This map is informational only. It is not legal advice. Rent control coverage here is inferred from public assessor and permit records, not from any official determination. The underlying data is incomplete and sometimes wrong, and several exemptions can't be seen in it at all. Treat this as one source among several. Before acting on anything you see here, confirm it against your lease, your landlord, county records, or a tenant-rights attorney.
Data current as of July 20, 2026. Assessor extracts, Seattle permit records, and the published increase limit were last pulled on that date. Anything recorded since then won't appear.
Washington's HB 1217 (RCW 59.18.710 through .730) took effect May 7, 2025 and sunsets July 1, 2040. It limits most residential rent increases to the lesser of 10% or 7% plus CPI, no more than once every 12 months, with no increase during a tenancy's first 12 months. The Department of Commerce publishes the figure each July; the current one shows in the legend and on each building's card.
Every building's card works through all seven and says where each one stands, because no dataset here can settle them all. Five can be narrowed from county records. Two cannot be touched at all, which is why a blue dot says likely covered: it means nothing the records can test came back positive, not that the limit applies.
Nothing is ever reported as confirmed exempt. Two of the five rest on the assessor's tax-exempt flag, which records who owns a building rather than whether HB 1217's test is met, so at best a card says a record points to an exemption and links you to that record.
✓ Records can rule it out ⚑ A record can point to it ✗ Never in the records, always yours to check
| Exemption | Statute | On this map |
|---|---|---|
| "A tenancy in a dwelling unit for which the first certificate of occupancy was issued 12 or less years before the date of the notice of the rent increase." | RCW 59.18.710(1)(a) |
⚑ A record can point to it, with the year it expires. Otherwise ruled out.
Seattle, matched to a "New" construction permit (~940 buildings):
the real certificate-of-occupancy date from Seattle's Department of Construction and
Inspections. The card links that permit so you can check the date yourself.
Everywhere else: the assessor's recorded year built
stands in for the certificate-of-occupancy date.
No year built on record: grey dot, and the card
sends you to the county record to look the date up.
Compared by calendar year. The statute measures 12 years from the
certificate date against the date of your increase notice, so a building in the last
year of its window may already have aged out.
|
| "A tenancy in a dwelling unit owned by a: (i) Public housing authority; (ii) Public development authority; (iii) Nonprofit organization, where maximum rents are regulated by other laws or local, state, or federal affordable housing program requirements; or (iv) Nonprofit entity, as defined in RCW 84.36.560, where a nonprofit organization, housing authority, or public development authority has the majority decision-making power on behalf of the general partner, and where maximum rents are regulated by other laws or local, state, or federal affordable housing program requirements." | RCW 59.18.710(1)(b) |
⚑ A record can point to it, from the county's tax-exempt flag.
That
flag on the parcel
records who owns the building, not whether rents here are regulated by another
affordable-housing program, which is what the exemption turns on. So the card never
calls this confirmed, and it links the county record so you can read the owner
yourself.
|
| "A tenancy in a qualified low-income housing development as defined in RCW 82.45.010, where the property is owned by any of the organizations described in (b)(i) through (iv) of this subsection." | RCW 59.18.710(1)(c) |
✓ Ruled out wherever the county lists a taxable owner.
This one needs the property to be owned by one of the
organizations in (1)(b), so a taxable owner rules it out along with the row above.
Where the owner is flagged tax exempt, whether the building is a qualified
low-income housing development is not in county records, and the card sends you to
the Washington State Housing Finance Commission.
|
| "A tenancy in a qualified low-income housing development which was allocated federal low-income housing tax credits authorized under 26 U.S.C. Sec. 42 or successor statute, by the Washington state housing finance commission or successor state-authorized tax credit allocating agency, so long as there is an enforceable regulatory agreement with the Washington state housing finance commission under the low-income housing tax credit program." | RCW 59.18.710(1)(d) |
✗ Never in the records.
Federal tax credit allocations are not in county data, so every
card lists this as yours to check and links
HUD's tax credit database.
That database shows which projects received credits; only the
Washington State Housing Finance Commission
can confirm the regulatory agreement is still in force, which is what the statute
requires.
|
| "A tenancy in a dwelling unit in which the tenant shares a bathroom or kitchen facility with the owner who maintains a principal residence at the residential real property." | RCW 59.18.710(1)(e) |
✗ Never in the records.
Whether you share a kitchen or bathroom with an owner who lives
on the property is not something any dataset holds, so every card lists it as yours
to check.
|
| "A tenancy in a single-family owner-occupied residence, including a residence in which the owner-occupant rents or leases no more than two units or bedrooms including, but not limited to, an attached or detached accessory dwelling unit." | RCW 59.18.710(1)(f) |
✓ Ruled out above three units.
A residence plus at most two rented units caps this at three, so
the recorded unit count rules it out for most buildings on the map. At or below
three it stays open, because owner-occupancy is in no dataset here. Where the
assessor describes the building as a house with an accessory dwelling unit, the card
says so.
|
| "A tenancy in a duplex, triplex, or fourplex in which the owner occupied one of the units as the owner's principal place of residence at the beginning of the tenancy, so long as the owner continues the occupancy." | RCW 59.18.710(1)(g) |
✓ Ruled out above four units.
A fourplex is the ceiling, so the recorded unit count rules this
out for most buildings on the map. At or below four it stays open, because whether
the owner lives in one of the units is in no dataset here.
|
The shared-facility, owner-occupied-house and owner-occupied-plex exemptions apply only where the owner is not a real estate investment trust, a corporation, or an LLC with at least one corporate member (RCW 59.18.710(2)). Comparing the owner's name on the county record against the building's address is often enough to settle it.
The 12-year window is evaluated in your browser against today's date, so buildings age into coverage without the map being rebuilt.
This estimates how well a building blocks sound between units, eg. footsteps from above, voices through a shared wall, etc. It says nothing about traffic, aircraft, or any other outside noise. No public dataset measures sound transmission for individual buildings, so this is a rough model built from five assessor fields (construction class, quality grade, condition, year built, unit density). It's an estimate, not a measurement, and no substitute for visiting the building, asking the landlord, or requesting the building plans.
Because it's a model and the reasoning behind it can be wrong for any given building, every card shows the raw assessor record it was built from and a See the numbers breakdown of exactly what each field added or subtracted. If you read that data differently than the model does, trust your own judgement.