Tenants: If you need repairs

Washington’s Residential Landlord-Tenant Act (RLTA) requires landlords to maintain and repair most parts of a rental unit while you are living there. The RLTA also provides ways that tenants can demand repairs and gives some remedies if landlords refuse to make needed repairs.

Read this to learn what landlords are supposed to maintain and repair, how quickly your landlord must start making repairs, and what you can do if they refuse. 

You can use the sample letter to ask your landlord for repairs. The best way to ask for repairs is to put it in writing and deliver it to the landlord so you can prove when the landlord received it. 

You should not withhold rent to try to make your landlord make repairs, or they may start the eviction process against you for not paying rent. The RLTA does provide a way for tenants to pay for repairs and deduct the cost against some of their rent. However, the process can be very complicated. Try to talk to a lawyer first before deducting any rent money for repairs.

What are landlords supposed to maintain and repair? 

The RLTA lists several landlords’ repair duties at RCW 59.18.060.

Under RCW 59.18.060, landlords must: 

• Keep the rental unit fit for human habitation while you are living there
• Comply with city, county, and state building and health codes
• Provide heat, water, and hot water
• Give you adequate locks and keys
• Keep the place reasonably weathertight
• Maintain electrical, plumbing, heating systems, and appliances in good working order
• Maintain the roofs, floors, walls, chimneys, foundations, and other structures in reasonably good condition
• Keep any shared, common areas reasonably clean, sanitary, and safe
• Provide a reasonable program to control pest infestations (including rats and insects) except when the tenant has caused the infestation or except in single-family residences
• Maintain the rental unit in as good condition as it was when you moved in, except for wear resulting from ordinary use of the premises (sometimes called normal wear and tear)
• Provide for trash containers and arrange for regular waste removal (except in a single-family residence rental)
• Provide information about fire safety precautions, including about smoke detectors and whether you have to maintain them or not by making sure the batteries work

Landlord must also provide carbon monoxide alarms as required under RCW 19.27.530 and smoke alarms and heat detectors as required by WAC 51-51-0314.

In addition to the required repair duties above, landlords cannot legally: 

• Rent a place that has been condemned or declared uninhabitable by a code enforcement agency
• Intentionally shut off utilities (including water, heat, electricity, or gas) except temporarily to make needed repairs
• Retaliate against you if you ask for repairs or make a good faith complaint about health and safety to a code enforcement agency

If the place you’re living in is condemned or declared uninhabitable by a code enforcement agency, the landlord may be liable to you for money damages (like a refund of your deposit) and also relocation assistance.

Landlords are not liable for defective conditions that are caused by you, the people you live with, or your invited guests. 

Landlords are also not liable for defective conditions if you unreasonably refuse to allow the landlord to enter to make repairs.