Will landlords comply to this new Seattle law?
that requires landlords to report to the city twice annually information about their rentals, including square footage, number of bedrooms, occupancy status, and rent cost. The legislation is intended to improve the city’s data collection on its rental housing capacity before the city begins drafting its Comprehensive Plan, a growth management strategy through the next decade.
“[This bill] will efficiently fill a long-standing gap in data collection and analysis for Seattle’s rental housing inventory, which will generate several benefits, including key data needed to measure and prevent economic displacement of existing residents from our dynamic and growing city,” Councilmember Alex Pedersen, the bill’s sponsor, said Tuesday.
“I understand that rental housing providers have had to absorb many changes and requirements over the past few years,” Pedersen continued. Tuesday’s bill, as passed, calls out the potential of noncompliance. Currently, the city’s office of building inspections fines non-compliant landlords $150 per day for the first 10 days and up to $500 per day after that. Failure to not submit the information requested under the new legislation would result in a $500 first-time penalty, and $1,000 fines for subsequent violations.