Kenmore Passes Sections of King County's Regulations

The City of Kenmore has followed King County and passed a new set of housing provider regulations. The city held a study session in late February to get public feedback on the proposed suite of legislation. Despite great amounts of public feedback expressing concerns, the City Council voted to pass a limited version of the proposal.

The following provisions are in the passed ordinance:

• 120-day notice for rent increases over 3%, 180-day notice for increases over 10%
• Move-in fee and security deposit capped to one month's rent
• Late fee capped to 1.5% of the monthly rent
• Allowing the tenant to alter the rent due date if a request is submitted in writing and they can demonstrate their primary income is government assistance received after the rent due date.
• Prohibiting a housing provider from requiring a social security number.
• A housing provider retains the right to take adverse action based on unfavorable, inaccurate, or unavailable screening reports.

These are provisions that King County passed last year to regulate Unincorporated King County. Many of you might remember the contentious hearings surrounding Ordinance 2021-0131 last June. Likewise for this ordinance, RHAWA shared our concern that increased regulations will only further disincentivize housing providers in the already struggling rental housing market. Now is the time to work collaboratively with housing providers to work our way out of the pandemic and housing crisis. Adding more onerous burdens will not increase the housing stock, which is necessary to house fellow Washingtonians.

The City Council has a number of other regulations that they are considering that will come up later this year. RHAWA will continue to work with the Council and share our comments and concerns.