What must a Washington landlord disclose to a tenant, and what must the lease say?

A written agreement is required only in the circumstances the rules state. The landlord must give the tenant a copy of the lease; the statute sets no day count.

No Washington statute requires a residential rental agreement to be written as such, and an oral tenancy is lawful; the act supplies a month-to-month term where the parties set none. A writing becomes compulsory the moment the landlord takes money. No deposit may be collected unless the rental agreement is in writing and states the terms and conditions under which the deposit may be withheld, and if it may be withheld for tenant-caused damage the agreement must say so (section 59.18.260, subsection 1). A nonrefundable fee may be charged only under a written agreement that clearly specifies the fee is nonrefundable; without a writing the landlord is liable for the fees collected, and a writing that does not say the fee is nonrefundable turns it into a refundable deposit (section 59.18.285). Where there is a written agreement, the landlord must give an executed copy to each tenant who signs, with no stated deadline and no stated penalty, and the tenant may ask for one free replacement copy during the tenancy (section 59.18.065). House rules bind only if they are brought to the tenant's attention at the time of initial occupancy; after that a new rule of tenancy takes thirty days' written notice. No statute requires the lease or any signing-stage disclosure in a language other than English, and Washington prescribes no type size, boldface, capitalization or placement rule for any landlord disclosure.

Statute of frauds: An agreement that by its terms is not to be performed within one year of the making is void unless it, or a note or memorandum of it, is in writing and signed by the party to be charged (section 19.36.010, subsection 1), so a lease for a term longer than a year must be written. Tenancies from year to year exist only by express written contract (section 59.04.010). Since 2024 a lease needs no acknowledgment, witness or seal; acknowledgment is required only to record a lease or a memorandum of lease (section 64.04.010, as amended in 2024).

Electronic leases and signatures: Washington's electronic-transactions act (chapter 1.80 RCW) makes an electronic record satisfy a writing requirement and an electronic signature satisfy a signature requirement. It excludes wills, codicils and testamentary trusts and most of the commercial code, but not leases, so a residential lease and the disclosures on this page may be signed and delivered electronically where both parties have agreed to deal electronically, which the act says is judged from the context and the parties' conduct. The landlord-tenant act adds no electronic-delivery rule for the rental agreement itself. It does add one limit in the other direction: a rental agreement may not require the tenant to make rent payments through electronic means only.

Yes — a statute requires the landlord to disclose the owner's or managing agent's identity to the tenant, in the lease or by posting on the premises.

The landlord must designate to the tenant the name and address of the person who is the landlord, either by a statement on the rental agreement or by a notice conspicuously posted on the premises (section 59.18.060, subsection 16). Posting is a full alternative, so an oral tenancy still carries the duty. No telephone number is required. The tenant must be notified immediately of any change, in writing, either delivered personally or mailed and conspicuously posted on the premises. A landlord who does not live in the state where the premises are must also designate someone living in the county who can accept notices and legal process; if no one is designated, the person to whom rent is paid is that agent by force of the statute. An out-of-state owner who breaks any duty in the act is treated as having submitted to Washington courts, with sixty days to appear after personal service outside the state. The section names no fine or damages figure, and the repair-and-deduct remedy is expressly withheld from this duty, so enforcement runs through the act's general notice machinery. Washington has no statewide landlord or rental registration; a city may require a certificate of inspection as a condition of a business license, but nothing is handed to the tenant beyond a notice where only a sample of units is inspected.

If the landlord fails to comply: the non-complying manager or agent becomes the landlord's agent for notices and service of process and for performing the landlord's obligations, as the section states.

No general statement or document is prescribed, but the statutes or rules fix some of what the lease must say, listed here.

Washington prescribes no tenant-rights booklet, summary or handbook, no model lease, and no wording that every written lease must carry. What it prescribes instead sits in other rows: the Department of Health's indoor-mold information, which the landlord must give every new tenant at signing, is in the hazard table; the fire-safety notice, which the landlord writes to a content list and both parties sign, is also in the hazard table; and the Attorney General's fee-in-lieu-of-deposit form, whose wording the statute sets out and whose comparison figures the landlord must compute, is owed only where the landlord offers that option, so it is listed here without making this a general requirement. The lease-content duties Washington does impose all turn on something the landlord chooses to do: take a deposit, charge a nonrefundable fee, offer the monthly fee, or restrict window-mounted cooling devices. The landlord's own name and address must be in the lease only if the landlord does not post them on the premises instead. Seattle, not the state, requires a renter's handbook at signing.

