It's not a "ban"; from what's described it's a disclosure requirement. It has always been required to have these in the rental agreements - but you have to publicize them so people see them before they pay an application fee.

It's not that onerous of legislation, but it also feels a bit gimmicky. I have never once had a problem getting the information when asked. And places that provide free utilities or pets already advertise themselves heavily as such - this would really only benefit extreme novices in the market

Maybe you haven't rented in a while from a management company.

There are any number of stupid trends nowadays.

apartment account/login required to do almost anything, including autopay. electronic phone/garage keys with almost trivial consent of access to your apartment. apartment internet required. third party apps with account/phone/video+photos requirement to access package room, etc.

The electronic keying is probably annoying but it's got to be an order of magnitude better than having master keys and locks.

At least when it's electronic it's logged and auditable somewhere. The amount of bad outcomes from keys floating around out there is absurd.

> third party apps with account/phone/video+photos requirement to access package room

And despite that, packages will still be stolen regularly.

Having been an extreme novice once, I can appreciate these laws. But as always you’ll probably get your experience the hard way.

You can't compare if you don't know the cost, if you can't compare it is hard for the invisible hand to price the market.

Price transparency makes more efficient markets.

Seattle should do restaurants next, the number of places with %fees tacked on that aren't tips and aren't optional, just so they don't end up having $20+ entrees on the menu is growing steadily.

I liked reading "the rational optimist" by matt ridley

One point I remember is that with trust, trade is infinite.

This completely follows in my life.

I trust costco, and I buy stuff there without doing any calculus.

I don't trust apps on the apple store, I basically don't buy any of them (even/especially the free ones). Even the phone itself has about 10,000 pages of privacy policy.

GOG sells games without DRM that you can download and played offline, forever. I don't worry about buying any game.

This issue exists everywhere in the USA.

Go check the price for a movie ticket. At the end they slap on an additional fee. Why can't they show the fee included in the main price?

I went to the Verde Canyon Railroad, when gas prices were really low. Still a fee for higher gas prices on the receipt...

It's amazing how people neglect this basic fact. Free markets already often don't work in practice. But they don't even work in theory if both parties do not have at the very least the same information in order to base their decisions. These sort of scam tactics (like dynamic pricing) are simply fraud, much like hiding problems in a car or a house you sell.

Seattle's push to add additional regulation, compliance, fees and inspections has resulted in an exodus of small landlords, which are down anywhere from 19% to 22% in four years depending on how you slice it, and an explosion in large landlords which are up 77% in the same period.

The city has basically consolidated the rental market so it works best for large corporations. Was that the intent?

Small landlords don't own apartment buildings. They buy houses/units to rent, lowering availability for buyers. So, you'd at least want to look at the number of new apartment rentals available plus the number of first time house buyers to get a better picture.

Small landlords also rent out basement suites and carriage homes on their own property, no? Those may very well sit empty if the return isn’t worth the risk.

Editing to just add: I absolutely support transparent pricing for rental properties.

Mine did, in North Hollywood, owned a 2 story building, I think 8 units with varying floor plans. Does that qualify as an apartment building? He did all the work himself unless it was something like HVAC or required permitting. He was an IT dude who got laid off by Century Link and diversified. Didn't seem to enjoy the maintenance part though, but was perfectly capable.

And market-rate rental complexes replace condos. I can see legitimate reasons for subsidized rental complexes, and there is always some need for market-rate units, but I don't see any justification for dedicated market-rate complexes. People who can afford paying the market rate should be able to buy if they stay in the area long enough, but American cities have a shortage of smaller units you can buy. For some reason, maybe due to regulatory and market failures, developers prefer rental complexes over condos.

They don't own the buildings, but it's frequently part of a condo association and they own a unit or two.

Yes, this is the same as buying a unit and renting as in my original post.

> lowering availability for buyers

This makes an unsubstantiated assumption that everyone would rather buy and can afford to, ignoring that people have reasons to rent.