STLCA: Seattle Tenant Landlord Compliance Authority

By the Numbers

The public record shows a measurable gap between cases the City marks finished and cases the dataset fully documents.

233,543

Total SDCI complaint and enforcement records analyzed
2003-2025

Source dataset: City of Seattle Open Data Portal

58,761

Landlord-tenant enforcement cases identified in the dataset

Based on STLCA classification rule

62.3%

Of landlord-tenant cases have no inspection date in the public record

LastInspDate field blank, all cases including open

Note: 62.3% = no inspection date, all cases. 59.8% = no inspection result in closed cases. Both figures reflect gaps in public documentation, measured differently.

5,936

Cases remain open or unresolved, including records that have remained open for years

Open / unresolved records in dataset

Now Available • March 2026

STLCA Council Briefing • Delivered to Seattle City Council

The enforcement accountability report SDCI was required to deliver to Council every year since 2017 and never filed. We built it. 233,543 records. Nine years of missing reporting.

What the Data Shows

Across the full dataset, the public enforcement record reveals several measurable gaps.

Citywide Findings

A majority of landlord-tenant cases close without a documented inspection result in the dataset.

This is the central STLCA accountability metric: cases the system treats as finished while the public extract contains no structured inspection outcome.

Many cases contain no recorded inspection date.

A blank inspection date does not prove no inspection occurred. It shows the public record does not document one in the structured field used for that purpose.

Thousands of cases remain open long after the original complaint.

These records show that case age and case status remain important parts of the citywide enforcement picture.

By Council District

Explore how the same pattern appears across Seattle council districts. Figures shown below reflect the share of landlord-tenant cases closed with no recorded inspection result.

D1

Saka

56.6%

Dashboard Dossier

D2

Lin

52.3%

Dashboard Dossier

D3

Hollingsworth

62.9%

Dashboard Dossier

D4

Rivera

57.0%

Dashboard Dossier

D5

Juarez

58.8%

Dashboard Dossier

D6

Strauss

62.0%

Dashboard Dossier

D7

Kettle

67.2%

Dashboard Dossier

CW

Citywide

59.8%

Citywide Audit

Oversight Gap Seattle has independent oversight for police conduct, financial management, and employee ethics. None of those bodies has authority over SDCI housing enforcement practices. No independent oversight mechanism exists to review whether housing complaints are properly investigated, inspected, or documented.

Documented Properties & Findings

The citywide pattern appears in individual properties and legislative failures across the record. These four examples should sit as the core anchors on the home page.

Fire Safety • District 7

Addison on 4th

Seattle Fire Department alerted SDCI to serious safety conditions on November 6, 2019, including blocked stairwells and a trash chute clogged up to the sixth floor. SDCI did not inspect until early December. A Notice of Violation issued December 13, 2019 with a January 13 compliance deadline. Additional complaints were closed before the January 7, 2020 trash-chute fire, and post-fire complaint records later disappeared from the public portal.

Full case study →

Illegal Evictions • District 6

Everspring

During the active COVID-19 moratorium, 13 complaints were filed on August 18, 2020 at one property. The public record shows those complaints were closed the same day as administrative closure or voluntary compliance, with no documented inspection result. Residents, including elderly and disabled tenants, were then displaced within roughly 24 hours. The case illustrates the collision of unsafe conditions, failed enforcement, and eviction.

Full case study →

Legislative Compliance • Citywide

Ordinance 125054

City Council passed legislation in 2016 requiring annual housing enforcement accountability reports beginning June 15, 2017. Nine reporting cycles passed with no public annual reports located by STLCA. When asked, SDCI management denied the obligation in writing. This is not a missing attachment problem. It is a missing accountability mechanism.

Read the briefing →

Data Outlier • District 3

Seattle Public Library | Oldest Open Record

Record 1001072-TR: Application for Tenant Relocation License filed November 26, 2003. Applicant: Seattle Public Library. Status: Issued. No closure date appears in the public record. At more than 8,100 days open, it remains the oldest continuously open record identified in the dataset and serves as a visible outlier in the City’s enforcement history.

View citywide data →

How the Data Was Analyzed

The homepage provides a summary. Full rulebook, field definitions, and source documentation should live on the methodology page.

Methodology Summary

Source dataset: City of Seattle Open Data Portal, Code Complaints and Violations dataset. Extracted December 31, 2025. Total records analyzed: 233,543.

Landlord-tenant classification: Cases were classified as landlord-tenant related when the record type included Emergency, Landlord/Tenant, or a blank RecordTypeDesc associated with complaint records. This produced 58,761 landlord-tenant cases in the dataset.

Key metric definition: "Closed with no inspection result" refers to cases where StatusCurrent = Closed or Completed and LastInspResult is blank. This measures the gap between cases the system marks finished and cases where the public extract records a structured inspection outcome.

View Full Methodology

What STLCA Is Asking City Council to Do

Seattle maintains independent oversight bodies for several city functions, but none of them cover housing code enforcement:

City Auditor - audits financial management and program efficiency, but does not investigate individual enforcement complaints or department conduct.
Office of Inspector General (OIG) - reviews Seattle Police Department. Jurisdiction is SPD only; no authority over SDCI or housing enforcement.
Ethics and Elections Commission - investigates ethics violations by individual employees; does not audit systemic enforcement practices or departmental performance.

No body currently has the mandate to review whether SDCI is properly documenting, inspecting, and closing housing complaints. STLCA recommends four steps.

1

Direct a formal performance audit of SDCI housing enforcement An independent audit could examine case closure practices, inspection documentation standards, and enforcement tracking.

2

Require completion of the annual enforcement accountability reports Ordinance 125054 requires yearly reporting on housing enforcement activity. Those reports should be produced and made public.

3

Establish an independent oversight mechanism for housing enforcement A review process would allow constituents and policymakers to examine enforcement outcomes independently of the department’s own reporting.

4

Cross-reference eviction filings with open housing complaints Seattle residents should not receive eviction notices while unresolved habitability complaints remain active against the same property.

For Residents Complaints should result in documented inspections and verified outcomes.

For Landlords Consistent enforcement helps ensure compliant owners are not undercut by those who ignore housing codes.

For Policymakers Reliable enforcement data is necessary for sound policy and budget decisions.

For the City A transparent enforcement record strengthens public trust in housing oversight.

View Full Audit Data

About STLCA

STLCA is an independent public-data analysis platform examining how Seattle documents housing code enforcement.

What We Measure

We analyze enforcement records published through the City of Seattle Open Data Portal and measure what those records show about complaint handling, inspections, and case closure patterns.

STLCA does not claim more than the data can support. If a field is missing, we report that the field is missing. If a case is marked closed, we measure how the record documents that closure.

Why This Matters

Housing enforcement is not just about whether complaints are filed. It is also about whether the public record clearly documents inspections, outcomes, and closure decisions.

A public oversight system has to be measurable. This site is designed to make that record visible.

Transparency

Every metric is tied directly to the public dataset and clearly defined.

Replicability

Anyone with access to the same public records can reproduce the analysis.

Precision

STLCA reports what the record shows, and distinguishes that from what the record cannot establish.