Listed, but not a general duty counted above:

Monthly Fee In Lieu Of Security Deposit - Disclosure Form — a state-prescribed document to be handed over or attached; issued by the Washington State Office of the Attorney General. A landlord who offers the tenant the choice of paying a monthly fee instead of a security deposit must give the tenant this Attorney General form with any lease and any renewal that includes the option. The form sets out the three ways a tenant may cover a deposit, and the landlord must fill in a side-by-side comparison: the monthly fee, the total the fees will cost over the lease term, and the one-time refundable deposit the tenant would otherwise pay, together with the caps on the landlord's insurance coverage for unpaid rent and for damage. It warns that the tenant is neither insured nor a beneficiary and remains liable for rent and damage, and it tells the tenant of the standing right to switch to a deposit at any time. The statute sets out the wording the disclosures must substantially follow and requires the office to publish the form in the twelve most commonly spoken languages in Washington; the office publishes English and eighteen translations. A landlord in material violation of the fee-in-lieu law is liable to the tenant for up to twice the monthly rent, plus costs and reasonable attorney fees. Because the duty arises only where the landlord offers the fee option, it is listed here rather than counted as a general requirement. Revision: No revision date is printed on the form's face; the file the office serves carries a file date of January 17, 2023, labeled as such. The Attorney General's landlord-tenant page that publishes the form carries its own line, "(Updated September 11, 2026)". Given at signing and on renewal, handed over. Languages: English, Amharic, Arabic, Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), German, Hindi, Japanese, Khmer, Korean, Marshallese, Punjabi, Russian, Samoan, Somali, Spanish, Tagalog, Ukrainian, Vietnamese. Threshold: Only where the landlord offers the tenant the option of paying a monthly fee instead of a security deposit. Agency page. (§ 59.18.670(1)(f)(ii)–(iv), (2)(a)) Not counted as a general duty.

Terms on which a deposit may be withheld — words or content the lease itself must carry. Where the landlord takes a deposit, the rental agreement must be written and must include the terms and conditions under which the deposit or part of it may be withheld at the end of the tenancy, and it must say so expressly if the deposit may be withheld to cover damage the tenant is responsible for. The statute fixes the subject, not the words. The duty arises only because the landlord chooses to take a deposit, so it is listed here and not counted as a general requirement; the deposit rules themselves are on the deposits page. Given at signing, inside the lease itself. Threshold: Only where a deposit is collected. (§ 59.18.260(1))

Statement that a fee is nonrefundable — words or content the lease itself must carry. Money paid to the landlord that is not refundable may not be called a deposit, and a nonrefundable fee may be charged only under a written rental agreement that clearly specifies the fee is nonrefundable. The statute fixes the substance, not the words. Without a written agreement the landlord is liable to the tenant for the fees collected; a written agreement that fails to specify turns the fee into a refundable deposit. The duty arises only because the landlord chooses to charge such a fee, so it is listed here and not counted as a general requirement. Given at signing, inside the lease itself. Threshold: Only where a nonrefundable fee is charged. (§ 59.18.285)

Lease contents the statutes or rules address, each in the circumstance it names:

• Where a deposit is taken, the terms and conditions under which it may be withheld, and an express statement if it may be withheld for damage the tenant is responsible for (section 59.18.260, subsection 1).

• Where a nonrefundable fee is charged, a clear statement that the fee is nonrefundable (section 59.18.285).

• Where a monthly fee is offered instead of a deposit, a statement that the fee is wholly or partly nonrefundable, separately acknowledged by the tenant (section 59.18.670, subsection 2, paragraph a).

• Where the landlord restricts or prohibits window-mounted portable cooling devices, notice in the lease of the tenant's rights and responsibilities and of the restriction (section 59.18.740, subsection 8).

• The name and address of the landlord, unless the landlord uses the posting alternative instead (section 59.18.060, subsection 16).

• Any schedule for paying a deposit, a nonrefundable fee or last month's rent in installments, which must be written and signed by both parties (section 59.18.610, subsection 3).

Yes, where a security deposit is taken.

No deposit may be collected unless the rental agreement is in writing and the landlord gives the tenant, at the commencement of the tenancy, a written checklist or statement specifically describing the condition and cleanliness of, or existing damage to, the premises, fixtures, equipment, appliances and furnishings. The statute names four categories and says the list is not limited to them: walls, including wall paint and wallpaper; carpets and other flooring; furniture; and appliances. Both parties sign and date it, the tenant gets a copy, and the tenant may ask for one free replacement copy during the tenancy. A landlord who collects a deposit without giving the checklist is liable to the tenant for the amount of the deposit, and the prevailing party may recover court costs and reasonable attorney fees; the tenant's separate claim for money paid as damages or security survives. No deposit, no duty, with one exception: a landlord who offers a monthly fee instead of a deposit must still give the checklist. No state or agency form exists and no wording is prescribed, only the content. A lease term purporting to waive the checklist is unenforceable, and the approved-exemption route that reaches the landlord's general duties does not reach this section. There is no walk-through or condition report at the end of the tenancy beyond what the deposit statute requires.

