(The Center Square) – A bill designed to give Washington state renters more protections from service and fee increases and ensure tenants aren’t forced to forgo their right to bring legal action against a landlord received a public hearing Wednesday before the Senate Housing Committee.
Sen. Jamie Pedersen, D-Seattle, is the prime sponsor of Senate Bill 5313 and told committee members the bill was inspired by an article in The Seattle Times about a woman who was having some issues with the way her rental agreement was set up.
“She was wanting to join a class action lawsuit against a national landlord group, but then she found out in her lease agreement she had waived her right to participate in a class action,” Pedersen explained.
According to the summary of SB 5313, tenants could not be forced to “sign a nondisclosure agreement relating to the lease agreement or details of the offer, including rent amount, security deposits or fees, rent concessions, move-in gifts, or lease specials or terms.”
“72% of my constituents rent their homes, so I guess I have the benefit of hearing their stories,” Pedersen noted.
Sen. Chris Gildon, R-Puyallup, is on the Housing Committee. He told The Center Square that he co-sponsored similar legislation in 2024 to protect tenants from third-party fees like “valet trash collection” but has since learned more about the issue and has some concerns with SB 5312 bill as written.
Valet trash collection is a service that removes trash from outside a resident’s door and takes it to a dumpster or compactor. It’s a common amenity in apartment complexes, condominiums and townhouses.
It’s convenient but oftentimes costly, and the concern is some property owners have adopted the service and rolled it into existing lease agreements with or without the tenants wanting or being able to afford the service.
“Valet trash companies came and testified and explained that the problem is with these services in these buildings,” Gildon said. “If you don’t have the whole building to subscribe to the service, there’s a bunch of straphangers (a term for someone who is a freeloader) who don’t pay for the service but still put their trash out. So, it becomes really problematic for a company to manage that.”
Gildon said he’s still hoping to find some middle ground.
“I was trying to find a compromise where you could implement it over time,” he said. “So, as new tenants come into the building, it would be part of their lease, and as current tenants renew their lease, they could negotiate it in. So, it would take a while to get the whole building, but as the bill currently is, it will put valet trash out of business, which I don’t think is the intent of the bill but will be the effect of it.”
Michelle Thomas with the Washington Low Income Housing Alliance testified in support of the bill.
“It’s almost impossible for a renter to negotiate their own lease terms,” she said. “These non-disclosure agreements are prohibiting them from finding out if their rent increases are on par with other tenants.”
She said no tenant should be forced to pay for a service that wasn’t in their original lease agreement.
“With valet garbage service renters are forced to pay for someone to come get their trash in the hallway,” Thomas said. “These types of third-party expenditures are becoming more and more common.”
She asked lawmakers to include owners of manufactured homes who rent the land on which their homes sit, arguing that they are often subject to the same kinds of lease provisions in their rental agreements.
Rich Stein, director of code compliance with Valet Living, told lawmakers that their business model contributes to the overall health and safety of communities.
“Our valet provider members are upfront and transparent about the extra costs associated with the valuable service they provide collecting trash and recycling directly from residents on behalf of property owners and management teams,” Stein said, noting that valet trash collection prevents injuries for residents at risk when hauling heavy trash down flights of stairs.
The bill is scheduled for a vote in the Senate Housing Committee on Friday at 10:30 a.m.
