RCW 59.18.257 is the section of Washington’s Residential Landlord-Tenant Act that governs tenant screening. It tells landlords what they have to disclose before running a background check, caps what they can charge for the screening, requires a written notice if they reject you or impose extra conditions, and sets penalties when any of those steps are skipped. Federal law under the Fair Credit Reporting Act adds a second layer on top.
What a Landlord Must Tell You Before Screening
Before pulling any background information on you, a landlord has to notify you in writing or by posting a notice at the rental office. The notice has to cover four things:1Washington State Legislature. RCW 59.18.257 – Screening of Prospective Tenants—Notice to Prospective Tenant—Costs—Adverse Action Notice—Violation
- What types of information the landlord will access, such as credit history, criminal records, or eviction records.
- What criteria could lead to denial, for example a minimum credit score or income requirement.
- If a screening company is used, that company’s name and address, plus your right to a free copy of the report and to dispute inaccurate information if you’re denied.
- Whether the landlord accepts a comprehensive reusable tenant screening report from a consumer reporting agency.
If the landlord advertises the rental on a website, the home page itself has to state whether reusable screening reports are accepted.1Washington State Legislature. RCW 59.18.257 – Screening of Prospective Tenants—Notice to Prospective Tenant—Costs—Adverse Action Notice—Violation That is a separate obligation from the pre-screening disclosure.
What the Landlord Can Charge You
A landlord may charge a screening fee, but only after providing all of the disclosures above. Skip the disclosure, lose the right to collect any fee.1Washington State Legislature. RCW 59.18.257 – Screening of Prospective Tenants—Notice to Prospective Tenant—Costs—Adverse Action Notice—Violation
When the landlord uses a third-party screening company, the fee can only cover the actual cost charged by that company. No markup. When the landlord does the screening in-house, they can recover actual costs — long-distance calls, time spent contacting previous landlords, employers, and financial institutions — but the total still cannot exceed what a local screening service would typically charge.1Washington State Legislature. RCW 59.18.257 – Screening of Prospective Tenants—Notice to Prospective Tenant—Costs—Adverse Action Notice—Violation
Reusable Screening Reports
A comprehensive reusable tenant screening report is one prepared by a consumer reporting agency that you can carry from one application to the next instead of paying for a new screening each time. The statute does not force landlords to accept them. It requires the landlord to say up front whether they do.
If a landlord accepts your reusable report, they can still run their own screening, but they cannot charge you for it.1Washington State Legislature. RCW 59.18.257 – Screening of Prospective Tenants—Notice to Prospective Tenant—Costs—Adverse Action Notice—Violation If you plan to apply to several places, asking about reusable reports before paying any fee can save you money.
What Counts as an Adverse Action and What the Notice Must Say
A denial is not the only decision that triggers written notice. The statute treats several outcomes as adverse actions, including requiring a higher deposit, requiring a co-signer or guarantor, demanding last month’s rent up front, or increasing the monthly rent above the listed price.1Washington State Legislature. RCW 59.18.257 – Screening of Prospective Tenants—Notice to Prospective Tenant—Costs—Adverse Action Notice—Violation
The adverse action notice has to be in writing, state which condition applies, and identify the basis for the decision, whether that was a consumer report, criminal history, or another source. When a consumer reporting agency’s report played a role, the notice has to include the agency’s name, address, and phone number, along with a statement that the agency did not make the decision and cannot explain the landlord’s reasons.1Washington State Legislature. RCW 59.18.257 – Screening of Prospective Tenants—Notice to Prospective Tenant—Costs—Adverse Action Notice—Violation It also has to tell you that you can get a free copy of the report and dispute anything inaccurate.
That last piece has practical value beyond the current application. If the report contains an error — a debt that is not yours, an eviction that was dismissed — the adverse action notice gives you the starting point to get it corrected before you apply somewhere else.
What You Can Recover if the Landlord Violates the Statute
A landlord who violates any part of RCW 59.18.257 faces a civil penalty of up to $100 per violation. The prevailing party can also recover court costs and reasonable attorney’s fees.1Washington State Legislature. RCW 59.18.257 – Screening of Prospective Tenants—Notice to Prospective Tenant—Costs—Adverse Action Notice—Violation The attorney’s fees provision is what makes the statute useful. A hundred dollars by itself rarely justifies a lawsuit, but the fee-shifting rule gives tenants a realistic path to representation when a landlord has ignored the disclosure or notice rules.
How Federal Law Stacks On Top
The federal Fair Credit Reporting Act applies anytime a landlord uses a consumer report, and it imposes its own requirements that run alongside the Washington statute. Complying with one does not satisfy the other.
Written Authorization Before Pulling a Report
Under the FCRA, a landlord cannot obtain a consumer report on you without a clear, written disclosure of intent to pull the report and your written authorization. The disclosure has to be straightforward and cannot be buried in waivers, liability releases, or acknowledgments that your information is accurate; those have to go in a separate document.2Federal Trade Commission. Background Checks on Prospective Employees: Keep Required Disclosures Simple
Federal Adverse Action Content
Federal adverse action rules under 15 U.S.C. § 1681m are more detailed than the state version. When a landlord takes any adverse action based wholly or partly on a consumer report, they have to provide:3Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1681m – Duties of Users Taking Adverse Actions on the Basis of Information Contained in Consumer Reports
- Notice of the adverse action.
- The numerical credit score used in the decision, if one was a factor.
- The screening agency’s name, address, and phone number, with a statement that the agency did not make the decision.
- Your right to a free copy of the consumer report within 60 days.
- Your right to dispute the accuracy or completeness of any information in the report.
A notice that satisfies RCW 59.18.257 can still fall short federally — for instance, if it omits the credit score disclosure or the 60-day copy right. For willful FCRA violations, you can recover statutory damages between $100 and $1,000 per violation without proving actual harm, plus potential punitive damages and attorney’s fees.4Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1681n – Civil Liability for Willful Noncompliance
A Boundary on Screening Criteria
RCW 59.18.257 governs disclosure and process. It does not override fair housing law. A landlord’s listed denial criteria still have to comply with the Fair Housing Act, and HUD guidance has found that blanket policies excluding anyone with a criminal record can produce a disparate impact on protected classes. A housing provider defending such a policy has to show it serves a legitimate, nondiscriminatory goal with evidence to back it, and even then a less discriminatory alternative can defeat it. The pre-screening disclosure you receive is useful here: it puts the landlord’s criteria in writing, which lets you see whether “criminal history” is defined specifically enough to be applied evenhandedly.