If you rent an apartment in Seattle, you may be paying monthly fees for pets, mail delivery, even using the gym that never appeared in the listing price. Mayor Katie Wilson wants to end that.

Wilson's office transmitted legislation to the Seattle City Council the week of July 7 that would ban a specific list of rental fees and require landlords to disclose all costs before a lease is signed. The bill would affect renters citywide, including those in Queen Anne, Magnolia, and Ballard apartments where District 7 Council Member Bob Kettle and District 6 Council Member Dan Strauss represent tenants on housing policy.

The proposal works as a whitelist. It names the fees landlords can charge. Everything else is banned.

Still allowed: security deposits, utility surcharges, late rent payments, key replacement, bounced checks, and parking.

Banned: pet rent, mail fees, in-unit appliance charges, fees for paying by check or money order, and fees for using common areas.

Seattle already caps some move-in costs. Security and pet deposits are capped, and screening and cleaning fees cannot exceed 10% of one month's rent. The new bill goes further by eliminating entire fee categories rather than capping amounts.

Wilson pointed to Washington's 2025 rent cap law, House Bill 1217, which limits annual rent increases to the lower of 7% plus inflation or 10%. She argued the state law could push landlords to seek revenue through add-on fees outside of standard rent.

"When you go to rent an apartment and you see the sticker price of your monthly rent, and then you sign your lease and you find that in the fine print there are all kinds of obscure fees that you're also on the hook for, that's not a good feeling," Wilson said.

The mayor acknowledged some landlords will fold banned fees into base rent. She called that outcome preferable because renters would at least see the full cost before signing.

Nationally, apartment industry giant Greystar agreed in December 2025 to pay $24 million to resolve allegations that its advertised rents were misleading. San Diego is considering its own fee cap.

Kate Rubin of Be:Seattle, a renter advocacy group, said renters need upfront clarity on total costs. "Renters really need to know up front how much we're paying out of pocket before we get in over our heads," Rubin said. She also serves on the Seattle Renters' Commission.

Angie Gerrald, a north Seattle landlord who co-founded Seattle Grassroots Landlords, pushed back. She participated in the mayor's stakeholder process earlier in 2026 but questioned how much weight her input carried. Gerrald called the proposal another layer of regulatory complexity, saying it "sends the message that Seattle is getting futzy and complicated" for rental operators.

The bill now sits with the Seattle City Council. The Housing, Arts, & Civil Rights committee handles housing legislation. No committee hearing date has been publicly scheduled.

Neither Kettle nor Strauss has publicly commented on the proposal. Renters who want to track the bill can monitor the council's committee agendas at seattle.gov/council.