Hi. First time renting a long term in unincorporated Tacoma WA. I am familiar with CT and vacation rentals. This area is proving challenging to get consistent information on what is and isn't allowed. It looks like this property falls in a part of unincorporated Tacoma (not within city limits even though the address is Tacoma), in the proximity of Lakewood. Would love some guidance:
- Any key restrictions or things I need to be thinking about? Looks like I need a WA business license to rent a property including long term?
- Late payment fees seem capped in Tacoma at $10 but not in Pierce County/WA?
- Security deposit must be allowed to be payed in installments over 6 months?
- Does anyone have a lease template they would be willing to share?
Late fees for Pierce County are capped at 1.5% of monthly rent with a maximum of $75/month.
A landlord must allow security deposit to be spread over a period of 3-6 months. 6 months for a 1 year lease.
The pet deposit can be no more than 25% of the month's rent.
You will also want to know the laws under RCW 59.18 for Washington State.
Thanks but when I saw that and dug further it looked like that was Tacoma specific not Pierce Country. Do you have the legislation for those regulations? I'm also seeing a couple of different topics on Notary. Required for >12 month lease but then elsewhere it says it isn't necessary. Thoughts?
Yes, it does not look like Pierce County has any additional legislation other than the state unless I'm missing it.
The legislation that I originally referred to actually appears to come from the new legislation in Tacoma code. There is nothing related to rental fees or security deposits that has passed recently for Pierce County.
It does get confusing. Tacoma code gets brought up in a search of Pierce County code. I'm actually finding very little in the Pierce county code beyond fair housing laws specific to Pierce County.
The website I have given has a search function as well as the table of contents for the current code.