The Washington State Fair Housing Act: What Landlords Have to Get Right
Washington protects more classes than federal law does, and it treats a housing voucher as a protected source of income. This guide covers the protected classes, the voucher math that trips up good landlords, assistance animals, and how to build a screening process that holds up.
This page is general information, not legal advice. We are property managers, not attorneys. Fair housing law is enforced by several different agencies and it changes. A fair housing complaint is a serious matter with real financial consequences. Confirm anything that matters with a Washington attorney or with a fair housing agency before you act on it.
Reviewed: September 2026.
Washington protects more than federal law does
Washington’s fair housing protections come from the Washington Law Against Discrimination, and the housing provisions sit in RCW 49.60.222.
On top of the federal protected classes, RCW 49.60.222 adds:
Creed
Marital status
Sexual orientation, including gender expression and gender identity
Citizenship or immigration status
Honorably discharged veteran or military status
Use of a trained dog guide or service animal
Those six are the ones that go beyond the federal Fair Housing Act. If your policies, your application, your advertising or your training materials were built from a federal-only checklist, those six are exactly where the gaps will be.
In Pierce County the military and veteran status protection is not a technicality. Joint Base Lewis-McChord drives a large share of local rental demand, so screening that treats military status or a military housing allowance differently gets noticed here.
Source of income is protected, and the math matters
RCW 59.18.255 protects source of income. Section 8 is squarely included. A voucher cannot be a reason to refuse an applicant, and “we do not participate in Section 8” is not a lawful policy in Washington.
Two details do most of the damage, and both are easy to fix.
Subtract the voucher first
Any voucher amount must be subtracted from the rent before you apply an income-to-rent ratio.
Here is what that looks like in practice. Rent is $1,800. The voucher covers $1,300. The tenant’s share is $500. If your standard is 3 times rent, you apply it to the $500 tenant portion, which means you are looking for $1,500 a month in income. Applying 3 times the full $1,800 and asking for $5,400 is the violation, and it is one of the most common ones in this state because it happens automatically inside screening software that was not set up for Washington.
The penalty is large
The penalty for a source of income violation runs up to 4.5 times the monthly rent, plus fees.
On an $1,800 unit that is $8,100 for a single applicant, before anyone’s legal costs. This is why we treat voucher math as a process problem, not a training slogan. The ratio has to be applied to the tenant’s portion by default, every time, by whoever is doing the screening.
If you want the operational version of this, see our Section 8 property management page.
Assistance animals are not pets
A trained dog guide or service animal is written directly into the RCW 49.60.222 protected class list, as “use of a trained dog guide or service animal.”
The practical consequence is that assistance animals do not belong in your pet policy. Pet rent, pet deposits and pet restrictions are terms you negotiate. An assistance animal is a protected accommodation question.
That distinction also matters for money. Washington sets no statewide cap on pet deposits or pet rent, and SB 6064 died in committee in 2024. But applying a pet deposit or pet rent to an assistance animal is a fair housing question, not a pricing one. Inside Tacoma, TMC 1.100.040 also caps a pet damage deposit at 25 percent of one month’s rent.
Our pet policy page explains how we handle the pet side.
Advertising
What we do, as practice rather than as legal advice:
01
We describe the property, never the person we imagine living in it. “Two bedroom with a fenced yard” rather than “perfect for a young couple.”
02
We use the same listing text on every syndication channel.
03
We publish our screening criteria in writing and link to them from every listing. Ours are on our rental application criteria page.
04
We never state or imply a preference tied to any protected class, and we never state a voucher preference or restriction.
Tacoma has its own fair housing chapter
Tacoma maintains its own fair housing chapter, TMC 1.29. It is significant enough that the City requires it to be handed to tenants: under TMC 1.95.030.B, the required tenant information packet includes City-prepared summaries of TMC 1.95, TMC 2.01, TMC 1.29 Tacoma Fair Housing, RCW 59.18 and RCW 59.12.
That packet has to be delivered at application, at lease offer or renewal with a signed acknowledgment, and to existing tenants within 30 days of a City update.
How these rules shape a lawful screening process
Fair housing is not a separate task you do after screening. It is the shape of the screening process itself. Here is how the rules on this page, plus the screening rules in state and Tacoma law, fit together into one workflow.
