Seattle Fair Chance Housing Rules for Landlords

LearnFacts checked November 8, 2026Reviewed by Gary E. Wilson, President and Designated Broker

What the ordinance does

Seattle's Fair Chance Housing Ordinance, Seattle Municipal Code chapter 14.09, covers rental housing inside city limits. The Seattle Office for Civil Rights began enforcing it on February 19, 2018.

According to the city's Fair Chance Housing FAQ, the core rules are:

• No ads, policies or statements that automatically exclude people with arrest records, conviction records or criminal history, such as "no felons" or "clean record required."
• No requiring an applicant or tenant to disclose criminal history.
• No rejecting an applicant, or taking other adverse action, based on arrest records, conviction records or criminal history, except for the registry rules below.
• A required notice, written on every rental application including online ones, that explains these limits.
• The rules apply to "any person," so a screening company acting for you is covered too, and both of you could be held liable.

What changed after the court cases

A group of landlords challenged the ordinance in Yim v. City of Seattle. On March 21, 2023, the Ninth Circuit held that the part banning landlords from asking about criminal history violated the First Amendment. The same opinion upheld the part that bars adverse action based on that history, and sent the case back to decide whether the rest of the law could stand.

As of June 6, 2023, the Office for Civil Rights says it no longer enforces the ban on asking. It still enforces the rest, including the bans on requiring disclosure and on adverse action. The U.S. Supreme Court denied review of the 2023 decision on January 22, 2024. On August 5, 2025, the Ninth Circuit, in an unpublished decision, agreed that the asking provision could be cut out and the rest of the ordinance left in place.

In practice, this means you may ask the question, but the applicant does not have to answer, and you cannot take action based on the answer or a refusal to give one. The city's FAQ says this directly. Landlords may also still run a background check, but the same limits on using it apply.

The sex offender registry exception

The ordinance allows one narrow use of records: information taken only from a county, statewide or national sex offender registry. Screening for it is optional. If you do it, your written notice must say so and tell applicants they may give information about rehabilitation, good conduct or the facts behind the listing.

You may act on registry information only for an adult whose conviction happened as an adult, and only with a "legitimate business reason." The city describes that as a case-by-case review, not a checklist, weighing the nature and severity of the conviction, the number and types of convictions, the time since conviction, the person's age at the time, tenant history and any information the applicant provides. If you deny someone, you must tell them in writing which registry information was the basis. Blanket wording such as "no sex offenders" or "no level 3 offenders" is not allowed.

Who is covered and how it is enforced

The city's FAQ lists a few exclusions. The ordinance does not apply where the owner lives in part of a single-family dwelling, or to an accessory dwelling unit or backyard cottage when the owner keeps a permanent home on the property. Federally assisted housing must follow it, except for denials that federal rules require.

Applicants and tenants have one year from the incident to file with the Office for Civil Rights. The FAQ says the ordinance does not give individuals a right to sue in court.

Outside Seattle

SMC 14.09 stops at the city line. In Bellevue, Kirkland, Redmond, Renton and other cities, state screening law still applies: under RCW 59.18.257 you must tell applicants in writing, before screening, what information you will check and what may lead to denial, and send a written adverse action notice if you deny or add conditions.

For unincorporated King County, the current King County Code Title 12 (updated September 9, 2026) has open housing and tenant protection chapters, and we did not find a Seattle-style criminal history rule in it. Federal fair housing law still applies everywhere, even after HUD withdrew a 2022 memo on using criminal records, effective September 17, 2025. City rules change, so check the city code for any home you plan to rent.

What this means if you hire a manager

An owner with homes in Seattle and on the Eastside usually needs two screening setups: Seattle applications with the required notice and no criminal history decisions, and applications elsewhere that follow state law. A careful manager also checks that the screening company's report and settings fit Seattle's rules, because the landlord can be liable for the company's mistakes.

The paperwork matters as much as the decision. A typical careful process keeps the written criteria, the dated application, the screening report and, for any registry review, notes on each factor that was weighed. If a complaint ever reaches the Office for Civil Rights, that file is what shows the decision followed the ordinance. Seattle's rules also sit beside the state's source of income law, covered in the source of income guide.

For the other Seattle rules that sit beside this one, such as first-in-time and registration, see Seattle landlord laws and the Seattle vs Eastside rules guide. The step-by-step screening post covers the state notice and adverse action steps, and the Seattle property management page describes local service.