The vote
The Seattle City Council voted 8-0 on August 11, 2026 to pass Council Bill 121254, eliminating rental junk fees, naming administrative service fees, pet rent and package fees specifically. Mayor Katie Wilson signed it into law as Ordinance 127497 on August 18, 2026.
The law requires clear upfront pricing for tenants and strengthens enforcement. Wilson worked with Councilmember Dionne Foster, chair of the Housing, Arts and Civil Rights committee, who sponsored the bill and carried it through council.
The mayor's office credited City Attorney Erika Evans and a coalition including Stay Housed, Stay Healthy, SEIU 6, UAW 4121, Teamsters 117 and UFCW 3000.
It takes effect July 1, 2027 — not on signing
The ordinance applies to any rental agreement signed on or after July 1, 2027, according to the mayor's own FAQ and a National Apartment Association bulletin on the law. Nothing changes for existing Seattle leases before then, and the roughly ten-and-a-half-month gap between signing and effect gives landlords a full lease cycle to rework pricing before enforcement begins.
Under the ordinance, any fee not on an enumerated list is prohibited. The permitted list includes move-in fees such as screening fees and security and pet deposits — capped at one month's rent for move-in fees overall and at 25 percent of rent for pet deposits — utility surcharge fees, late fees capped at $10 per month, parking, tenant-caused damage, air-conditioner rentals, dishonored-check fees capped at the lesser of $31 or actual cost, key-replacement fees capped at the lesser of $50 or actual cost, and lock-out fees capped at $50 during working hours and $150 outside them.
Landlords must disclose the total monthly cost — rent, utilities and all mandatory and optional fees — in any advertisement and on the first page of the rental agreement. Where a charge such as a utility bill cannot be fixed in advance, the disclosure must give a historical average or a good-faith estimate. Landlords who violate the ban can be sued by the City Attorney's Office for up to three times the amount of the illegal fees, City Attorney Erika Evans said after the signing.
Why recurring fees are different from one-off ones
The categories at issue are not application or screening fees charged once at move-in. Pet rent, package fees and monthly administrative charges recur every month for the life of the tenancy, which means they function as rent while sitting outside the advertised rent — the mayor's office has said such fees can add 10 to 30 percent on top of rent.
That has two consequences. It makes listings non-comparable, because a unit advertised at a lower rate may cost more, and it can place the true cost outside any rent-increase limit or income-qualification screen that references the stated rent. Requiring upfront all-in pricing is therefore less a price control than a disclosure rule: landlords remain free to charge more within the enumerated categories; they are not free to charge outside them or to hide the total until the lease is signed.