Write your criteria down before you advertise
Publish the standard, in writing, before anyone applies. A written standard applied the same way to every applicant is the single strongest evidence that you did not treat anyone differently.
Disclose before you take a screening fee
RCW 59.18.257 requires written disclosure before you collect a screening fee. You have to tell the applicant what will be checked, what your denial criteria are, which reporting agency you use, and how they can dispute what the agency reports.
If you screen applicants yourself rather than using a service, you may charge your actual cost only, and no more than what a customary local screening service charges.
Set your income ratio at a lawful level
Inside Tacoma, TMC 1.95.035.C caps the income-to-rent ratio you may require:
Rent below HUD Fair Market Rent: no more than 3 times the rent.
Rent at or above Fair Market Rent: no more than 2.5 times the rent.
A flat “3x income” rule applied across a Tacoma portfolio will be unlawful on every unit priced at or above Fair Market Rent.
Subtract the voucher before you apply the ratio
Every time, by default. See the worked example above. This is the step most likely to be automated incorrectly.
Apply the same criteria to everyone, in the same order
Same questions, same documents, same sequence, same decision rule. Inconsistency is what a complaint is built from.
Document the decision
Keep the application, the disclosure you gave, the report you relied on, the criteria you applied and the reason for the outcome. If you cannot reconstruct why an applicant was declined a year later, you cannot defend it either.
Give tenants the required packet, on time
In Tacoma this is not optional and it includes the fair housing summary. At application, at lease offer or renewal with a signed acknowledgment, and within 30 days of any City update.
Most fair housing problems we see are not the result of anyone deciding to discriminate. They come from a screening standard that was never written down, software that applies a ratio to the wrong number, or a pet policy that swallowed an assistance animal request.
If you would like us to look at how your applications are being screened, book a property management consult or call 253.222.3387. We screen against published written criteria applied within Tacoma’s income-to-rent limits, and we are happy to show you exactly how it works.
Washington fair housing questions
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RCW 49.60.222 adds creed, marital status, sexual orientation including gender expression and gender identity, citizenship or immigration status, honorably discharged veteran or military status, and use of a trained dog guide or service animal, on top of the federal protected classes. Those six are where landlords working from a federal-only checklist usually have gaps.
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No. RCW 59.18.255 makes source of income a protected class and Section 8 is squarely included. Refusing to accept a voucher, or advertising that you do not accept them, is a violation. The penalty runs up to 4.5 times the monthly rent, plus fees, so this is one of the more expensive mistakes available to a Washington landlord.
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Subtract the voucher from the rent first, then apply your ratio to what the tenant actually pays. On an $1,800 unit with a $1,300 voucher, a 3 times standard applies to the $500 tenant portion, so you are looking for $1,500 of monthly income. Applying the ratio to the full rent is the violation.
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No. Use of a trained dog guide or service animal is a protected class under RCW 49.60.222, so an assistance animal is not a pet and does not belong in your pet policy. Washington sets no statewide cap on pet deposits or pet rent, and SB 6064 died in committee in 2024, but pet charges are a fair housing question when an assistance animal is involved.
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TMC 1.95.035.C caps it. If the rent is below HUD Fair Market Rent, you may require no more than 3 times the rent. If the rent is at or above Fair Market Rent, no more than 2.5 times. A single blanket 3x policy across a Tacoma portfolio will be unlawful on the higher priced units.
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Under RCW 59.18.257, before collecting the fee you must disclose in writing what will be checked, your denial criteria, the reporting agency you use, and the applicant’s dispute rights. If you screen applicants yourself rather than using a service, you may charge only your actual cost, and no more than the customary local screening service cost.
Have a question about your own property?
Fair housing is one of the few areas where a single sentence in a listing, or one line of setup in screening software, can cost more than a year of management fees. It is also one of the easiest to get right once the process is built correctly. We are here Monday to Friday, 9:00am to 4:00pm, and we reply within 24 hours.
Red Roof Rentals & Real Estate, 14208 Pacific Ave., Unit #2, Tacoma, WA 98444. 253.222.3387.
This page is general information, not legal advice, and fair housing law changes. Confirm anything that matters with a Washington attorney or a fair housing agency.