How rent hike cap has been enforcedFree

A year into Washington’s limit on residential rent increases, the state has yet to collect a cent in civil penalties from landlords.

That’s not to say some haven’t violated the law.

The state attorney general’s office has settled roughly four dozen cases of alleged breaches of the law, which caps rent increases in traditional units at 7 percent plus inflation up to a maximum of 10 percent. The limit for manufactured homes is 5 percent. The fines imposed in these cases total over $800,000.

“Anecdotally, just talking to folks in the community, they’re really happy that it’s there,” said Rep. Strom Peterson, D-Edmonds, one of the law’s lead backers. “They’re feeling a little bit of a sense of security.”

It’s unclear exactly how many tenants have been affected by these wrongful rent hikes, but Attorney General Nick Brown this month said the settlement agreements have provided rent relief for over 1,000 households.

Meanwhile, owners of parks for residents living in recreational vehicles have been surprised to be considered manufactured home communities under the law, leading to the biggest fines. The state also faces an ongoing lawsuit from manufactured home parks.

The landmark law was one of the most contentious during the 2025 legislative session. This year, it caps residential rent increases at 9.683 percent. Rent hikes of any degree aren’t allowed in the first year of a tenancy, though landlords can set rent however they please when a new tenant moves in.

The cap doesn’t apply to all homes. For example, new construction is not covered for its first 12 years. Public housing authorities, low-income developments, and duplexes, triplexes and fourplexes in which the owner lives in one of the units are also exempt.

The goal was to give renters predictability so they aren’t forced out of their homes due to steep rent hikes.

“I’m really glad we got it done when we got it done,” before families had to face major increases in gas and food costs, said Peterson, chair of the House Housing Committee.

The Rental Housing Association of Washington, a trade group that represents landlords, argues that its warnings that the law would hurt the state’s housing supply and result in higher rents are proving true.

“As property taxes, insurance and operational costs rise while there is a restricted ability to recoup these costs, the state will continue to see small rental housing providers invest outside of Washington state,” Sean Flynn, the group’s executive director, said in a statement.

“While it is starting as a trickle of providers leaving the state, the outflow will continue to accelerate and those who passed this policy will have no one to blame but themselves,” Flynn added.

In most cases, landlords accused of violations have agreed to rescind the unlawful rent increase notices, often issued before the policy became law last May but set to take effect later. If they’d already collected rent based on the new rates, they agreed to refund tenants. In these instances, the state hasn’t fined them, instead seeking $2,000 in attorney fees each time.

In a handful of other cases, the state has issued additional fines, though they’re suspended if the landlords comply with the law going forward.

The law allows the attorney general to recover up to $7,500 per violation. In a couple cases, fines have reached six figures.

In fact, the state in April dealt the Suntides RV Park in Yakima County a nearly $400,000 fine. The RV park was accused of serving 53 tenants with a notice increasing rent from $735 to $775 in January. This amounted to a 5.4 percent hike, above the 5 percent maximum. Suntides also only gave 30 days notice, though state law requires three months heads up.

Also in January, a Spokane County RV park allegedly notified 29 residents their rent was going up from $600 to $700, a 16.7 percent increase. The notice from the Wild Rose RV Park also didn’t give three months warning.

A week later, Wild Rose told tenants the rent was instead increasing from $600 to $630, which equals 5 percent, according to court papers.

For this, the state levied $217,500 in suspended fines for the RV park, equal to $7,500 for each of the 29 tenants.

Rick Lungo, the owner of Wild Rose, said he was raising rates to deal with significant increases in expenses, and in response got a “nastygram” from the attorney general’s office despite already having rescinded the rent hike. He thinks the fine is excessive.

Lungo didn’t know about the law, let alone that it would treat RV parks as manufactured home communities.

“It’s absolute baloney,” he said. “Somehow I was supposed to know about this law, somehow I was supposed to know they consider my RV park a mobile home park.”

“It’s just big brother out of control,” Lungo said.

A statewide organization representing owners of manufactured home communities hopes to block the law. In these communities, residents own their homes but have to lease the land they live on.