38
Landlords fined for first time under WA’s new law capping rent increases (www.kuow.org)
submitted 1 day ago by griff@lemmings.world to c/usnews@beehaw.org
10 comments fedilink hide all child comments

For the first time, Washington state’s attorney general has enforced the state’s new cap on rent hikes, fining eight landlords $2,000 each for violating the law.

House Bill 1217 took effect in early May. The landlords told tenants before that time about rent increases that would exceed the new maximums. But these increases were tied to leases that renewed after the law took effect, according to the attorney general’s office. For example, one rent increase for a tenant in Lakewood would have begun June 22.

In each case, the attorney general notified the landlords that their rent hikes were illegal. All the landlords rescinded them and refunded any payments tenants made under the unlawful increases, according to court filings.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] TehPers@beehaw.org 7 points 19 hours ago

Know what would do even more? Punish companies that own and rent massive amounts of real estate. For example, limit rent increases for companies that own a real percentage of the homes in a market to no greater than some percentage of inflation. Make it so they are incentivized to invest in literally anything that isn't buying a home to rent. Maybe they can get a break if they build the home on undeveloped land first, but do something at least.

[-] Powderhorn@beehaw.org 5 points 18 hours ago* (last edited 18 hours ago)

For single-family homes, there's a really easy solution: only allow individuals to own them. This doesn't kill the rental market; it's just common sense. You personally want to build a rental empire? Fine. But no hiding behind an LLC or other corporate structure -- if you want to rent-seek, you shouldn't have the protections of a business.

Multifamily is of course a different beast, as individual ownership rarely occurs above very small complexes. Still, capping rent increases at inflation plus minimum-wage increase (we're talking Washington here; it goes up annually) would go a long way toward stabilizing budgeting for renters.

It astounds me how many homeowners who locked in mortgages at $800 at 3% simply refuse to believe there's an affordability crisis in the rental market. "Just make 15% more next year" isn't particularly useful advice in a deteriorating job market.

[-] TehPers@beehaw.org 1 points 16 hours ago

Hey my mortgage is 2.75%. For every dollar I save to move somewhere nicer though, the homes I'm looking at go up by $2-3. I don't know how I'm supposed to ever move into a nicer home than what I have now when I'm constantly chasing the price of those homes and getting further and further. It's not even like I make too little money either, just that I didn't have enough money 5 years ago to even be in the race to begin with.

this post was submitted on 07 Aug 2025
38 points (100.0% liked)

U.S. News

2469 readers
99 users here now

News about and pertaining to the United States and its people.

Please read what's functionally the mission statement before posting for the first time. We have a narrower definition of news than you might be accustomed to.

Guidelines for submissions:

For World News, see the News community.

This community's icon was made by Aaron Schneider, under the CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
alyaza@beehaw.org
rs5th@beehaw.org
Powderhorn@beehaw.org