Landlord Atlas

What does Washington law require a landlord to repair?

Verified August 29, 2026 All Washington topics →

Washington landlords must keep a rented dwelling fit for human habitation and meet a list of specific duties, from weathertightness and working locks to facilities adequate to supply heat, water and hot water.

Cited to RCW 59.18.040 (living arrangements excluded from the chapter) and 15 more cited sources · Verified August 29, 2026

A separate court-made warranty of habitability runs alongside the statute rather than being absorbed by it, so a tenant has three possible theories: the act, the lease, or the common law. Once a tenant gives written notice, the landlord must commence repairs within 24 hours where heat, water or electricity is cut off or the condition is imminently hazardous, within 72 hours for a landlord-supplied refrigerator, range and oven or major plumbing fixture, and within 10 days otherwise — these are times to start, not to finish. The tenant may then hire the work out and deduct up to two months' rent, or do it personally and deduct up to one month's rent, with matching twelve-month totals, or terminate and leave, or ask a court to cut the rent to the diminished value of the unit. A certified escrow route exists for conditions that substantially endanger health and safety, and it becomes the exclusive remedy for those conditions once chosen. Every remedy in the chapter is gated on the tenant being current in rent and agreed utilities. Retaliation within 90 days of a protected act is presumed, subject to four counter-presumptions.