When and who signs: At the commencement of the tenancy, before or as the deposit is collected. The checklist or statement must be signed and dated by both the landlord and the tenant, and the tenant must be given a copy. Consequence under the section: the landlord's right to keep any part of the deposit is limited or lost, as the section states.

Deposit notice at signing: Where a deposit is taken the landlord must give the tenant a written receipt and written notice of the name, address and location of the depository, and notice of any later change; a successor landlord must promptly tell the tenant of the transfer and of the new depository (section 59.18.270). The deposit rules themselves are on the deposits page.

Three in-force state hazard disclosures: mold (at signing); fire safety and smoke detection notice (at signing); and window-mounted portable cooling devices (at signing). No state duty exists for lead, bed bugs, radon, methamphetamine, or asbestos.

Every state duty and every stated absence, hazard by hazard:

Lead (state add-on to the federal rule) — no state duty. Washington adds nothing to the federal lead-paint rule for landlords: no state form, no registration, no certificate and no re-disclosure on renewal. What the state runs instead is a certification program. Chapter 70A.420 RCW and chapter 365-230 WAC accredit training programs and certify firms, renovators, inspectors, risk assessors, supervisors and dust-sampling technicians, and the one rule about handing over information binds the firm performing a renovation, fires no more than sixty days before the work begins, and hands over a federally published pamphlet. A landlord who does renovation work for compensation in older housing is caught as a renovation firm; a landlord signing a lease is not.

Mold — in force — a state duty, at signing, on an agency document (a statute). The landlord must give every new tenant, at the time the lease or rental agreement is signed, information provided or approved by the Department of Health about the health hazards of exposure to indoor mold and how tenants can control mold growth in their units. The information may be given to each tenant in writing or posted in a visible, public location at the property, which makes Washington unusual in letting a notice board satisfy a hazard disclosure. The landlord may take the material from the department's website, and the department must mail a printed copy to a landlord who asks. The department publishes a mold page and print version for this purpose and also names a federally published guide as material that satisfies the duty. No signature, no threshold and no repeat at renewal. Document: Mold (Department of Health publication 333-302), issued by the Washington State Department of Health, Indoor Air Quality Program. Revision: "DOH 333-302 September 2022", printed on the document's colophon. The file the department serves also carries a file date of January 17, 2023, which is secondary to the printed date. Agency page. The section states no fine or damages. It states the opposite: the landlord and the landlord's agents and employees are immune from civil liability for failing to comply, except where they knowingly and intentionally do not comply (section 59.18.060, subsection 15).

Bed bugs — no state duty. Washington requires no bed-bug disclosure, history statement or treatment record. Bed bugs are a repair subject: the landlord must provide a reasonable program for the control of infestation by insects, rodents and other pests at the start of the tenancy and, except in a single-family residence, control infestation during the tenancy unless the tenant caused it. That duty is on the habitability page.

Radon — no state duty. Washington has no radon chapter and no radon disclosure to tenants. Its radon law is a construction standard: the state building code council's ventilation and radon-resistive construction requirements, with a companion section making good-faith compliance a defense in a civil action over indoor air pollutants in a residence built on or after July 1, 1991. Radon appears as a lease-stage question in exactly one place, the seller's disclosure statement, which the sales chapter keeps off leases.

Methamphetamine — no state duty. No Washington statute or rule requires a landlord to tell a tenant that a property was used to manufacture or store illegal drugs. The warning comes from a public officer instead. When a law enforcement agency learns that property is contaminated by hazardous chemicals it reports the contamination to the local health officer, who must post a written warning on the premises within one working day telling potential occupants that hazardous chemicals may be present or have been removed and that entry is unsafe. Decontamination falls on the owner through an authorized contractor, and the health officer records a release for reuse in the county's real property records and sends a copy to the owner. The owner's own duty runs to the state, not the tenant: an owner who believes a tenant contaminated a property that has been vacated or abandoned must contact the local health officer.

Asbestos — no state duty. No Washington statute or rule requires an asbestos disclosure to a tenant. The state's asbestos law makes manufacturers and distributors label products, bars asbestos-containing building materials in new residential construction, and requires management plans for certain facilities that are not dwellings; the removal and encapsulation rules protect workers and require notice to the state. The labeling chapter says in its own findings that few regulations require the disclosure of asbestos in building materials.

