Washington Landlord-Tenant Act Update, May 2026

What Spokane property owners and rental investors need to know about RCW 59.18, the 2026 legislative session, and Spokane’s new eviction-prevention ordinance — before the June 11 effective date.

Washington’s residential rental landscape continues to evolve. The 2025 session delivered statewide rent stabilization, expanded just-cause protections, and a new layer of restrictions on lease language. The 2026 session has now layered on a fresh round of changes — most of which take effect on June 11, 2026 — touching everything from flood disclosures to portable air conditioners to how a pay-or-vacate notice is mailed.

For owners managing a single-family rental in the South Hill or a multifamily portfolio in Spokane Valley, the message is the same: the rules of the road are changing again, and the cost of getting them wrong has gone up. This is a comprehensive look at the 2026 updates to RCW 59.18, the new City of Spokane ordinances on the horizon, and the recent appellate decisions that have already reshaped how unlawful detainers move through Washington courts.

The headline. Four state bills are taking effect this summer — flood history disclosure (SB 6237), portable cooling device protections (SB 6200), notice mailing reform (HB 2664), and smart access systems (SB 5937, effective January 1, 2027). Spokane has also adopted Ordinance C36808, an eviction prevention program that begins June 1, 2026, with a proposed “Right to Cooling” ordinance moving through council. Below is what each one means in practice.

SB 6237 — Flood history disclosure (effective June 11, 2026)

SB 6237 adds a new written disclosure to the lease-signing process. At the time the rental agreement is signed, a Washington landlord is now required to provide written notice to the tenant covering three points:

• The property may be located in an area of potential flooding.
• The landlord’s insurance does not cover the tenant’s personal possessions, and the tenant should consider purchasing renter’s insurance and flood insurance to ensure their belongings against fire, flood, and other risk of loss.
• Information about hazards that may affect the property — including whether the property is at risk of flooding — is available from the county government in which the property is located.

Why it matters. Spokane County sits across multiple FEMA-mapped flood zones, including stretches along the Spokane River, Latah Creek, and the Little Spokane. Many rental properties — especially older single-family homes near Peaceful Valley, the Bowl, and parts of the West Plains — fall inside or just outside special flood hazard areas. Tenants typically do not check flood maps before signing. A simple, well-drafted addendum at lease signing satisfies the statute and shifts the insurance conversation to where it belongs: with the resident.

What to do. Add a flood disclosure addendum to every new lease and every renewal that takes effect on or after June 11, 2026. The addendum should reference the three statutory points, identify the property and unit, and capture the resident’s signature on the same date as the lease. Owners self-managing should not rely on verbal disclosure or a paragraph buried in the body of a long lease — a stand-alone, signed addendum produces a defensible record.

SB 6200 — Portable cooling devices (effective June 11, 2026)

Eastern Washington summers have changed. SB 6200 codifies that reality. The general rule is straightforward: a landlord may not restrict or prohibit a tenant from installing a portable cooling device, and may not charge a fee for a tenant’s use of one.

A “portable cooling device” under the new statute is an air conditioner or portable heat pump, including a window-mounted unit or a free-standing floor model. It does not include any device whose installation requires excessive alteration to the dwelling. Landlords are statutorily immune from damages, injury, or death caused by a tenant-installed portable cooling device, and are not responsible for any interruption in electrical service caused by tenant use of the device — including interruptions traceable to the utility’s inability to accommodate the load.

When a landlord can still say no

SB 6200 carves out narrow circumstances in which an owner may restrict installation:

• The dwelling already has a permanently installed and fully operational heat pump.
• The proposed device would violate state or local building code, state law, or federal law.
• Use would violate the device’s manufacturer’s written safety guidelines.
• The device would cause unreasonable damage to the premises or render the unit uninhabitable.
• The required electrical supply cannot be accommodated by the existing service to the building, dwelling unit, or circuit.

Window-mounted units carry additional restrictions a landlord may impose if any of the following apply: the window is necessary egress, the device would interfere with the tenant’s ability to lock a window accessible from outside, installation would require excessive bracketing or hardware causing significant damage, the device cannot be secured against falling out, or the landlord’s insurance policy expressly restricts window-mounted devices and the landlord has provided written evidence of that policy restriction to the tenant.

Notice and lease-language requirements

If a landlord intends to restrict tenant use of window-mounted devices, the lease must spell out the tenant’s rights, responsibilities, and any restrictions. Tenants must also provide two days’ written notice before installing a window-mounted portable cooling device.

Owners may rent portable cooling devices to their residents — this is a permissible add-on service under SB 6200, and one a number of Spokane operators are already evaluating ahead of the summer.

