Recent Legislative Changes to Landlord/Seller Disclosure Requirements

In 2015, the Legislature enacted EHB 2122, which contained a requirement that cities, towns, and counties provide to MRSC, for posting on our website, all regulations that impose requirements on sellers or landlords to disclose designated information to purchasers or renters. For details on that legislation, see our previous Property Disclosure Requirements blog post.

This year the Legislature again took action on this issue by adopting EHB 2971, which amended the 2015 legislation and clarified the ambiguity regarding how the information must be posted (unfortunately the legislation does nothing to clarify what must be posted).

Specifically, EHB 2971 requires that jurisdictions provide MRSC with:

• a summary of any pertinent ordinance, resolution, or policy that impose requirements on sellers or landlords to disclose designated information to purchasers or renters; and
• an internet link to the ordinance, resolution, or policy.

Note: like last year, there is a crucial deadline for providing MRSC with the necessary information: all jurisdictions must provide the required information to MRSC by September 9, 2016 (which is 90 days after June 9, 2016, the effective date of the legislation). If the summary and link are not posted by this time, the regulations will no longer be in effect.

Please send the information to MRSC at the following e-mail address: library@mrsc.org.

All cities, towns, and counties that have posted relevant documents on MRSC’s Landlord/Seller Disclosure Requirements webpage should review their posted information and modify it accordingly if their information does not include summaries and links, as now required by EHB 2971.

In addition to the online posting requirements, EHB 2971 also amends RCW 82.46.015 and RCW 82.46.037 by inserting identical wording that places limits on the expenditure of certain real estate excise tax (REET) revenue for capital projects if a city, town, or county places “any requirement on landlords, at the time of executing a lease, to perform or provide certain improvements or modifications to real property or fixtures, except if necessary to address an immediate threat to health or safety.” However, the revised wording now specifically exempts from the restrictions on the expenditure of REET revenue: regulations enacted by local governments pursuant to building code requirements, nuisance regulations, and unfit dwellings provisions.