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Congratulations to this year's recipients! Continue Reading

Our members make our world go 'round! New Property Members: Renton Sage Vigilant Vancouver Evergreen Ridge Apartments Ballinger Estates The Edge Ambrose Forest Creek Marvelle SC Notch Greensview Oakridge Royal Oaks Manor Way Watermark Alvista240 Alvista Lake... Continue Reading

Last Wednesday, the House and Senate began marathon floor sessions to vote on policies that survived the first policy and fiscal cut-offs. The floor sessions will continue until Wednesday, February 19. During this time, the full chamber considers any bill that moved out of its policy committee or... Continue Reading

Valentine's Day is the perfect time to celebrate love in the multifamily industry! Meet some of the couples from the WMFHA membership: Stephanie Moss and Nick Hamby Stephanie and Nick met in 2009 when she was a property manager for Fairfield Residential and he was a porter. He ended up moving... Continue Reading

Yesterday, by a 7-0 vote, the Seattle City Council passed a law that allows a tenant to say: “It’s winter. You can’t evict me.” The law applies to certain evictions between December 1 and March 1, every year. This is the first major action taken by the new Seattle City... Continue Reading

Four things to know about Week 4 of the legislative session. 1. Any proposal that did not receive a hearing or a vote by its policy committee is considered dead for the legislative session. A bill that would implement rent control in Washington, among other strict provisions is dead. We... Continue Reading

This Friday marks the first significant deadline of the 2020 legislative session when bills must be voted out of their policy committee. If a bill is not voted out of its policy committee it is considered dead for this session. We expect several rental housing bills to move out of their policy... Continue Reading

HUD recently released guidance clarifying the terms under which a tenant may request a reasonable accommodation to keep an animal as a service animal or assistance animal. The guidance is available here. It is also available on the HUD website. Below is a summary of the law and should not be... Continue Reading

In this session, policymakers in Olympia are considering Senate Bill 6490, legislation intended to limit the use of criminal history in tenant screening. Criminal history is important for resident screening. An individual’s criminal history is an additional data point that provides context... Continue Reading

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is closely monitoring the outbreak of a novel (meaning new) coronavirus (2019-nCoV), which was first detected in Wuhan City, China, and has since spread to 15 additional countries. With 5 cases of coronavirus confirmed in the United States... Continue Reading

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) today released new guidance to clarify the responsibilities of both rental housing providers and renters concerning reasonable accommodation requests for emotional support animals (ESAs) in housing. For four years, this has been a priority... Continue Reading

In Olympia last week: The House Civil Rights & Judiciary Committee held a hearing on HB 2453, implementing "just cause" requirements in Washington. There were also hearings on HB 2520 adding onerous requirements to return a security deposit and HB 2535, implementing a mandatory grace period... Continue Reading