying the place was as at move-in and said the full deposit was coming; the owners, absent that day, visited four days later, found substantial damage not on the checklist, and told the manager to deduct, over the agent’s objection. Repairs came to $1,526.01; a statement and a check for the rest went out on day 21, inside the limit then in force. The tenants sent the check back and claimed the deposit, twice it again as a penalty, and fees. A judge threw out the penalty claim before trial, and that was never reviewed. An arbitrator gave the tenants the whole $1,695 and gave the owners $14,386 in fees, since their settlement offers had beaten what the tenants could win; after a trial redo the owners held $27,732.42 in fees and costs. The Supreme Court never reached the deposit question. The tenants’ request for the trial redo was invalid because they had not signed it themselves, on a county form with no line for it, and the court declined to reach the merits. It then vacated the owners’ fee awards and sent fees back for a fresh look at both sides, with the deposit statute’s own fee clause in view: “the plain language of RCW 59.18.280 conditions the award of attorney fees and costs to a tenant on recovery of their security deposit.” The owners met the deadline, kept none of the deposit, and saw a $27,732.42 award vacated. Who pays the fees in the end is not in anything we found; the fight started with a checklist that did not match what they saw four days later. Citation: Crossroads Mgmt., LLC v. Ridgway, 2 Wn.3d 528 (2023) (No. 101329-9, en banc, Dec 21, 2023); the court’s notice says the slip was revised for the printed reports, so the quote is slip text. Opinion PDF; RCW 59.18.280. The same rule in the other seven states, shortest clock first New York: 14 days, itemized, or the landlord forfeits any right to keep any of it. Willful violation: punitive damages up to twice the deposit. N.Y. Gen. Oblig. Law § 7-108(1-a)(e), (g). Florida: 15 days to return it; 30 for a certified-mail or agreed e-mail claim notice. No notice, no claim on it. Loser pays fees. Fla. Stat. § 83.49(3). California: 21 calendar days, itemized. In bad faith, the landlord loses any claim to it and faces up to twice the deposit, plus actual damages. Cal. Civ. Code § 1950.5(h), (m). Illinois, any building size: itemized list with receipts in 30 days, or all of it back in 45. Refusal or bad faith costs twice the deposit, plus fees. 765 ILCS 710/1(a), (c). Texas: 30 days after surrender and a written forwarding address. Late is presumed bad faith: $100, three times the amount wrongfully withheld, and attorney’s fees. Tex. Prop. Code §§ 92.103, 92.107, 92.109. Oregon: 31 days, written accounting and refund. Money withheld with no accounting, or in bad faith, costs twice the amount. Winner may get fees. ORS 90.300(12), (13), (16); 90.255. Virginia: 45 days, itemized; 15 more for the itemization if damage tops the deposit and needs a contractor, with notice. Willful failure means the deposit back, plus actual damages and attorney fees. Va. Code § 55.1-1226 A, E. | The 1099 line is $600 $2,000For payments made after Dec 31, 2025, a 1099-MISC (rents) or 1099-NEC (services) is due for anyone paid “$2,000 or more in any calendar year”, not $600 (26 USC 6041(a), 6041A(a)(2); Pub. L. 119-21, sec. 70433), when the payment is in the course of a trade or business; whether a rental is one is not a question this letter answers. For 2026 payments: Mon, Feb 1, 2027 for the 1099-NEC and all recipient copies; the 1099-MISC to the IRS by Mar 1 on paper, Mar 31 electronically. 26 USC 6041; IRS instructions, Dec 2026. | The act’s title still promises disclosures of flooding history and flood risk. The text it enacts has no history in it: the bill as introduced asked for any known flooding, standing water or drainage problems, and that line did not survive. Know a landlord with a Washington rental? This is the one to send. Next dispatch: Tuesday, December 29. |  |
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