Landlord Atlas

Tacoma, Washington: Rent Control (none; barred by state law)

Verified September 16, 2026 All Washington topics →

Tacoma has no rent control of its own and cannot adopt one: RCW 35.21.830 has barred Washington cities from regulating the amount of rent since 1981.

Cited to RCW 35.21.830 (local rent control preempted) and 13 more sources · Verified September 16, 2026

Rent increases in Tacoma are capped by state law instead. Since May 7, 2025, RCW 59.18.700 has barred any increase during a tenancy's first 12 months and limited later increases to 7% plus inflation or 10%, whichever is lower, with the exact figure set each year by the Washington State Department of Commerce: 9.683% for 2026 and 10% for 2027. What Tacoma adds is everything around the increase. A landlord must give 180 days' written notice on a City form, must hold a current City business license first, and owes a tenant who moves out rather than pay a relocation payment of two to three months' rent when the increase is 5% or more. Late fees are capped at 1.5% of the unpaid rent, move-in charges may not exceed the first month's rent, ending a tenancy needs a listed reason, and evictions are barred between November 15 and March 15 and defended against during the school year. Anything describing Tacoma's 2023 voter-approved text is out of date: the City Council rewrote both chapters on December 9, 2025, effective January 1, 2026.

Current published figures

Figure Value Applies to Source
Maximum annual rent increase, statewide 9.683% January 1, 2026 to December 31, 2026 Official source
Maximum annual rent increase, statewide 10% January 1, 2027 to December 31, 2027 Official source

These figures change on a published cycle; each row states the window it applies to and links the source that published it. Confirm the current figure at the source before acting on it.

What is in force

Tacoma has no rent control or rent stabilization of its own, and Washington law does not let it adopt one. RCW 35.21.830, in force since 1981 and never amended, says rent control is a matter of statewide significance and no city or town may enact, maintain, or enforce any provision regulating the amount of rent charged for residential rental property. What limits rent increases in Tacoma is state law instead: RCW 59.18.700 has capped most residential rent increases across Washington since May 7, 2025. Under that state law a landlord may not raise the rent at all during the first 12 months of a tenancy, and after that may raise it once in any 12-month period by no more than 7% plus inflation, or 10%, whichever is lower; the Washington State Department of Commerce publishes the exact percentage for each calendar year, usually in July for the year ahead. There is no vacancy control: state law lets a landlord set the rent at any amount after a tenant moves out and the tenancy ends. Tacoma adds no cap of its own and cannot. What Tacoma does add is a long list of duties around raising rent and ending a tenancy, carried in two chapters of its Municipal Code: Chapter 1.95, the Rental Housing Code, adopted November 20, 2018, and Chapter 1.100, the Landlord Fairness Code Initiative, which Tacoma voters passed on November 7, 2023. Both were rewritten by Amended Substitute Ordinance 29086, which the City Council passed on December 9, 2025 and which took effect on January 1, 2026. Anything describing Tacoma's 2023 text, including the two-stage rent increase notice and the November 1 to April 1 winter eviction ban, describes law that is no longer in force.

What housing is covered

The state ban on local rent control covers every city and town in Washington and reaches single-family and multiple-unit rental property; it does not reach housing in public ownership or under public management, or low-income housing provided under a public-private agreement, and a 1981 note preserves local rules on rent at floating home moorage sites. The state cap covers most residential rentals in Tacoma but not all: increases are not limited for a unit whose first certificate of occupancy was issued 12 or fewer years before the notice, for public housing authority, public development authority or qualifying nonprofit housing with regulated rents, for low-income housing tax credit properties, for a unit where the tenant shares a kitchen or bathroom with a resident owner, for a single-family owner-occupied home where the owner rents no more than two units or bedrooms, or for an owner-occupied duplex, triplex or fourplex. The last three of those do not apply if the owner is a real estate investment trust, a corporation, or a limited liability company with a corporate member. Tacoma's own chapters carve out their own groups. A unit owned or managed by the Tacoma Housing Authority, or owned or managed by a nonprofit and held as deed-restricted affordable housing, is outside Chapter 1.100 entirely, but only 30 days after the landlord tells the tenants in writing, and for any rental agreement signed after January 1, 2026 the agreement must say so; those landlords must still follow the laws that protect tenants before evicting anyone. The winter eviction ban does not apply to an owner who owns four or fewer rental units in the city. The payment a tenant can claim after a large rent increase is not owed by a landlord who lives on the same site where the site has four or fewer units, is not owed to a tenant who has lived in the unit less than six months, and is not owed by an owner temporarily renting out a principal residence while away on active duty military service. The 180-day notice of a rent increase does not apply to a subsidized tenancy where the tenant's share is set by income, or to deed-restricted affordable housing.

