Washington’s fair housing laws go further than the federal Fair Housing Act, and that gap
catches a lot of property owners off guard. A landlord who screens tenants the same way
they always have, without checking whether their criteria still line up with current state
law, can end up facing a complaint before they ever realize a policy was outdated. At Ken
Miller & Associates, PLLC, we work with landlords across Okanogan County and
beyond who want to run their rental business well and stay on the right side of the law
while doing it. This is a plain-language look at what fair housing and discrimination
protections actually require of you as a landlord in Washington.
Protected Classes Under Washington Law
The federal Fair Housing Act protects tenants from discrimination based on race, color,
national origin, religion, sex, familial status, and disability. Washington’s Law Against
Discrimination adds several categories on top of that list. In this state, landlords also
cannot discriminate in a real estate transaction based on:
- Marital status
- Sexual orientation and gender identity
- National origin and citizenship or immigration status
- Honorably discharged veteran or military status
- Creed
Two categories are commonly misunderstood and do not belong on that list. Criminal
history is not a protected class; Washington instead regulates how you may use criminal-
record information in screening, covered below. And there is no general age protection in
the housing statute — Washington’s rule for older residents is a senior-housing exception
to the families-with-children protection, letting qualifying housing for older persons limit
occupancy to older tenants.
Source of income is also protected, though through a separate statute, discussed below.
That’s a longer list than most out-of-state property management guides will tell you, and
it matters. A rental ad that says “no families” or a screening policy that quietly weeds out
applicants based on a hunch about their income source can trigger liability even if the
landlord never intended to discriminate against anyone. Fair housing law reaches both
intentional discrimination and facially neutral policies that fall more harshly on a
protected class, so you can be liable even without meaning to discriminate. A bare
statistical disparity is not automatically a violation — the applicant has to tie it to a
specific policy, and you can defend a policy that serves a legitimate, substantial business
justification — but the safest assumption is that effect, not just intent, is what gets
measured.
Source of Income Discrimination
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This is one of the areas where Washington diverges sharply from federal law, and it trips
up landlords constantly. Under RCW 59.18.255, landlords generally cannot refuse to rent
to someone because a portion of their income comes from a housing voucher, Social
Security, SSI, veterans benefits, or another public-assistance or subsidy program. You
can still evaluate whether an applicant’s total income, voucher included, is sufficient to
cover rent — but if you set a minimum-income threshold, you must subtract any voucher
or subsidy from the rent before applying it. What you cannot do is reject an application
outright because a portion of that income is a Section 8 voucher or similar subsidy.
Some landlords assume vouchers mean extra paperwork or inspection delays, and that
assumption alone becomes the reason for a blanket policy against accepting them. That
kind of policy, even if never stated as “no vouchers” in writing, is exactly what the statute
targets. If your rental criteria mention income requirements, they need to be written in a
way that treats voucher income the same as wage income for qualification purposes.
Criminal History and Screening Policies
Contrary to a common misconception, there is no statewide Washington “Fair Chance
Housing Act.” Statewide, criminal-history use in tenant screening is governed by RCW
59.18.257. That statute is largely procedural: before you obtain screening information,
you must tell the applicant in writing what you will check and what criteria may lead to
denial, you must give an adverse-action notice explaining any denial, and you must
observe limits on screening fees. It does not ban considering a criminal record — its own
adverse-action notice form lists a criminal record as a permissible basis for denial.
A stringent, Seattle-style near-ban on using criminal history exists only under local
ordinances, such as Seattle’s Fair Chance Housing Ordinance, which does not apply to
landlords in Okanogan County. (Do not confuse any of this with Washington’s 2018 Fair
Chance Act, RCW 49.94 — that is an employment “ban the box” law, not a housing law.)
This is still one of the more misunderstood areas of the law. Plenty of landlords use
screening services with default settings and reject applicants without stopping to check
what state law and any applicable local ordinance require. If you’re relying on a third-
party tenant screening company, ask them directly how their reports handle Washington’s
screening-notice requirements. Not every national screening platform is built around
Washington-specific rules, and the responsibility for compliance stays with you as the
landlord, not the vendor.
Reasonable Accommodations and Modifications
Tenants with disabilities are entitled to reasonable accommodations in rules, policies, and
practices, and reasonable modifications to the physical unit, when needed to give them
equal access to housing. A tenant asking to keep an assistance animal despite a no-pets
policy is a reasonable accommodation request. A tenant asking to install grab bars in a
bathroom at their own expense is a reasonable modification request — modifications are
generally made at the tenant’s expense, and you may condition permission on the tenant
restoring the interior later, reasonable wear and tear excepted.
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Landlords are allowed to ask for documentation when a disability isn’t obvious and the
need for the accommodation isn’t apparent, but that documentation request has limits.
You cannot require an applicant’s medical records or history except as necessary to
evaluate the request, and you cannot inquire beyond what is necessary and appropriate. A
letter from a healthcare provider confirming the disability-related need is typically
sufficient. Denying a request outright without engaging in this back-and-forth, sometimes
called the interactive process, is where landlords get into trouble even when they had a
legitimate question about the request.
Assistance animals deserve a specific note here because they’re a frequent source of
disputes. An assistance animal is not a pet under fair housing law, which means a no-pets
policy and a pet deposit charged on top of your standard deposit generally cannot be
applied to a legitimate assistance animal. Landlords can still hold tenants responsible for
actual damage the animal causes, but the animal itself cannot be the basis for denial or
added fees once the accommodation is properly established.
Where Landlords Commonly Run Into Trouble
A few patterns show up again and again in the disputes we see. Rental advertisements
that use language suggesting a preference, like describing a property as ideal for “young
professionals” or a “quiet retiree,” can be read as steering language even when the intent
was harmless. Screening criteria applied inconsistently between applicants, where one
person’s minor issue gets a pass and another’s identical issue gets a denial, create the
appearance of discrimination even without a discriminatory motive behind it. And
blanket policies of any kind, whether about criminal history, income source, or family
composition, are risky precisely because they don’t allow for the individualized
assessment that Washington law expects.
The safest approach is a written screening policy applied the same way to every
applicant, documented reasons for any denial, and a clear process for handling
accommodation requests. That documentation is what protects you if a rejected applicant
later files a complaint with the Washington State Human Rights Commission or HUD.
Getting Ahead of Fair Housing Risk
Fair housing compliance isn’t a one-time checklist. Statutes get amended, screening
vendors change their practices, and a policy that was defensible five years ago might not
hold up today. Reviewing your rental applications, advertising language, and screening
criteria periodically is worth the time it takes, especially given how much has changed
under Washington’s source-of-income protections and tenant-screening rules in recent
years.
If you manage rental property in Washington and want a second set of eyes on your
screening criteria, lease language, or how to respond to an accommodation request
you’ve already received, our office works with landlords on exactly these issues. Reach
out to Ken Miller & Associates, PLLC to talk through