Washington habitability & repairs at a glance

Where the duty comes from Statute and a court-recognized implied warranty, each doing independent work
Duty source details The statutory duty sits in RCW 59.18.060, which requires the landlord to keep the premises fit for human habitation and lists specific duties on top of that. A separate common-law implied warranty of habitability operates alongside it, recognized in Foisy v. Wyman (1973) and still doing independent work: a published Court of Appeals decision, Landis & Landis Construction, LLC v. Nation (2012), carries the holding under a heading saying the implied warranty is independent of the act, and holds that a tenant may sue on any of three theories — the act, the rental agreement, or the common law. The Washington Supreme Court said the same in 2020 in Gerlach v. The Cove Apartments, LLC, stating that it has never held the act's fit-for-human-habitation language creates a warranty, much less that it subsumes the common-law warranty, and that its cases have maintained the distinction. The statute supplies its own textual hook: the tenant's notice-and-remedy process is given in addition to remedies otherwise provided by law.
Who is covered Statewide — no coverage split
Where the repair standards live The statute itself lists specific standards
What must be kept in repair The act states a general duty to keep the premises fit for human habitation and then lists particular duties. Among them: making the repairs and arrangements necessary to put and keep the premises in as good condition as they should have been at the start of the tenancy, except where the condition is attributable to wear resulting from ordinary use of the premises; providing reasonably adequate locks and furnishing keys, and safeguarding master and duplicate keys with reasonable care; maintaining all electrical, plumbing, heating and other facilities and appliances the landlord supplies in reasonably good working order; keeping the dwelling in reasonably weathertight condition; providing and maintaining appropriate receptacles in common areas for the removal of ashes, rubbish and garbage and arranging regular removal, except at a single-family residence; providing facilities adequate to supply heat and water and hot water as reasonably required by the tenant; and designating to the tenant the name and address of the person who is the landlord. The same section carries disclosure duties about fire safety, flood risk and indoor mold, which are covered with the disclosure rules rather than here. The wear standard is a dated change: it read 'normal wear and tear' until 2023. The chapter itself does not reach nine living arrangements, including residence at an institution where residence is incidental to detention or to medical, religious, educational or similar services, occupancy under an earnest-money agreement or contract of sale, a seller's short post-closing possession on stated conditions, residence in a hotel, motel or other transient lodging, certain agricultural and state-land tenancies, and occupancy by an employee whose right to occupy depends on employment — unless the arrangement was established primarily to avoid the chapter, in which case the chapter controls. Under the common-law warranty the standard is different again: it asks whether the defects render the dwelling uninhabitable or pose an actual or potential safety hazard to occupants, and it does not cover trivial or aesthetic concerns.
Heat standard type A duty to provide working heating equipment — capability, not a temperature guarantee
Heat standard details Washington states no temperature figure and no heating season. The duty is equipment-shaped: the landlord must provide facilities adequate to supply heat and water and hot water as reasonably required by the tenant, and must maintain heating facilities the landlord supplies in reasonably good working order. What Washington does give heat is speed. A defective condition that deprives the tenant of heat, of hot or cold water, or of electricity, or that is imminently hazardous to life, puts the landlord on the shortest clock in the chapter: remedial action must commence within 24 hours of the tenant's written notice.
Headline repair day count 10 days
Notice and repair-window rules The tenant delivers written notice to the person designated as the landlord or to the person who collects the rent, specifying the premises, the owner's name if known, and the nature of the defective condition. The counts that follow are times to COMMENCE remedial action, not deadlines to finish: not more than 24 hours where the condition deprives the tenant of hot or cold water, heat or electricity, or is imminently hazardous to life; not more than 72 hours where it deprives the tenant of the use of a refrigerator, range and oven, or a major plumbing fixture the landlord supplied; and not more than 10 days in all other cases. Each yields where circumstances are beyond the landlord's control. Once started, the burden is on the landlord to see the work completed promptly, and a delay caused by circumstances beyond the landlord's control, including the unavailability of financing, obliges the landlord to remedy as soon as possible instead. The trigger is failure to carry out the statutory duties or the rental agreement, so a lease promise counts. One precondition governs everything: the tenant must be current in rent and in any utilities the tenant agreed to pay before exercising any remedy in the chapter, with two carve-outs — civil claims for negligent or intentional damage, and the defense in a possession action that no rent is due and owing.
Repair and deduct Yes — authorized by statute — Limit: Two limbs with different ceilings. Where the tenant hires the work out, the deduction may not exceed two months' rent per repair, and total deductions under that limb in any twelve-month period may not exceed two months' rent. Where the tenant does the work personally, the cost must not exceed one month's rent per repair, and total deductions under that limb in any twelve-month period may not exceed one month's rent. Those ceilings bind tenant self-help only: a court or arbitrator may separately authorize further corrective repairs with deduction and no statutory cap. — The contractor limb runs on an estimate: the tenant submits a good-faith estimate of the cost, by first-class mail or in person, which may accompany the repair notice, for work by licensed or registered persons or, where no licensing or registration requirement applies, responsible persons capable of the work. On the 10-day tier the tenant cannot contract for repairs until the later of 10 days after notice or 2 days after the landlord receives the estimate. Deduction follows completion and an opportunity for the landlord to inspect, and the amount may vary from the estimate but never past the ceiling. The self-repair limb needs no estimate, but the cost is computed at the prevailing rate in the community, the work must not be one the law reserves to licensed or registered persons, it must be done in a workmanlike manner, and it is limited to defects within the leased premises. All work must comply with any applicable code, statute, ordinance or regulation, and a landlord whose property is damaged by negligently performed repairs may recover actual damages from the tenant. A tenant who uses the remedy on locks must promptly give the landlord a key to any new or replaced lock. The remedy is not available for two of the landlord's duties: providing and maintaining common-area receptacles for ashes, rubbish and garbage, and designating the landlord's name and address. And the rent-current precondition applies here as everywhere in the chapter.
