Spokane increases required notice before rents can be increased

Apr. 29—Starting in June, landlords in Spokane will have to warn tenants 120 to 180 days in advance before raising rents.

The Spokane City Council voted 5-2 to implement the new rental regulation. Councilmen Jonathan Bingle and Michael Cathcart voted in opposition.

State law has required a minimum of 60-day notices for rent increases since 2019. For leases signed after June, Spokane landlords will have to issue 120-day notices before raising rent on a unit by 3% or less, or 180-day notices if increasing rent by more than 3%.

Subsidized rentals that base rent prices on the income of the tenant or household are only required to provide notice of rent increases 30 days in advance, in alignment with state law.

Like any proposed new regulation on rentals in Spokane, Mondays saw the City Council chambers packed with landlords, tenants and associated interest groups hoping to sway the direction the Council voted. Around 40 people signed up to testify on the ordinance.

Tenants and their supporters said that the increased notice time would provide much needed time to find a new home if they couldn't afford a rent increase, arguing that 60 days was inadequate and increased the likelihood that priced-out tenants would end up on the streets or in other desperate situations.

Landlords, property managers and real estate groups argued that any additional regulations would increase the costs for property owners, costs that would be passed on to renters. The 120-180 notice also restricted the ability of landlords to respond quickly to changing economic conditions and their own rising costs, they argued.

Bingle and Cathcart were sympathetic to these arguments, and said the council should be more focused on encouraging the development of more housing rather than create new regulations on what is available.

"Landlords don't want to lose good tenants, so they don't want to raise rents above what their tenants can afford or what's reasonable," Cathcart said. "If we see an increased cost from this, I hope a future council would be willing to roll this back."

Councilwoman Kitty Klitzke rebutted that the costs of action would be overshadowed by the costs of inaction.

"The burden for folks that get a 40% rent increase is much higher and much more compelling than the inconvenience of having to plan six months ahead for your investment property," she quipped.

Rents have increased in Spokane County faster than the state as a whole in the last decade, jumping 74% — from $725 in 2013 to $1,261 in 2023 — compared to a 66% increase statewide, according to data from the University of Washington.