Draft your Washington State HB 1217 pre-service worksheet Pick the Calendar Year, the property type (residential vs manufactured/mobile-home park), enter the current rent and tenancy start date, and get the HB 1217 capped maximum, the 90-day Department of Commerce notice window, the categorical first-12-months protection check, the rolling 12-year certificate-of-occupancy exemption check, and the RCW 59.18.730 overcharge exposure pre-computed before you complete the statutory notice form.

Free preview — no sign-up, no card. Submitting opens a worksheet with the Calendar Year you elected, the cap rate that applies to your property type, the math you'd put on the Department of Commerce statutory notice form, and flags if the 90-day window is too tight, if the tenancy is in its first 12 months, or if the building's first certificate of occupancy is under 12 years old. Nothing about your tenant, unit, or rent is stored on the server until you explicitly purchase the $9 archived worksheet + compliance-log entry.

Washington requires a Department of Commerce-prescribed notice form. Under RCW 59.18.140 (residential) and RCW 59.20.090 (manufactured/mobile-home parks), the rent-increase notice you serve must use the form prescribed by the Washington State Department of Commerce, delivered at least 90 calendar days before the effective date, and served in the manner of RCW 59.12.040 (personal delivery, post-and-mail, or substituted service). Non-conforming notices are void — using a generic template instead of the Commerce form means the increase doesn't take effect and the landlord faces RCW 59.18.730 penalties. This worksheet computes the cap math; you still need to fetch and complete the current Commerce form (see commerce.wa.gov/housing-policy/hb1217-landlord-resource-center). Two protection layers also matter: the categorical first-12-months protection (no rent increase whatsoever in the first 12 months of any tenancy under RCW 59.18.700) and the rolling 12-year certificate-of-occupancy exemption (the building's first certificate of occupancy must be 12+ years old on the proposed effective date).

Step 1 — Parties and premises

Your name or LLC (housing provider) Appears on the worksheet as the serving housing provider.

Provider mailing address For tenant responses; goes on the worksheet header.

Tenant name(s) List all named tenants on the lease (comma-separated).

Rental unit address Full street address with unit number.

Step 2 — Property type, Calendar Year, and exemption checks

Property type Residential picks up the calendar-year CPI+7% rate (9.683% in 2026); manufactured/mobile-home park uses the flat 5% statutory rate regardless of CPI.

Calendar Year (picked by effective date, residential only) Calendar Year resets January 1. Department of Commerce publishes the next year's figure each July. Manufactured/mobile-home picks ignore this — the 5% rate is constant.

Certificate of occupancy age Rolling 12-year new-construction exemption under RCW 59.18.700.

Tenancy age on effective date RCW 59.18.700 categorically bars any rent increase in the first 12 months of any tenancy.

Step 3 — Adjustment computation

Current monthly rent ($) Use the rent in effect right now under the existing lease.

New monthly rent you propose ($) Default = current rent × the calendar-year cap (or 5% for manufactured).

Effective date of increase At least 90 days after service under RCW 59.18.140.

Planned service date (optional) When you intend to serve the Commerce notice form. Worksheet flags too-early. Blank = today.

On submit, this form opens a new tab at /notice/washington/preview.html with your inputs as URL parameters. The worksheet renders the HB 1217 cap computation, the 90-day Department of Commerce notice-form math, the categorical first-12-months protection callout if applicable, the rolling 12-year certificate-of-occupancy exemption callout if applicable, the manufactured/mobile-home 5% switch if applicable, the once-per-12-months next-eligible date, and the RCW 59.18.730 overcharge exposure. Use your browser's Print → “Save as PDF” to capture the free preview (orange “draft” banner is hidden in print). The paid $9 flow archives the worksheet to your unit's compliance log keyed to your account.

What you'll get

The worksheet documents which Calendar Year applied, what was computed, and what protection or exemption layers were flagged.

