Does a bed bug complaint have to be in writing in Washington?

To start the statutory clock, yes. RCW 59.18.070 provides that a tenant may deliver written notice of a defective condition, and the landlord must then commence remedial action within the applicable period. A phone call may well get the problem fixed, and often does, but it does not start the ten-day period and it leaves nothing to point at afterwards. Write it down even when the phone call goes well — a short confirming email after a good conversation costs nothing and puts the date on the record.

What has to be in the notice?

RCW 59.18.070 requires the notice to specify the premises involved, the name of the owner if known, and the nature of the defective condition, and to be delivered to the person designated as the landlord in the rental agreement or to the person who collects the rent. Everything beyond those three elements is practical rather than statutory — a date, a description of what you actually found, photographs, and a request for a written response are what turn a compliant notice into a useful one.

How long does the landlord have to respond?

Not more than ten days for a bed bug report. RCW 59.18.070 sets three tiers — twenty-four hours where the condition deprives the tenant of hot or cold water, heat or electricity or is imminently hazardous to life; seventy-two hours for a refrigerator, range and oven, or a major plumbing fixture; and ten days in all other cases. The landlord must commence remedial action as soon as possible within that period, and the statute puts the burden on the landlord to see that the work is completed promptly.

Is an email good enough, or does it have to be a letter?

Email is written notice, it timestamps itself, and it produces a copy on both sides without a trip to the post office, which is why most tenants use it. Send it to the address the rental agreement designates for notices as well as to whoever you normally deal with. If your lease specifies a method for notices, follow that method too rather than instead — sending the same letter by both email and mail costs one stamp and removes an argument.

What should I photograph before I send it?

Live insects, dark ink-like fecal staining, shed skins and eggs, each in place rather than collected in a tissue, with something in frame that fixes the date. Photograph the mattress seams and tag, the box spring underside, the bed frame joints, the headboard where it meets the wall, and any furniture within a few feet of the bed. Do not clean or vacuum first. Evidence that has been tidied away is difficult to describe and impossible to date.

Should I say I think it might be bed bugs?

Describe what you found rather than what you concluded. "I think we might have bed bugs" is a suspicion and invites a reply asking you to confirm. "Live insects and dark staining along the mattress seam and on the underside of the box spring in the second bedroom, first observed on 20 August, photographs attached" is a defective condition described in the terms RCW 59.18.070 asks for. If a professional has since confirmed it, say so and attach the report.

Can my landlord retaliate for putting it in writing?

RCW 59.18.240 prohibits a landlord from taking or threatening reprisals or retaliatory action against a tenant, so long as the tenant is in compliance with the chapter, because of good faith complaints to a governmental authority about the landlord's failure to comply with a code governing the premises, or because of the tenant's good faith assertion of rights and remedies under the chapter. The section names eviction, rent increases, reduction of services and increasing the tenant's obligations as examples. Keep dated copies of everything, and take advice promptly if you think it is happening.

Do I have to let the exterminator in?

Yes, and it matters more than most tenants realise. RCW 59.18.150 says the tenant shall not unreasonably withhold consent to entry for inspection or necessary repairs, and requires the landlord to give at least two days' written notice stating the date and time or a specified window. The closing paragraph of RCW 59.18.060 goes further — no duty devolves on the landlord, and no defence or remedy is available to the tenant, where a tenant unreasonably fails to allow access for purposes of repair. Refusing entry can cost you the protection you wrote the letter to invoke.

Bed Bug Letter to a Landlord | Washington Bed Bug Solutions

The single most consequential thing a Washington tenant does about bed bugs is decide whether to call or to write. Calling is faster and feels less confrontational. It also leaves no record of the date, no record of what was said, and — under RCW 59.18.070 — does not start the period the landlord has to act within.

Write. It takes fifteen minutes and it is the document every later conversation refers back to.

What the statute requires, and what it does not

RCW 59.18.070 provides that where the landlord fails to carry out a duty under RCW 59.18.060 or the rental agreement, the tenant may deliver written notice to the person designated as the landlord in the rental agreement, or to the person who collects the rent, and that the notice “shall specify the premises involved, the name of the owner, if known, and the nature of the defective condition.”

Three required elements. That is the whole of the statutory content test:

the premises involved
the name of the owner, if known
the nature of the defective condition

Notice what is not required. There is no prescribed form, no requirement for certified mail, no magic words, and nothing that says a tenant has to identify the insect correctly or produce a professional report first. Everything else in this guide is about making the notice useful, not about making it valid.

The clock the notice starts

The word in the statute is "commence". Booking a professional inspection inside ten days starts the clock properly; a text message saying someone will look at it in a fortnight does not.

Before you write it: forty minutes of documentation

The letter is worth more with evidence attached, and the evidence has to be gathered before anything is cleaned.

Photograph in place. Live insects, dark ink-like fecal staining, translucent shed skins, and eggs — each where you found it. Get the mattress seams and the tag, the underside of the box spring, the joints of the bed frame, the headboard where it meets the wall, and the seams of any upholstered furniture within a few feet of where you sleep. The staining guide covers what is worth a photograph and what is a laundry mark.