Rent withholding or escrow Only on conditions that commonly defeat it — see this page — How: a court or agency escrow program; withholding raised as a defense once the landlord sues — Washington's escrow is written as an extraordinary remedy for cases where repair and deduct is not adequate, and it is heavily conditioned. The tenant asks the local government to inspect; it must inspect and certify within a reasonable time and not more than 5 days from receiving the request, giving the landlord at least 24 hours' notice of the inspection where practicable, and the landlord has no power to prohibit entry. The certification exists for this private remedy only and is not code enforcement; it may be appealed, but an appeal does not delay the escrow. The conditions that qualify must substantially endanger or impair health and safety, and the statute lists them: structural members of insufficient size or strength to carry imposed loads safely, exposure of occupants to the weather, plumbing and sanitation defects directly exposing occupants to illness or injury, lack of water including hot water, heating or ventilation systems that are not functional or are hazardous, defective, hazardous or missing electrical wiring or service, defective or inadequate exits, and conditions that increase the risk of fire. Before depositing, the tenant must make a good-faith determination of being unable to fix the certified conditions through repair and deduct. The tenant then pays all rent then called for and all rent thereafter into an escrow account held by an escrow company, financial institution or attorney, or with the clerk of the district or superior court, and notifies the landlord by sworn statement in the statutory form within 24 hours of the deposit. Once elected, escrow is the exclusive remedy for the defects in the certification, except that the tenant may simultaneously pursue an action for past, present or future diminution in rental value. The landlord may not bring a possession action for nonpayment so long as the full contract rent goes into escrow on or before the rent due date or before a three-day pay-or-vacate notice expires and keeps going in; paying less than the agreed rent into escrow forfeits that shield. If the tenant has vacated or the landlord has not filed within 60 days of the deposit, the tenant may file to have the funds released, and trial is held within 60 days of filing. The court may release part of the deposit to the landlord for debt service, insurance premiums, utility services and repairs, and may ask for additional security such as a bond first. Escrow costs and fees are reimbursable to a tenant who complied with the notice rules, and the prevailing party may be awarded costs and reasonable attorney fees. Two other paths reduce rent without a statute-authorized deposit: once a court or arbitrator sets a diminished rental value, the tenant is not obliged to pay above that value until the defect is corrected or the court says otherwise; and breach of the common-law warranty is a defense in a possession action going to whether rent is due and owing at all.
Termination over habitability failures Yes — a statute states the right — After written notice and the expiry of the applicable time to commence, if the landlord fails to remedy the defective condition within a reasonable time, the tenant may terminate the rental agreement and quit on written notice without further obligation, is discharged from rent for any period after the quitting date, is entitled to a pro rata refund of prepaid rent, and must receive a full and specific statement of the basis for retaining any deposit along with any refund due. The clock is two-step: the statutory period must run out and a reasonable time to remedy must also pass, so '10 days and you may leave' is wrong. A court or arbitrator may also authorize termination where a defective condition is so substantial that it is unfeasible for the landlord to remedy it within the statutory time and the tenant should not remain in the unit, in which case the court sets a reasonable time to vacate. Under the common-law warranty a further route exists that the statute does not supply: where a defect is patent at move-in, a tenant who moves out immediately without giving the landlord a chance to address it does not lose the claim, and rescission of the rental agreement is available.
Essential-service remedies Yes — distinct statutory remedies for essential-service failures — Essential failures get faster clocks rather than a distinct remedy. A condition depriving the tenant of hot or cold water, heat or electricity, or one imminently hazardous to life, requires the landlord to commence remedial action within 24 hours of notice; loss of a refrigerator, range and oven, or a major plumbing fixture the landlord supplied requires commencement within 72 hours. Lack of water including hot water, and heating or ventilation systems that are not functional or are hazardous, are also on the list of conditions that can qualify for certified escrow. Washington provides no substitute-housing or temporary-lodging remedy of the kind some states give: no provision of the chapter requires a landlord to house a tenant elsewhere or reimburse hotel costs while repairs run. The nearest thing is relocation assistance after a condemnation, and it applies only there. Deliberate landlord interruption of utilities is covered with the eviction rules.
Retaliation protection Protected by a general retaliation statute — A landlord who initiates eviction, a rent increase, a reduction of services, or an increase in the tenant's obligations within 90 days after the tenant's good-faith and lawful protected act — or within 90 days after any government inspection or proceeding resulting from that act — faces a rebuttable presumption affecting the burden of proof that the action is a reprisal. The second trigger matters: the window can restart on an inspection the tenant did not schedule. — Protection runs only so long as the tenant is in compliance with the chapter, and retaliatory action means the listed acts when intended primarily to retaliate. Four counter-presumptions cut the other way: if the tenant is in arrears in rent or in breach of another lease obligation when the landlord gives a termination notice, there is a rebuttable presumption that the action is not retaliatory; if the tenant complained to a governmental authority within 90 days after notice of a proposed rent increase or other good-faith landlord action, the complaint is presumed not made in good faith; no presumption arises at all on a rent increase where the landlord's notice specifies reasonable grounds, which may include a substantial increase in market value from remedial work; and the eviction presumption may be rebutted by evidence that it is not practical to make necessary repairs while the tenant remains in occupancy. A tenant who prevails on the claim or defense recovers costs of suit or arbitration including a reasonable attorney fee, and so does a landlord who prevails, except that neither party may recover fees to the extent their legal services were provided at no cost. — Good-faith and lawful complaints or reports to a governmental authority about the landlord's failure to substantially comply with any code, statute, ordinance or regulation governing the maintenance or operation of the premises, where the condition may endanger or impair the tenant's health or safety; and good-faith and lawful assertion or enforcement of the tenant's rights and remedies under the chapter. A separate provision also bars reprisals against a tenant who consents to a code enforcement official's inspection of the unit for unsafe conditions or building-regulation violations.
