Rent Control Bills Fail to Pass Before Cut Off

HB 1388, 1389 and SB 5435, bills that would have capped rent increases to CPI or 7%, whichever is lower failed to pass out of Senate and House prior to the “house of origin cutoff.” By not passing of the floor, these bills  have stalled and are extremely unlikely to pass this year.

Due to the efforts of a broad coalition including WMFHA, Washington Realtors, Rental Housing Association, NAIOP, BOMA including multiple committee hearings, we were able to convince enough legislators that these proposals were not the right solution at this time.

In addition, Partnership for Affordable Housing (PAH), ran an approximately 5 week campaign to educate likely voters on the harms of rent control and encouraged them to contact their legislators with their concerns.

All three bills also had a number of other concerning provisions which would have made operating and managing multifamily properties more difficult and expensive.