HB 2664 — Notice mailing requirements (effective June 11, 2026)

This is a small change with large practical implications. Service of statutory notices by mail under RCW 59.18 may now be made by regular mail deposited within Washington State to the tenant’s place of residence. Certified mail is no longer required as part of dual service.

All other service requirements are unchanged. Personal service is still personal service. Posting and mailing remains posting and mailing — only now the mailing component does not require a certified-mail receipt. For property managers running a high volume of pay-or-vacate, 10-day cure, and rent-increase notices, this eliminates a meaningful administrative cost and timing constraint without altering the underlying due-process framework. It also eliminates one of the most common technical defects raised at show cause hearings.

Process check. Owners should still keep a clean record of every mailing — date stamped, address verified against the lease, and proof of mailing retained. Regular mail is easier; the documentation discipline that protects you in court is not.

SB 5937 — Smart access systems (effective January 1, 2027)

Smart locks, key fobs, mobile-app entry, biometric readers — they are increasingly standard in newer multifamily and even mid-grade single-family rentals. SB 5937 is the first comprehensive Washington statute addressing them, and it takes effect January 1, 2027. Owners considering deployment in 2026 should design the rollout with the new statute already in mind.

A “smart access system” is any system that uses electronic or computerized technology — biometric identifier information, a mobile-phone application, or a radio-frequency identification card — to grant entry to a building, its elevators, its common areas, or an individual dwelling unit.

Tenant alternatives

If a tenant requests it, the landlord must offer an alternative key that does not use biometric identifier information or a software application on the tenant’s mobile phone — for example, a key fob, key card, or physical key. The landlord must also provide the privacy policy of the entity operating the smart access system.

Data minimization

The system may only collect a defined list of data elements: tenant name, dwelling unit number and other accessible areas, preferred contact method, biometric identifier information (only if the system uses biometrics), the identifier associated with the physical hardware, passwords or passcodes used for entry, lease information including move-in and move-out dates, and the time and method of access (solely for security and operational purposes).

Required written policy

At lease signing — or within five days of the system’s installation — the landlord must provide tenants a written policy describing:

• The data elements collected, including the extent to which guest data is collected.
• The protocols and safeguards protecting that data.
• The retention schedule.
• The protocol for addressing suspected unauthorized access or disclosure, including notification of users.
• Guidelines for permanently destroying or anonymizing data, or removing data from the system.
• The process used to add a tenant — on a temporary basis with written consent — to the smart access system.

Why this matters now, not in 2027. If you are scoping a smart-access install for delivery this summer or fall, you will be operating it under the new framework within months of go-live. Vendor selection, privacy-policy disclosure, and the lease addendum should all be finalized with the January 1, 2027 effective date in mind.

City of Spokane Ordinance C36808 — Pathways to Eviction Prevention (effective June 1, 2026)

This is the most operationally significant of the 2026 changes for Spokane owners. Ordinance C36808, titled Pathways to Eviction Prevention for Spokane, requires landlords within city limits to enroll in — and engage with — a city-funded eviction prevention program before filing for eviction when the eviction is based on failure to pay rent. The purpose is to attempt resolution and connect tenants with rental assistance before the case enters the courthouse.

Notice obligations

Owners must provide written notice with contact information for all city-funded eviction prevention programs at five distinct moments:

• At the time the lease is signed.
• At the time of service of a pay-or-vacate notice.
• At the time of lease renewal.
• At the time of serving a rent-increase notice.
• Prior to seeking a mutual termination to avoid eviction.

The City of Spokane will publish the list of qualifying programs on its website. Pay-or-vacate notices must include the name, contact information, and applicable case number (if known) of the prevention program provider chosen by the landlord.

Process and timing

After notice, the tenant has five days to respond in writing. If the tenant does respond, the landlord must participate in the program in good faith within thirty days after serving the notice with the pay-or-vacate. C36808 notices must be served in the same manner as all RLTA notices — personally, or posted-and-mailed, or delivered to a person of suitable age and mailed.

Exemptions

The ordinance does not apply when the tenant is not complying with the duties in RCW 59.18.130 (cleanliness, garbage disposal, utility and appliance use, waste, drug or gang activity) or RCW 59.18.140; when the tenant creates an imminent threat of harm; or when the tenant is engaged in criminal activity and is arrested as a result.

Importantly, even where an exemption applies, a tenant retains a defense to eviction if the landlord failed to provide the C36808 notice. Documentation discipline at every required notice point becomes the difference between a streamlined case and a dismissed one.