Fire safety and smoke detection notice — in force — a state duty, at signing, in a signed acknowledgment (a statute). At the time the lease or rental agreement is signed, the landlord must give every new tenant a written notice disclosing fire safety and protection information: that the unit is equipped with a smoke detection device as state law requires, that the tenant must keep it in working order, and what the penalties are for failing to do so. The notice must be signed by the landlord or the landlord's authorized agent and by the tenant, with copies to both. For anything other than a single-family residence the notice must also say whether the smoke detection device is hard-wired or battery operated, whether the building has a fire sprinkler system, whether it has a fire alarm system, whether it has a smoking policy and what that policy is, and whether it has an emergency notification plan, an emergency relocation plan and an emergency evacuation plan, providing copies of any that exist. In a multifamily residential building the information may be given as a checklist instead, and the checklist must include a diagram showing the emergency evacuation routes. Washington has no free-standing smoking-policy disclosure; it lives inside this notice. Threshold: Every tenancy gets the smoke-detection notice. The seven further items apply except with respect to a single-family residence, and the checklist alternative is for a tenant in a multifamily residential building. The subsection states no penalty. The notice is one of the landlord's statutory duties, so a tenant who gives written notice of the failure can use the act's general machinery: the landlord must begin remedial action within twenty-four hours, seventy-two hours or ten days depending on what is at stake, and the repair-and-deduct, rent-in-escrow and relocation remedies follow from there.

Window-mounted portable cooling devices — in force — a state duty, at signing, in the lease itself (a statute). A landlord who restricts or prohibits the installation of window-mounted portable cooling devices must tell tenants in their leases about their rights and responsibilities and about the restriction, following the list of permitted grounds in the same section. Where the restriction rests on an insurance policy, the landlord may impose it only after giving the tenant written evidence of the policy's restriction or prohibition. A landlord who allows such devices owes no notice. In force since June 11, 2026. Threshold: Only where the landlord restricts or prohibits the installation of window-mounted portable cooling devices. The subsection states no penalty; the duty is enforceable as one of the landlord's statutory duties through the act's written-notice machinery.

Enacted but not yet in force — from January 1, 2027 the landlord must disclose a generic advisory that the property may be in a flood area and that flood insurance is available, with no determination.

Washington has no flood disclosure to tenants today. For leases entered into after December 31, 2026 the landlord must tell tenants three things: that the property may be located in a special flood hazard area or an area of potential flooding; that the landlord's insurance does not cover the loss of the tenant's personal possessions and that the tenant should consider buying renter's insurance and flood insurance; and that information about hazards which may affect the property, including whether it may be at risk of flooding, is available from the county government where the property sits. That is an advisory, not a determination: nothing requires the landlord to look the property up on a flood map, and nothing requires a statement of past flooding. The statute prescribes no form, no wording, no separate document, no type size, no signature and no acknowledgment, sets no deadline beyond the lease itself, states no penalty, and carves out no small landlord, short tenancy or owner-occupied building. The act that added it has been law since June 11, 2026; only the duty waits. Washington's real flood questions sit in the seller's disclosure statement, and the sales chapter does not apply to the transfer of an interest less than fee simple, which is what a lease is.

Threshold: Leases entered into after December 31, 2026. The date the lease is entered into is what counts, not the date rent is first paid or the tenancy begins, so a lease signed on December 31, 2026 never picks the duty up.

Yes — the statute lists the lease provisions that are void or prohibited.

The roster sits in one subsection and lists ten things a rental agreement may not provide, all of them framed as promises by the tenant, so it reaches clauses that burden the tenant rather than either party's clauses generally. Two of the ten are recent: the nondisclosure ban and the electronic-only rent ban were added in 2025 and apply to leases entered into or renewed on or after July 27, 2025, so an older lease that has not been renewed faces the eight-item list. Beside the roster sits a general anti-waiver rule: any provision of a lease or other agreement, oral or written, waiving any section or subsection of the act is against public policy and unenforceable, and the unenforceability does not affect the rest of the agreement, which can still be given effect. Washington is therefore a severance state, not a whole-lease-void state. Separately, any lien on the tenant's personal property, and distress for rent, is null and void under subsection 4 of the same section. The one qualification on non-waivability is narrow and hard to satisfy: a landlord and tenant may agree in writing to exempt themselves from the landlord's general duties, including the fire-safety, flood, mold and identity disclosures, only if the agreement does not appear in a standard form lease, there is no substantial inequality in bargaining position, the exemption does not offend the state's policy of ensuring safe and sanitary housing, and a county prosecutor, the Attorney General's consumer protection division or the tenant's own lawyer has approved the application in writing beforehand. That route does not reach the move-in checklist or the prohibited-clause roster, which stay absolutely non-waivable. The act also abolishes the common law right of distress for rent.