Damages, penalties, and defenses The central money remedy is the diminished-value judgment: where a court or arbitrator finds the landlord failed to carry out a statutory duty and a reasonable time to remedy has passed after notice, it may determine the diminution in rental value and must enter judgment against the landlord for rent paid in excess of that diminished value from the time of notice to the time of decision, plus any repair costs not already deducted. That judgment is enforceable like any other and is available to the tenant as a setoff against existing or later landlord claims, and going forward the tenant owes no rent above the diminished value until the defect is corrected or the court says otherwise. The court may also authorize further corrective repairs and deduction, giving the landlord a specified window to act first, and those repairs are not bound by the self-help ceilings. Elsewhere in the chapter: knowing use of a prohibited lease clause costs actual damages, statutory damages up to twice the monthly rent, costs and fees; and renting a dwelling a government agency has told the landlord is condemned or unlawful to occupy costs the greater of three months' periodic rent or up to treble actual damages, plus costs and fees, with the full deposit and prepaid rent returned, relocation assistance of the greater of $2,000 per unit or three times the monthly rent paid within seven days of the agency's notice, and a bar on evicting, harassing, reducing services or raising rent while the process runs. The landlord's defenses: the tenant must be current in rent and agreed utilities before using any remedy in the chapter; the commence deadlines yield where circumstances are beyond the landlord's control, and completion delays are excused on the same basis, including unavailability of financing; a tenant's negligent repair work is actionable against the tenant; and the act's duties run to tenants, so a tenant's guest injured by a defect must sue at common law rather than under the act.
Can the duty be waived or shifted Waivable in part, with a stated floor or subject-matter limit
Waiver and delegation rules The starting rule is that waiver fails: any lease provision waiving a section or subsection of the chapter is against public policy and unenforceable, and a rental agreement may not have the tenant give up rights or remedies under the chapter, waive participation in a class action, agree to exculpate or indemnify the landlord for liability arising under law, confess judgment, or pay the landlord's attorney fees outside what the chapter allows. A landlord who knowingly uses a prohibited provision owes actual damages, statutory damages of up to twice the monthly rent, costs of suit and reasonable attorney fees. One supervised door exists, and it is narrow in procedure but wide in subject: landlord and tenant may agree in writing to exempt themselves from the maintenance duty, from repair and deduct, from the diminished-value remedy, from court-ordered termination, from the tenant-duty section and from the notice-of-tenant-failure section, but only if the agreement does not appear in a standard form lease, there is no substantial inequality in the parties' bargaining position, the exemption does not violate the state's public policy in favor of ensuring safe and sanitary housing, and the local county prosecutor's office, the consumer protection division of the Attorney General's office, or the tenant's own attorney has approved the application in writing. Separately, nothing stops a tenant from agreeing to do repairs in return for a cash payment or a reasonable rent reduction, but the statute says such an agreement does not alter the landlord's obligations under the chapter — so a private repair deal is not a waiver.
Leading court decisions Foisy v. Wyman, 83 Wn.2d 22, 515 P.2d 160 (1973) — Held that in all contracts for the renting of premises, oral or written, there is an implied warranty of habitability, and that breach of the warranty is a defense in an unlawful detainer action because it goes directly to whether rent is due and owing. The tenant's promise to pay rent is exchanged for the landlord's promise to provide a livable dwelling. A tenant who knew of the defects and took a reduced rent does not lose the warranty: bargaining of that kind is contrary to public policy, and a disadvantaged tenant should not be put in the position of agreeing to live in uninhabitable premises. Housing code violations do not by themselves establish a prima facie case that premises are uninhabitable, but they are evidence that helps establish it. • Landis & Landis Construction, LLC v. Nation, 171 Wn. App. 157, 286 P.3d 979 (2012) — Held that the Residential Landlord-Tenant Act did not supersede common-law remedies and that the implied warranty of habitability recognized in Foisy remains available as a basis for legal action independent of the act, so a tenant may sue on the act, the rental agreement, or the common law. Where a defect is patent at move-in, a tenant who moves out immediately without giving the landlord a chance to address it does not lose the claim, and rescission of the rental agreement is available. The governing standard asks whether the condition creates an actual or potential safety hazard or a substantial risk of future danger, and the warranty does not cover trivial or aesthetic concerns.
Local rules Local law adds to the state scheme. The condemnation and relocation-assistance section carries a construction note saying the powers it confers are supplemental and that nothing in it preempts a local ordinance requiring relocation assistance to tenants displaced by a landlord's failure to remedy building or health code violations, so city relocation ordinances stand alongside the state figures. The act also contemplates local rental-housing inspection programs and sets the terms for them: a search warrant for such an inspection issues only on probable cause supported by an affidavit stating that consent was sought from both owner and tenant and was refused or unanswered within five days, and a landlord may not retaliate against a tenant who consents to a code enforcement inspection. The codes a tenant reports violations of are largely municipal, so the city or county code where the property sits belongs beside the state rules on this page.