City of Spokane — Proposed “Right to Cooling” ordinance

Spokane is also considering a “Right to Cooling” ordinance that would treat indoor cooling the way the RLTA already treats heat — as an essential habitability service. The proposal would require compliance by January 1, 2031, with an effective date still to be set. Owners should track this carefully: the proposed remedies are meaningful, including a private right of action with a three-year statute of limitations, penalties up to $500, compensatory damages, attorneys’ fees and costs, injunctive relief, and the tenant’s right to terminate.

Under the proposal, a bedroom that lacks adequate cooling — defined as the ability to maintain an indoor temperature at or below 80 degrees, measured three feet above the floor and two feet from exterior walls — would render the dwelling uninhabitable. A tenant who provides notice and is not timely remedied could terminate the lease under RCW 59.18.070(1), pursue other legal remedies, or install a portable cooling device and deduct the cost from rent under RCW 59.18.100. Tenants could install a device with 24 hours’ notice if the unit reached or exceeded 80 degrees indoors.

For new construction inside the city, the proposal would require any residential dwelling receiving a building permit on or after January 1, 2027 to include adequate cooling capable of maintaining 80 degrees or less in each bedroom — central air, an air-source or ground-source heat pump, passive cooling design, or a portable air conditioning device capable of filtering PM 2.5 smoke particles. New leases and renewals would need a prominent notice of tenant rights, responsibilities, and restrictions related to portable cooling devices.

Bottom line. The Right to Cooling ordinance is not yet law. The state’s portable cooling protections under SB 6200 are. Owners who get ahead of cooling now — through a clear lease addendum, a tenant-friendly portable AC policy, and (where economically supported) heat-pump retrofits — will be positioned for whichever local rule lands first.

Recent Washington case law worth knowing

The 2025 appellate term produced several decisions that meaningfully affect how unlawful detainer actions are handled in Washington trial courts. Owners do not need to read the slip opinions — but you should understand the rules they confirm.

• Egbert v. Jorgensen (Div. 2, 2025, as amended Dec. 10, 2025): Decisions on writs of restitution are reviewed for abuse of discretion. Show cause hearings have two phases — the right to possession (preponderance of the evidence) and other relief.
• Skinner v. InCity Properties Holdings (Div. 1, 2025): Landlords cannot unilaterally evict a tenant without a court order. Self-help eviction continues to be unlawful and exposes the owner to damages.
• Housing Authority of King County v. Knight (Wash. 2025): The federal CARES Act 30-day notice requirement applies only to nonpayment-of-rent evictions, not to evictions based on other grounds such as waste.
• Liverpool LLC v. Farley (Div. 1, 2025): Tenants may survive default by appearing through counsel at a show cause hearing.
• Sangha v. Keen (Wash. 2025): For purposes of unlawful detainer, tenants appear by serving a notice of appearance on the landlord — no answer is required.
• Willow Crossing LLLP v. Chang (Div. 3, 2025): The court must notify tenants of their right to counsel if they appear at a show cause hearing.
• Lareau v. Greene (Div. 3, 2025, as modified Mar. 28, 2025): Landlords owe a duty to a tenant’s guests and subtenants under the implied warranty of habitability.

The thread running through these decisions is consistent — Washington courts continue to apply the RLTA in a tenant-protective posture, and procedural footing matters as much as the underlying merits.

Notices, in one place

Every owner should keep a current notice library. Below is a quick reference to the most common notices in use under chapter 59.18 RCW, with the timing rule for each.

Notice	Timing
Notice to enter or inspect	48 hours’ written notice
Waste, nuisance, or unlawful use	3-day notice
No trespass	3-day notice
Cure or vacate — substantial and material breach of lease	10-day notice
Pay or vacate	14-day notice (30-day in limited circumstances)
Sexual harassment	20-day notice
Material misrepresentation in rental application	30-day notice
Premises condemned	30-day notice
Voluntary or involuntary termination — new lease	30-day notice
Fourth substantial and material breach within 12 months	60-day notice
Sex offender	60-day notice
Termination of fixed-term lease	60-day notice
Landlord’s intent to sell single-family	90-day notice
Rent increase	90-day notice (30 days subsidized; 60-day transition rule under 2025 c 209)
Substantial renovation	120-day notice
Eviction prevention program (City of Spokane)	At lease signing, with pay-or-vacate, at renewal, with rent increase, before mutual termination

Pay-or-vacate notices: calculating the right number

One area that continues to trip up self-managing owners is what may be included in a pay-or-vacate ledger. Under the RLTA, charges not directly tied to the right to occupy the premises cannot be included in the pay-or-vacate amount. The notice must include only recurring payments for use and occupancy — that is, rent and utilities — and must list the specific months that are outstanding, properly identifying rent versus utilities.

If you are unsure whether a specific line item belongs on the notice, the conservative answer is to leave it off. Partial payments must be applied first to the current month’s rent, then to past-due rent, then to non-recurring charges such as fees. RCW 59.18.283 reinforces that a landlord must apply payments to rent before applying them to late charges, damages, legal costs, or attorneys’ fees.

