Seattle Fair Chance Housing Ordinance: Notices, Denials, and Penalties

The Seattle Fair Chance Housing Ordinance, codified at Chapter 14.09 of the Seattle Municipal Code, prohibits most landlords in the city from asking about or acting on a rental applicant’s criminal history. Landlords cannot put criminal history questions on applications, cannot advertise blanket exclusions like “no felons,” and cannot deny housing based on arrests or convictions. A narrow exception allows screening against sex offender registries, and even that comes with strict limits. Violations carry civil penalties starting at $11,000 for a first offense.

What Landlords Cannot Do

Under SMC 14.09.025, three things are off-limits in Seattle rental screening:

Advertising that automatically excludes people with records. Phrases like “no felons” or “must pass criminal background check” violate the law.
Asking about criminal history on an application or verbally at any point in the process.
Taking any adverse action against an applicant, tenant, or household member based on arrests, convictions, or criminal history.

These restrictions cover the full range of criminal records, including arrests that never led to conviction.¹ If a landlord receives criminal history information incidentally through a credit report or other screening tool, they still cannot act on it.

The Sex Offender Registry Exception

Landlords may check local, state, and federal sex offender registries. That is the only criminal-history screening the ordinance permits, and a listing on a registry is not an automatic disqualification. The landlord must first establish a “legitimate business reason” for a denial, meaning a genuine connection between the registry information and resident safety or property protection.¹

Before deciding, the landlord has to weigh:

The severity and nature of the underlying conviction.
The number of convictions.
How much time has passed.
The applicant’s age at the time of conviction.
The applicant’s history as a tenant.
Any evidence of rehabilitation, good conduct, or changed circumstances.

Two absolute limits apply: a landlord can never take adverse action based on registry information for a juvenile applicant, and can never act on registry information tied to a conviction that occurred when the applicant was a juvenile.

Which Properties Are Covered

The ordinance reaches almost all rental housing inside Seattle’s city limits, from apartment buildings to duplexes to rented condos. Narrow exemptions apply to owner-occupied homes where the owner shares a kitchen or bathroom with the tenant.

Federally subsidized housing is the significant boundary. The ordinance’s full protections apply only to housing that does not receive federal subsidies. Properties funded through Low Income Public Housing or Housing Choice Vouchers must still run criminal background checks under federal rules, which independently require denial of anyone with a lifetime sex offense registration requirement or a conviction for manufacturing methamphetamine on the premises of federally assisted housing.² If you’re applying for federally subsidized housing in Seattle, expect a background check regardless of the local ordinance.

Notices Landlords Must Give

Under SMC 14.09.020, every rental application must include written notice that the landlord is prohibited from asking about, requiring disclosure of, or acting on any criminal history. That notice has to appear before the applicant pays any fees.³ If the landlord screens for sex offender registry information, the application also has to disclose that criterion and inform applicants they can submit supplemental information about rehabilitation and good conduct.⁴

Read the notice before paying anything. The paper trail matters later if the landlord denies you based on something they were never supposed to consider.

How a Lawful Denial Must Be Handled

When a landlord decides to deny housing based on sex offender registry information, the ordinance requires written notice delivered by email, mail, or in person, identifying the exact registry information that triggered the decision. “Failed background check” is not enough; the landlord has to point to specifics.¹ If a consumer reporting agency supplied the information, the notice must also include that agency’s name and address and your right to a free copy of the report and to dispute inaccuracies.

Applicants get a chance to respond with mitigating information before the denial becomes final. Useful documentation includes completion of treatment or court-ordered programs, employment or education records, community service, letters from parole officers or case managers, and a track record of successful tenancy.²

COVID-Era Eviction Protections

A separate section, SMC 14.09.026, protects applicants and tenants from adverse action based on evictions that occurred during the civil emergency declared on March 3, 2020, or within six months after it ended. The only exception is an eviction that involved an imminent threat to the health or safety of neighbors, the landlord, or household members. If a landlord sees a COVID-era eviction on your record and denies you anyway, the law presumes the denial was based on that prohibited information.¹

Retaliation Protections

Under SMC 14.09.030, landlords cannot retaliate against anyone who files a complaint, asks about their rights, tells other tenants about the ordinance, or cooperates with an investigation. If a landlord takes adverse action within 90 days of any of those protected activities, the law presumes retaliation, and the landlord has to produce clear and convincing evidence to overcome that presumption.³ The ordinance also bars landlords from threatening to report a tenant’s immigration status in retaliation. The protection holds even if your complaint ultimately proves wrong, so long as you filed it in good faith.

Penalties

Civil penalties under SMC 14.09.100 escalate for repeat offenders:

First violation: up to $11,000.
Second violation within five years: up to $27,500.
Third or subsequent violation within seven years: up to $55,000.

Those higher caps apply regardless of timing if the same person committed the earlier violations.¹ Penalties are in addition to any damages or injunctive relief the city pursues, and they can be built into conciliation agreements reached during an investigation.

Filing a Complaint

Complaints go to the Seattle Office for Civil Rights, which accepts them online, by phone at (206) 684-4500, or by email at discrimination@seattle.gov.⁵ You have one year from the date of the incident. Miss that deadline and you lose access to this administrative remedy, so act quickly if you suspect a violation.

The agency investigates, and if it finds a violation it can impose the civil penalties above, require the landlord to change screening policies, or pursue other corrective action. The process is administrative, so you do not need to hire a lawyer or go to court to hold a landlord accountable.⁶

1
Seattle, WA Municipal Code. Seattle Municipal Code Chapter 14.09 – Use of Screening Records in Housing
2
Seattle Housing Authority. Background Screening for Criminal History
3
Seattle City Clerk. Seattle Ordinance 125393
4
Seattle.gov. Fair Chance Housing Ordinance Final Administrative Rules
5
Seattle Office for Civil Rights. File Complaint
6
Seattle Office for Civil Rights. Criminal History Protections