Date the images. Have a dated newspaper, a phone screen showing the date, or a hand-written slip in frame. Device metadata is fine until somebody questions it.

Keep one specimen if you can. Clear tape on a white index card, or a small sealed bag. It survives a treatment and settles an identification argument later. The look-alike guide covers the insects that get mistaken for them in the Pacific Northwest — carpet beetle larvae and bat bugs among them.

Do not treat it yourself first. Over-the-counter foggers scatter a population into wall voids and adjoining units. It makes the job harder and more expensive, and it hands a landlord a genuine argument that your actions made the infestation worse.

Do not move rooms. Sleeping on the sofa relocates the insects rather than escaping them, and turns one harbourage into two.

The template

Copy this, replace the bracketed parts, and delete anything that does not apply. Keep it to one page.

Subject: Written notice of defective condition — bed bug infestation at [unit address]

Date: [date sent]

To: [name of the person designated as landlord in the rental agreement, or the person who collects the rent]

Premises: [full unit address, including unit number] Owner: [owner’s name, if known] Tenant: [your name], [phone], [email]

This is written notice under RCW 59.18.070 of a defective condition at the above premises.

Nature of the defective condition. On [date], I found [describe exactly what you found and where — for example: live insects and dark ink-like staining along the seam of the mattress and on the underside of the box spring in the main bedroom, and shed skins in the joint of the bed frame]. [If applicable: This was confirmed as a bed bug infestation by [company] on [date]; their report is attached.] Dated photographs are attached.

[If applicable: I first reported this by telephone to [name] on [date]. This letter confirms that report in writing.]

Request. I am asking that a professional inspection and treatment be arranged. RCW 59.18.060(4) places a duty on the landlord to control infestation during the tenancy, and RCW 59.18.070(3) requires remedial action to commence not later than ten days from this notice.

Because bed bugs travel between units through wall voids, outlet boxes and service chases, I would ask that the units above, below and either side of mine be inspected as part of the same visit.

Access. I will make the unit available at any reasonable time and will complete whatever preparation the treating company asks for. Please give me at least two days’ written notice of entry as required by RCW 59.18.150, and I will confirm each appointment in writing.

Response. Please confirm in writing by [date, ten days from sending] what has been arranged and when. I am continuing to pay rent in full and on time.

[Your name]

Send it to the notice address in your rental agreement and to whoever you normally deal with. Email is written notice; if the lease specifies a method, use that as well rather than instead. Keep the sent copy.

Why each part is there

The premises, owner and condition lines are the three statutory elements, put where nobody has to hunt for them.

Describing what you found rather than what you think it means is the difference between a report of a defective condition and a request for an opinion. It also protects you if the identification turns out to be wrong: you reported accurately what was there.

Naming the ten days is not aggression, it is notice that you know the standard. Most disputes never get further than this because most landlords act.

Asking for adjoining units is the single most useful line in the letter. It is good practice, it protects your unit from reinfestation, and if a charge is asserted against you later, a landlord who declined a written request to inspect around you has weakened their own causation case. That is covered in the 59.18.130(2) guide.

Offering access matters because the closing paragraph of RCW 59.18.060 removes both the landlord’s duty and the tenant’s remedies where a tenant unreasonably fails to allow access for repair. Putting cooperation in writing at the start closes that door.

Saying you are paying rent matters because the fastest way to convert a repair dispute into an eviction defence is to withhold rent without following the statutory procedure for it.

After you send it

Start a file — a folder in your email and a paper one. Every message, every appointment, every visit, dated.

Log each visit. Date, company name, technician, what was treated, what you were told about follow-up. If a company inspects and finds nothing, that is worth recording too.

Confirm verbal conversations by email. Two sentences: “Following our call today, my understanding is that X will happen on Y date.” An unanswered summary is close to an agreed one.

Note what happens to the neighbouring units. Whether they were inspected, and when.

Do not stop at one letter if nothing happens. If the ten days pass with no remedial action commenced, RCW 59.18.090 sets out the tenant’s options — terminating the tenancy on written notice, bringing an action in court or at arbitration, or pursuing other remedies in the chapter including repair and deduct under RCW 59.18.100, which has conditions and caps attached. That is the point to take advice from the Tenants Union of Washington State or Washington Law Help rather than improvising.

General information, not legal advice. This is a template, not a document prepared for your circumstances, and tenancy outcomes turn on facts specific to your lease and building. For advice on your situation, contact the Tenants Union of Washington State, Washington Law Help, or a landlord-tenant attorney. Nothing here creates a legal relationship or substitutes for that advice.

If you are the landlord receiving one of these

A tenant who sends the letter above has handed you a dated record of a maintenance issue and offered full access. The cheapest available response is to use it: acknowledge in writing that week, book a professional inspection rather than deciding from photographs, inspect the units around it in any connected building, treat as a coordinated block, and schedule the follow-up before the first visit ends.

The expensive response is the one that treats the letter as an accusation. Treating a single unit three times costs more than treating five once, and a file showing prompt action is the thing that answers everything that might come afterwards.

We are not lawyers and nothing here is legal advice. If you want a written inspection report to attach to a notice like the one above, say so when you call — not every company produces one by default.

How to Notify Your Landlord About Bed Bugs in Writing