Breaking a lease in Washington

Washington lets a tenant end a lease early in several situations: as a victim of domestic violence, sexual assault, unlawful harassment or stalking; for military orders; after a weapon threat that leads to an arrest; after you fail to make required repairs; and before an unlawful rent increase takes effect. A tenant who simply abandons the unit owes rent only as the abandonment statute allows, and you must try to re-rent (RCW 59.18.575; RCW 59.18.220(2); RCW 59.18.310).

• When the tenant or a qualifying household member is a victim, a protection order or qualified third party's signed report can support written termination requested within 90 days of the reported act, event or circumstance. Ordinarily rent remains due for the month of leaving and the full deposit must be returned subject to the deposit statute; the special landlord-perpetrator route below has different rent timing. Co-tenants other than protected household victims stay bound (RCW 59.18.575(1), (2)).
• A servicemember, spouse or dependent may end a fixed term on 20 days' written notice with orders or a commanding officer's letter showing one of six situations, such as a permanent change of station 35 miles or more away (RCW 59.18.220(2)).
• A tenant threatened by another tenant with a firearm or deadly weapon may leave if the threat leads to an arrest and you do not file an eviction within seven days after the police notify you; a tenant threatened by the landlord that way may leave if the landlord is arrested (RCW 59.18.352; RCW 59.18.354).
• On abandonment during a fixed term, the tenant owes the lesser of rent for the rest of the term or rent for the time reasonably needed to re-rent plus any shortfall and re-renting costs (RCW 59.18.310(1)(b)).
• A tenant may end a fixed term at its end by written notice at least 20 days before the end date (RCW 59.18.650(1)(f)).
• You may not end a fixed term early for owner move-in, sale or redevelopment unless both sides agree in writing and the tenant gets at least 60 days to leave (RCW 59.18.650(5)).
• You may let a fixed term end without cause when it expires only if it began as a term of 12 months or more (or as unbroken successive terms of six months or more), the tenancy has never been month to month, and you serve at least 60 days' written notice before the term ends. Otherwise the tenancy becomes month to month and needs a listed cause (RCW 59.18.650(1)(c), (d)).
• A household member includes a child or adult living with the tenant, other than the perpetrator of domestic violence, stalking or sexual assault. Qualified third parties must act in their official capacity; the list includes law enforcement, court employees, licensed counselors, trained victim-program advocates, clergy and persons covered by chapter 18.120. Check the referenced definitions rather than assuming any witness qualifies (RCW 59.18.570(3)-(5)).
• The third-party report must be signed and dated and contain the required victim statement, incident time and date, location and brief description, and confirmation that the victim supplied the alleged perpetrator's name. Omit that name from the report given to the tenant or household member; the third party keeps a copy noting the name. The statute provides a model form (RCW 59.18.575(1)(b)).
• If the landlord seeks property-damage reimbursement under the referenced landlord mitigation program, section 59.18.575(2)(b)(ii) bars retaining any of the tenant's damage or security deposit and pursuing that protected tenant for property-damage sums beyond the deposit. Program eligibility and claim procedures require separate review (RCW 59.18.575(2)(b)).
• For sexual assault, stalking or unlawful harassment by a landlord, the tenant may leave before supplying the protection order or third-party report, but must deliver it by mail, fax or third-party personal delivery within seven days after leaving. Under subsection (3)(b), rent ends at the later of vacating or delivery of the third-party report and written notice of vacancy; prepaid rent is prorated, with the deposit statement and refund governed by the deposit statute (RCW 59.18.575(3)).
• Using the special landlord-perpetrator lock-change procedure normally ends the agreement on the 90th day after the tenant gives notice of the new locks. Within 60 days, the tenant may instead give written notice of wanting to remain, or use subsection (3) to terminate. The key and access qualifications are described under Locks and keys (RCW 59.18.575(4)(b)).
• Providing the statutory verification does not by itself waive protected communications with the qualified third party. Section 59.18.575(6) restricts using information obtained through that disclosure against the victim without a written privilege waiver, while allowing the verification itself in civil proceedings under this section (RCW 59.18.575(6)).

If you do not fix a defect within the statutory time after written notice, the tenant may end the lease on written notice, go to court or arbitration, or use repair and deduct. The tenant must be current on rent and agreed utilities before using these remedies (RCW 59.18.090; RCW 59.18.100; RCW 59.18.080).

