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

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 All the landlords rescinded them and refunded any payments tenants made under the unlawful increases, according to court filings.

  • TehPers@beehaw.orgEnglish
    1·
    3 months 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.