Cite this page: "Landlord Atlas, Washington Habitability & Repair Laws (verified August 29, 2026), landlordatlas.com/laws/habitability/washington/" — free to cite and quote with a link (how these records are verified). Everything above is cited in the citations section below.

Notes and caveats

Common questions: Washington habitability & repairs

Each answer is the verified value from the table above, restated as a direct answer. Free to quote with a link to this page.

Does Washington have an implied warranty of habitability?
Statute and a court-recognized implied warranty, each doing independent work. The statutory duty sits in RCW 59.18.060, which requires the landlord to keep the premises fit for human habitation and lists specific duties on top of that. A separate common-law implied warranty of habitability operates alongside it, recognized in Foisy v. Wyman (1973) and still doing independent work: a published Court of Appeals decision, Landis & Landis Construction, LLC v. Nation (2012), carries the holding under a heading saying the implied warranty is independent of the act, and holds that a tenant may sue on any of three theories — the act, the rental agreement, or the common law.
How long does a landlord have to make repairs in Washington?
10 days. The tenant delivers written notice to the person designated as the landlord or to the person who collects the rent, specifying the premises, the owner's name if known, and the nature of the defective condition. The counts that follow are times to COMMENCE remedial action, not deadlines to finish: not more than 24 hours where the condition deprives the tenant of hot or cold water, heat or electricity, or is imminently hazardous to life; not more than 72 hours where it deprives the tenant of the use of a refrigerator, range and oven, or a major plumbing fixture the landlord supplied; and not more than 10 days in all other cases.
Can a tenant repair and deduct in Washington?
Yes — authorized by statute — Limit: Two limbs with different ceilings. Where the tenant hires the work out, the deduction may not exceed two months' rent per repair, and total deductions under that limb in any twelve-month period may not exceed two months' rent.
Can a tenant withhold rent for repair problems in Washington?
Only on conditions that commonly defeat it — see this page — How: a court or agency escrow program; withholding raised as a defense once the landlord sues — Washington's escrow is written as an extraordinary remedy for cases where repair and deduct is not adequate, and it is heavily conditioned. The tenant asks the local government to inspect; it must inspect and certify within a reasonable time and not more than 5 days from receiving the request, giving the landlord at least 24 hours' notice of the inspection where practicable, and the landlord has no power to prohibit entry.
Can a landlord retaliate against a tenant who complains about repairs in Washington?
Protected by a general retaliation statute — A landlord who initiates eviction, a rent increase, a reduction of services, or an increase in the tenant's obligations within 90 days after the tenant's good-faith and lawful protected act — or within 90 days after any government inspection or proceeding resulting from that act — faces a rebuttable presumption affecting the burden of proof that the action is a reprisal. The second trigger matters: the window can restart on an inspection the tenant did not schedule. — Protection runs only so long as the tenant is in compliance with the chapter, and retaliatory action means the listed acts when intended primarily to retaliate.
Can a lease make the tenant responsible for repairs in Washington?
Waivable in part, with a stated floor or subject-matter limit. The starting rule is that waiver fails: any lease provision waiving a section or subsection of the chapter is against public policy and unenforceable, and a rental agreement may not have the tenant give up rights or remedies under the chapter, waive participation in a class action, agree to exculpate or indemnify the landlord for liability arising under law, confess judgment, or pay the landlord's attorney fees outside what the chapter allows. A landlord who knowingly uses a prohibited provision owes actual damages, statutory damages of up to twice the monthly rent, costs of suit and reasonable attorney fees.

Citations

How this record was verified: Direct reading of chapter 59.18 RCW, the Residential Landlord-Tenant Act, on the Legislature's official code site: sections 59.18.040, .060, .070, .080, .085, .090, .100, .110, .115, .120, .150, .230, .240, .250, .360, .740 and .750 read in full with their history lines and the Code Reviser's notes, plus the whole-chapter listing read for the surrounding sections; the enacted text of the 1973 Residential Landlord-Tenant Act and of the 1989, 2010, 2011, 2013, 2023 and 2026 acts amending these sections, read in the Legislature's own session-law volumes with their bill numbers taken from the chapter headers; and the full opinions in Foisy v. Wyman, 83 Wn.2d 22 (1973), and Landis & Landis Construction, LLC v. Nation, 171 Wn. App. 157 (2012), with citations confirmed against the courts' own filing dates.