Calendar Year picker. CY 2026 (Department of Commerce-published 9.683% residential cap) or CY 2027 (pending — defaults to the 10.0% statutory hard ceiling until Commerce publishes in July 2026). The worksheet stamps the elected Calendar Year and the controlling RCW section.
Property-type switch. Residential picks up the calendar-year CPI+7% rate (9.683% in 2026, ceiling 10%); manufactured/mobile-home park uses the flat 5% statutory rate under RCW 59.20.120 regardless of CPI.
First-12-months categorical protection. If you flag the tenancy as under 12 months old on the effective date, the worksheet stamps a red callout: under RCW 59.18.700, NO rent increase is permitted in the first 12 months of any tenancy, regardless of any other coverage analysis.
Rolling 12-year certificate-of-occupancy exemption callout. If you flag the building as newer than 12 years on the effective date, the worksheet stamps a yellow callout: HB 1217 does not cover the unit until the first certificate of occupancy reaches 12 years old (rolling exemption).
90-day Department of Commerce notice window. The worksheet computes the earliest lawful effective date from the planned service date (service + 90 calendar days) and flags TOO EARLY vs OK. The 90-day rule applies regardless of lease type (month-to-month or fixed-term).
12-month next-eligible date. The worksheet shows the earliest date you can serve a NEXT rent increase on this unit. HB 1217 bars more than one increase in any rolling 12-month period, measured from the effective date of the most recent prior increase.
RCW 59.18.730 overcharge exposure. If your proposed new rent exceeds the cap, the worksheet flags the excess in red and prints the civil-remedy exposure: excess rent + up to 3 months' unlawful rent + reasonable attorney fees + civil penalties up to $7,500 per violation, plus the overcharge as a defense in unlawful-detainer (eviction) proceedings.
Versioned audit token. Every preview prints an audit token deterministic for the same inputs against the same rule version — proves which Calendar Year was elected and which rule was in effect when the rent was set, in the event of a tenant suit under RCW 59.18.730 or an Attorney General parens patriae inquiry.

Before you serve the HB 1217 notice

Five Washington-specific gotchas the worksheet won't catch.

You must use the Department of Commerce-prescribed notice form — this worksheet is NOT that form. Under RCW 59.18.140, the notice you serve must be on the form prescribed by the Department of Commerce, with all the statutory disclosures (tenant rights information, reference to the calendar-year published percentage, claim-of-exemption citation if applicable). Non-conforming notices are void. Fetch the current form from commerce.wa.gov/housing-policy/hb1217-landlord-resource-center before serving. The worksheet is for in-house cap-math verification, not a substitute for the form itself.
Service must be per RCW 59.12.040. Personal delivery is the gold standard. Post-and-mail (post a copy on the unit door AND mail a copy first-class) is acceptable if personal delivery isn't practical. Substituted service (leaving with someone of suitable age and discretion at the unit) requires a good-faith showing that personal delivery wasn't possible. Email is not statutory service unless the tenant has affirmatively agreed in writing to accept it under RCW 59.18.064.
Calendar Year of effective date controls, not notice date. A notice served in November 2026 with a March 2027 effective date uses the CY 2027 cap (pending, assume 10.0% ceiling), NOT the CY 2026 9.683%. The regime picker keys off the effective date for this reason. Computing at 9.683% when the Calendar Year's actual published cap is lower leaves you exposed to overcharge claims; recompute with the published figure after July 2026.
City-level overlays. Seattle's Just Cause Eviction Ordinance and rent-increase notice rules add notice content and timing requirements on top of HB 1217; Tukwila's Renters' Bill of Rights does the same. The stricter of state and city governs. The worksheet does not apply Seattle Just Cause notice content, the Tukwila notice duration overlays, or other city-specific layers. Check your city's housing-services page before serving.
LIHTC and nonprofit-affordable claims need documentation. Claiming exemption under the LIHTC or nonprofit-affordable carve-outs requires the underlying regulatory agreement to actually be in force at the time of the notice. A tenant or the AG can demand the regulatory agreement; if you can't produce it, the claim of exemption fails and the cap applies. The worksheet does not validate your regulatory agreement — it just lets you tag the unit as exempt from the cap-math perspective.