Eviction and termination rules

Tacoma requires a reason to end a tenancy. Municipal Code 1.95.070 says a landlord may not evict a tenant, refuse to continue a tenancy, or end a month-to-month tenancy except for one of the reasons the section lists, and it sets the notice each reason needs: 14 days for unpaid rent, 10 days for a substantial breach, 3 days for waste, nuisance or illegal activity, 90 days for the owner or immediate family to move in or for the owner to sell, 120 days to demolish, substantially rehabilitate or change the use of the building, 60 days for an economic or business reason or for four or more substantial breaches in 12 months, and 20 or 30 days for the narrower reasons. Protection applies from the first day of the tenancy. A landlord may not issue a notice to vacate, and may not evict at all, without a current City business license, each rental unit listed with the City, and a certification that the unit meets the state habitability standard in RCW 59.18.060. When a tenant is being displaced, the 120 days' notice comes with a relocation information packet, and the tenant may ask for a meeting with the landlord, which must be held within 20 days. A household earning at or below 50% of the Pierce County median income who is displaced that way may claim a relocation payment set by Municipal Code 1.95.080 at $2,000 for the unit, half paid by the landlord and half by the City, within 21 days of the request. Two seasonal limits come from Chapter 1.100. Evictions are barred between November 15 and March 15 each year, and it is also a defense to an eviction that would force a household out during that window, unless the owner owns four or fewer rental units in Tacoma. It is a defense to an eviction that would force the household out during the Tacoma Public Schools year if the tenant or anyone living in the unit is a child, a student, someone with legal custody of one, or an educator, which the law defines broadly enough to include teachers, counselors, nurses, custodians and cafeteria workers. Both seasonal limits give way when the reason for ending the tenancy is waste, nuisance or illegal activity, the owner or family moving in, the owner selling, the unit being condemned or uninhabitable, a roommate being asked to leave, or sexual harassment by the tenant, and when the owner lives on the same lot and is ending a tenancy in an accessory dwelling unit or in the main house. A landlord may not evict a tenant because of the tenant's status as a member of the military, a first responder, a senior, a family member, a health care provider or an educator. A tenant may rescind a mutual agreement to end a tenancy within 10 business days, and later than that if the tenant agreed without a lawyer or advocate and outside mediation.

Other requirements

Tacoma regulates a great deal about renting other than the amount of rent. A landlord must give at least 180 days' written notice before any increase in rent or other recurring housing cost, on a form the City provides, stating the percentage, the new rent, the effective date and, where it applies, how the relocation payment is worked out; the City's own resource summary goes out with it. Since January 1, 2026 that single 180-day notice replaced the earlier two-stage notice. At any time after a notice of an increase of 5% or more, a tenant who decides to move rather than pay can ask the landlord for relocation assistance, and the landlord must pay within 30 days: two months' rent for an increase of 5% or more in a 12-month period, two and a half months' rent for an increase over 7.5%, and three months' rent for an increase over 10%, figured on the rent in effect when the notice went out and paid per unit rather than per person. A tenant who takes the money and then stays must pay it back within 10 days. Late fees may not exceed 1.5% of the unpaid monthly rent, and nothing else may be charged for paying late, including the cost of serving a notice, court costs or attorney's fees; no late fee may be charged on anything other than rent, and the landlord must send a written late-fee statement with a rent ledger at least every three months. Move-in charges together, counting application fees, deposits and prepaid rent but not a valid pet fee, may not exceed the first month's rent, and a pet damage deposit may not exceed 25% of one month's rent. On written request a tenant may pay the deposit, move-in fees and last month's rent in installments at no added cost: six equal monthly payments on a lease of six months or more, three on a lease of three to five months, and two for a month-to-month tenancy. A landlord may not require a social security number, may not refuse an applicant solely because of an arrest that led to no conviction, a dismissed or voided conviction, a juvenile matter, conduct that is no longer illegal in Washington, a misdemeanor sentenced more than 3 years ago, or a felony sentenced more than 7 years ago, and may not apply a blanket ban on anyone with a record. A landlord may require income of up to 3 times the rent where the rent is below the federal fair market rent for the area and up to 2.5 times where it is at or above it, counting the rent after any voucher or subsidy and counting all the financially responsible applicants together. A lease may not penalize a tenant who lawfully ends a month-to-month tenancy, may not force electronic rent payment, may not demand more than 20 days' notice from the tenant, and may not ban dogs by breed unless the landlord's insurance requires it. Every landlord renting property in Tacoma needs the City's annual business license under Municipal Code 6B.20.010, and the Rental Housing Code makes that license, unit-by-unit listing and a habitability certification a precondition to raising rent or ending a tenancy. The City may fine a landlord $500 for a first violation of the notice, deposit, information or late-fee provisions and $1,000 for a later one within three years, and $250 a day per unit for the first ten days and $500 a day after that for violations of the notice-to-vacate, relocation, retaliation, screening, lease-terms and shared-housing provisions. Separately, a tenant may sue in Pierce County Superior Court under Chapter 1.100 for actual damages, costs and attorney's fees, with penalties of at least $500 and up to five times the monthly rent per violation, at least three times the relocation assistance where a landlord failed to pay a valid request, and at least three times the monthly rent where the rent charged was illegal.

Notes and caveats

Citations

This page records local law. Statewide laws — deposits, notice periods, late fees, entry, evictions — live on the Washington hub, and the state-level position on local rent regulation appears there with its own citations and verification date.