Month-to-Month Lease Laws in Washington

Month-to-month leases in Washington are generally easy to enter into—and easy to get out of—with 20 days’ notice. Recent changes in state law give more protection to tenants, requiring landlords to give notice as long as 120 days in some cases.¹ While most month-to-month leases in the state can be ended for any reason, Seattle requires "just cause" to end a lease.

In this article

Establishing a month-to-month lease
Ending the lease
Modifying the lease

Establishing a month-to-month lease in Washington

Unlike fixed-term leases which are written agreements with a stated end date, month-to-month leases can be oral or written agreements that renew automatically at the end of each rent payment period. Month-to-month tenancies can be established in Washington in three ways:

• The tenant and landlord sign a written lease specifically creating a month-to-month tenancy.
• The tenant and landlord make an oral agreement for a month-to-month tenancy.
• The tenant continues paying rent after a fixed-term lease expires—and the landlord accepts the payments—creating a month-to-month tenancy.

Ending a month-to-month lease in Washington

In most cases, either party in a month-to-month lease in Washington must give notice to end the agreement at least 20 days before the last day of the rental payment period. The notice must be in writing and include the lease end date. Tenants who don’t move out by the stated end date can be evicted.

Some cities in Washington, such as Vancouver, Bellingham, and Tacoma, require 60-day notice from the landlord to end a tenancy without cause.

Tenants who don't give proper notice before moving out must pay rent for either the following month or for 30 days from the date the landlord discovered they moved, whichever comes first.³ Since Washington landlords are required to try and re-rent a unit as soon as they know it’s empty, tenants may only end up paying rent for the days the unit was empty.

Month-to-month leases can be ended for any reason, except in Seattle

In most parts of Washington, landlords can ask a month-to-month tenant to move out for any reason with the proper notice as long as they are not discriminating or retaliating against the tenant. This is not an eviction, just a termination of the lease.

Seattle, however, requires just cause to end a tenancy.⁴ The city’s Just Cause Eviction Ordinance provides 18 reasons a landlord can legally end a month-to-month lease. These reasons include:

• The tenant always pays rent late
• The owner wants to move into the unit
• The tenant creates a nuisance on the property

Changing a month-to-month lease in Washington

An increase in rent requires 60 days’ notice

To raise the rent in a month-to-month tenancy, Washington landlords must give tenants 60 days’ written notice.⁵ For certain subsidized rental units, landlords must only give 30 days written notice. As long as they give proper notice, there is no cap on how much landlords can raise rent.

A change in other rental terms requires 30 days’ notice

Landlords must give tenants at least 30 days written notice to change any other terms of a month-to-month tenancy besides a rent increase.⁶ Any changes are effective on a day that rent is due. So if a landlord wants to add a no-smoking rule to the lease agreement and gives notice on July 20th, the new term would be enforced beginning September 1st.

Longer notice required for major policy changes

Landlords are required to give month-to-month tenants at least 90 days’ notice if they make a policy excluding children from the rental unit.⁷ They must give at least 120 days’ notice if they plan to make any major changes to the rental property, including demolishing the building or converting it to condos.

Related articles

[1] RCW 59.18.200

[2] RCW 59.18.260

[3] RCW 59.18.310

[4] SMC 22.206.160(C)

[5] RCW 59.18.140(3)

[6] RCW 59.18.140(2)

[7] RCW 59.18.200(2)(a)