• With a licensed or registered contractor, after giving you a good-faith estimate, the tenant may deduct up to two months' rent per repair, and no more than two months' rent in any 12 months. For defects on the 10-day schedule, the tenant must wait 10 days after notice or two days after you receive the estimate, whichever is later (RCW 59.18.100(1), (2)).
• For work that need not be done by a licensed person and costs no more than one month's rent, the tenant may do it personally in a workmanlike manner and deduct up to one month's rent per repair and in any 12 months, for defects inside the unit (RCW 59.18.100(3)).
• You get an opportunity to inspect before the deduction, and you may recover actual damages from negligent repairs (RCW 59.18.100(2), (5)).
• A tenant who ends the lease for an unrepaired defect owes no further rent, gets a pro rata refund of prepaid rent, and gets the deposit statement and refund (RCW 59.18.090(1)).
• A court or arbitrator may reduce the rent to the unit's diminished value until the repair is made, and may authorize further repairs by the tenant (RCW 59.18.110).
• For conditions that substantially endanger health or safety, a tenant may ask the local government to inspect and certify them and then pay rent into an escrow account (RCW 59.18.115).

Washington has no statute that sets a general rule on subletting a home. The lease controls, so state in it whether the tenant needs your written consent (RCW 59.18 (Residential Landlord-Tenant Act)).

• The unlawful detainer law covers a tenant who breaks a lease covenant not to assign or sublet and does not comply within 10 days after a written notice to comply or leave; the notice also goes to any subtenant in possession, and either may cure within those 10 days (RCW 59.12.030(4)).
• For residential tenancies, that remedy is limited by the cause rules: a substantial breach of a material lease term ends the tenancy only after written notice giving at least 10 days to remedy it (RCW 59.18.650(2)(b)).

A tenant may end a month-to-month tenancy with written notice at least 20 days before the end of a rental period. A landlord may not end one without a cause listed in the just cause statute, given with the notice that cause requires (RCW 59.18.200(1)(a); RCW 59.18.650(1)).

• If the lease began with a term of six to 12 months and then continues month to month, you may end it without cause at the end of that first term only by at least 60 days' written notice before the term ends (RCW 59.18.650(1)(b)).
• Causes that do not involve the tenant's fault include an owner or immediate family moving in, or selling a single-family home, each on at least 90 days' notice; demolition, substantial rehabilitation or change of use on at least 120 days' notice; and other legitimate economic or business reasons on at least 60 days' notice (RCW 59.18.650(2)(d), (e), (f), (m); RCW 59.18.200(2)(c)).
• Changing to a policy of excluding children takes 90 days' notice, and converting to a condominium takes 120 days (RCW 59.18.200(2)(a), (b)).
• A landlord who removes a tenant in violation of the just cause rules owes the greater of the tenant's damages or three times the monthly rent, plus attorneys' fees (RCW 59.18.650(4)).
• A servicemember, spouse or dependent may give less than 20 days' notice when orders do not allow 20 days (RCW 59.18.200(1)(b)).

Within 30 days after the lease ends and the tenant moves out, give the tenant a full and specific statement of the reasons for keeping any of the deposit, with the supporting documents, together with any refund. Delivering it in person or mailing it first class to the tenant's last known address within the 30 days is on time. If the tenant abandoned the unit, the 30 days run from when you learn of the abandonment (RCW 59.18.280; RCW 59.18.260).

• Include copies of estimates received or invoices paid for damage charges. For work done by you or your employee, include the bill or receipt for materials and a statement of the time spent and the hourly rate (RCW 59.18.280(1)(b)).
• You may not keep any of the deposit for wear from ordinary use, for carpet cleaning unless you document wear beyond ordinary use, for items whose condition the move-in checklist did not reasonably document, or for more than the cost of repairing the damaged part of an item (RCW 59.18.280(1)(c); RCW 59.18.260(4)).
• Missing the deadline makes you liable for the full deposit and bars you from claiming any of it in the tenant's suit, unless circumstances beyond your control prevented the statement or the tenant abandoned the unit. A court may award up to twice the deposit for an intentional refusal, and the winner recovers attorneys' fees (RCW 59.18.280(2)).
• Undocumented damage and ordinary wear may not be charged to the tenant, reported to a credit or screening agency, or sent to collection (RCW 59.18.280(3)(b)).
• For leases begun on or after July 23, 2023, a suit to recover more than the deposit must be filed within three years after the lease ends or the tenant abandons the unit (RCW 59.18.280(3)(c)).
• The checklist and documentation rules do not apply to amounts kept for reasons other than damage, such as unpaid rent (RCW 59.18.280(4)).