Using a prohibited clause carries a statutory sanction; the statute's own measure follows.

Sanction as the statute states it: A prohibited provision included in a rental agreement is unenforceable. If the landlord knowingly uses a rental agreement containing provisions known to be prohibited, the tenant may recover actual damages, statutory damages of up to twice the monthly rent charged for the unit, costs of suit and reasonable attorney fees (section 59.18.230, subsection 3). A landlord who takes or holds the tenant's personal property without the tenant's specific written consent and refuses to return it after written demand owes the value of the property and actual damages, and if the refusal is intentional up to five hundred dollars a day capped at five thousand dollars, plus costs and fees.

The listed provisions:

• A term by which the tenant agrees to waive or forgo rights or remedies under the residential landlord-tenant act.

• A term by which the tenant agrees to waive or forgo any right to bring, join, participate in or maintain a cause of action against the landlord or the landlord's representatives or agents, including class actions.

• A term requiring the tenant to sign a nondisclosure agreement about the lease or the details of the offer, including the rent, deposits or fees, rent concessions, move-in gifts, or lease specials or terms.

• A term authorizing any person to confess judgment on a claim arising out of the rental agreement.

• A term by which the tenant agrees to pay the landlord's attorney fees, except as the act authorizes and a court awards in a judgment.

• A term excusing or limiting the landlord's liability arising under law, or requiring the tenant to indemnify the landlord for that liability or its costs.

• A term by which the tenant and landlord agree on a particular arbitrator at the time the rental agreement is entered into.

• A term requiring the tenant to arbitrate disputes, unless the landlord pays the entire cost of the arbitration and the agreement is notarized.

• A term by which the tenant agrees to pay late fees for rent paid within five days of its due date.

• A term by which the tenant agrees to make rent payments through electronic means only.

A lease clause making a party pay the landlord's attorney fees is void.

Washington has no reciprocity statute turning a one-way landlord fee clause into a mutual one, and no single provision awarding fees to the prevailing party across the whole act. It bans the clause instead: a rental agreement may not provide that the tenant agrees to pay the landlord's attorney fees, except as the act authorizes and a court awards in a judgment. A fee clause in a residential lease is therefore not the source of any fee award, and a landlord who knowingly uses a lease containing one is exposed to actual damages, statutory damages of up to twice the monthly rent, costs and fees. Fees are awarded section by section instead: twenty-seven sections of the act carry a fee provision, and the usual formula is that the prevailing party may recover the costs of suit or arbitration and reasonable attorney fees, including on the move-in checklist, the deposit sections and the prohibited-clause section. One section cuts the other way and limits a landlord who has won: no fee award where the judgment for possession is entered after the tenant failed to respond to a pleading or notice, or where the rent awarded is no more than two months of the tenant's contract rent or twelve hundred dollars, whichever is greater.

Partly — state law preempts local rules on some subjects and leaves others to the locality or open.

Washington neither preempts local lease-disclosure rules nor simply allows them. It puts a condition on them. Any ordinance, resolution or policy a city or county adopts that requires landlords or sellers, or their agents, to give a buyer or tenant information about the property or the surrounding area is effective only after a summary of it and a link to it are posted electronically in the statewide register the law names; a city or county that had adopted such a requirement before June 9, 2016 had ninety days to post it, and a requirement that was not posted ceased to be in effect (section 64.06.080 with section 43.110.030, subsection 2, paragraph e). On other subjects the picture is mixed. Rent control is expressly preempted: controlling the amount of rent is a matter of statewide significance and no city or town may regulate it, with narrow exceptions for publicly owned or jointly financed low-income housing and voluntary agreements. Relocation assistance for low-income tenants displaced by demolition, substantial rehabilitation, change of use or the removal of use restrictions is expressly authorized for jurisdictions planning under the growth act and barred otherwise, and a savings clause preserves local ordinances requiring relocation assistance where a landlord fails to fix building or health code violations. Local certificate-of-inspection ordinances adopted since June 10, 2010 must comply with the state section that allows them. The act carries no general supersession clause, and the state's own fee-in-lieu form acknowledges that some local laws give tenants longer. Seattle requires landlords to give the city's renter's handbook when a renter applies, when a renter signs, once a year to month-to-month tenants and whenever the city updates it; the city's own requirements are not carried on this page.