H-3934.1

HOUSE BILL 2872

ByRepresentatives Kraft, Orcutt, Harris, Jenkin, and Pollet

AN ACT Relating to providing mobile home landlords the option to provide affordable rent for tenants; adding a new section to chapter 84.36 RCW; creating new sections; and providing an expiration date.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

(2) The legislature categorizes this tax preference as one intended to provide tax relief for certain individuals as indicated in RCW 82.32.808(2)(e).

(3) It is the legislature's specific public policy objective to provide partial property tax relief to mobile home park landlords in exchange for maintaining affordable rents at their mobile home parks. It is the legislature's intent to provide a temporary partial property tax exemption to mobile home park landlords who do not raise rents beyond the cost of inflation.

(4) If a review finds that the exemption provided in section 2, chapter . . ., Laws of 2020 (section 2 of this act) allows more mobile home tenants to remain in their homes or stabilizes rents in mobile homes in the state, then the legislature intends to extend the expiration date of the tax preference. In the review of this exemption, the joint legislative audit and review committee should use at least the following metrics: The number of landlords who used the exemption, the number of tenants who moved out of mobile home parks over time, the annual increase in rents in mobile home parks over time, and any other metrics deemed useful by the legislative auditor.

(5) In order to obtain the data necessary to perform the review in subsection (4) of this section, the joint legislative audit and review committee may refer to department of revenue exemption data.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 2. A new section is added to chapter 84.36 RCW to read as follows:

(1) A landlord is exempt from any legal obligation to pay a portion of the regular real property taxes due and payable in the year following the year in which a claim is filed in accordance with the following:

(a) A claim for the exemption under this section may be made and filed at any time during the calendar year prior to the collection year for which the exemption will apply. A claim may be filed solely upon forms as prescribed and furnished by the department. An exemption under this section is valid only for the collection year following each application.

(b) A landlord claiming this exemption is exempt from all regular property taxes on twenty percent of the valuation of an eligible property. A landlord claiming this exemption must:

(i) Submit proof to the department that rent, on both a per unit and a property-wide basis, within the eligible property did not increase by an amount greater than inflation in the year in which the claim is filed compared to the previous year;

(ii) Report comprehensive rent data to the department as required by the department;

(iii) Report data on the tenant turnover rate within the landlord's property; and

(iv) Submit any other application material as required by the department.

(2) The definitions in this subsection apply throughout this section unless the context clearly requires otherwise.

(a) "Eligible property" means a mobile home park, manufactured housing community, or manufactured/mobile home community as defined in RCW 59.20.030 in which rent, on both a per unit and a property-wide basis, within the eligible property did not increase by an amount greater than inflation in the year in which an exemption claim is filed compared to the previous year.

(b) "Inflation" means the annual percentage increase in the consumer price index for all urban consumers (CPI-U) in the western region for all items as provided for the most recent twelve-month period by the United States bureau of labor statistics.

(c) "Landlord" has the same meaning as defined in RCW 59.20.030.

(3) This section expires June 30, 2022.

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