The 2025 backdrop you still need to operate against

2026 is layering on top of a 2025 session that already restructured the day-to-day economics of being a Washington landlord. Three pieces of 2025 legislation remain front and center:

• HB 1217 — Statewide rent stabilization (2025 c 209). Rent increases for most tenancies are capped at 7% plus CPI or 10%, whichever is less, with a 12-month freeze at the start of any tenancy. The Department of Commerce publishes the maximum percentage annually on its website. Statutory exemptions exist for new construction within twelve years of the first certificate of occupancy, certain owner-occupied small properties, qualifying nonprofit and public housing, LIHTC properties, and shared-bath/kitchen units in an owner-occupied home. Lease-type parity rules limit variation across lease lengths to five percent.
• Lease clause prohibitions (2025 c 206). Effective for leases entered into or renewed on or after July 27, 2025, prohibited lease provisions now expressly include nondisclosure agreements covering rent amount, deposits, concessions, and lease terms; mandatory arbitration unless the landlord pays the full cost and the agreement is notarized; late fees on rent paid within five days of due date; and any requirement that rent be paid only by electronic means.
• Housing court commissioners (2025 c 268). Superior courts may, with consent of the county legislative authority, appoint housing court commissioners to handle unlawful detainer dockets. The Administrative Office of the Courts is providing training. In high-volume counties, expect housing court commissioners to become a regular feature of show cause hearings.

What this means for owners in Spokane and Eastern Washington

Three operational priorities for the next sixty days:

Update your lease packet before June 11, 2026. Add the SB 6237 flood disclosure addendum and a portable cooling device addendum aligned to SB 6200. Confirm your existing lease language complies with the 2025 c 206 prohibitions — particularly any holdover language about NDAs, mandatory electronic payment, or arbitration. Confirm rent-increase notices use the 2025 c 209 statutory form and the 90-day timing.

Refresh your notice templates. HB 2664 means certified mail is no longer required for notice service by mail. Update your form library and your operations manual so staff are not generating unnecessary cost or building delay into your timelines. For Spokane city properties, build the C36808 notice into every pay-or-vacate, rent increase, lease signing, lease renewal, and pre-mutual-termination touchpoint.

Document, document, document. Recent Washington appellate decisions are exacting on procedure. The cases that win on the merits are the cases where the file shows a clean chain of evidence — signed addenda, dated mailings, ledgers that match the notice, photographs at move-in and move-out. The volume of new statutory and ordinance requirements in 2026 increases the number of places a single missed step can put a recovery action at risk.

Navigating the 2026 update with Apex Property Management

Regulatory cycles like this one are the reason professional property management exists. The 2026 update is not catastrophic for owners — but it is detailed, multi-jurisdictional, and unforgiving of paperwork errors. Here is how APEX PMT is approaching it for the properties under our care:

Lease library refresh. Every lease and renewal taking effect on or after June 11, 2026 will incorporate updated flood disclosure and portable cooling device addenda, with City of Spokane eviction-prevention notice references where the property is inside city limits.

Notice automation. Pay-or-vacate, 10-day cure, and 90-day rent increase notices are being updated to reflect HB 2664 mailing changes and to embed the C36808 prevention-program contact information for Spokane properties.

Smart access readiness. For owners considering smart-access deployments in 2026, we are aligning vendor selection, privacy policy disclosures, and tenant-alternative key options to SB 5937 ahead of its January 1, 2027 effective date.

Compliance audit on existing portfolios. Owners who joined APEX PMT this year are receiving a compliance review that maps each unit’s lease, addenda, ledger, and rent-increase posture against current RCW 59.18 requirements and Spokane city ordinances. The goal is simple — when an unlawful detainer is the right answer, your file should already be ready for it.

With over 40 years of combined property management experience across Spokane, Eastern Washington, and North Idaho, Apex Property Management is built to absorb regulatory change so our owners can keep their attention on long-term portfolio strategy. Markets shift. Regulations change. The case for proactive, well-documented management gets stronger every session.

Disclaimer. This article is intended as a general information resource for property owners and is not legal advice. Statutory citations are accurate as of the date of publication; bills referenced are subject to amendment, codification, and judicial interpretation. Owners with questions about how the 2026 changes apply to a specific property, lease, or tenancy should consult qualified Washington counsel. Source materials referenced include RCW Chapter 59.18 (the Residential Landlord-Tenant Act), the 2026 Washington Residential Landlord-Tenant Update presented by Piskel Yahne Kovarik, PLLC, and City of Spokane Ordinance C36808.