March 2026 Update
The end of February brought some unfortunate and discouraging news: After many conversations with legislators and leadership throughout the process from our lobbyist, we had every assurance that there would be no problem with advancing our Statute of Limitations bill out of the House Rules Committee and to the floor for a vote. Everything looked promising right up to the 5 pm deadline for the legislative session, but there simply wasn't enough time as the speaker of the house advanced higher priority bills of her choosing.
Over 100 bills suffered the same fate - and we were not alone in our disappointment or frustration that bills in good order with so much time and effort invested in them could not advance out of the Rules Committee.
You may be wondering, why did this happen?
In short, the Legislature works on a two-year cycle, in a framework that splits sessions within those two years and alternates between a 105-day "long" session during odd-numbered years, and a 60-day "short" session in even-numbered years: Our current session for 2026 is a short session, and you can see on the Important 2026 Session Dates page of the Washington State Legislature's website that the cutoff to consider bills in the house of origin was set on Feb 17th at 5 pm.
There is more to the process, of course, and that's all covered in this Overview of the Legislative Process document.
Although we wish we had better news, we are very pleased to share that our bill did receive a unanimous vote to advance through the House Consumer Protection and Business Committee. This is an incredible accomplishment that has never happened for the Coalition before, so we are focusing our energy on holding onto the momentum we have now to reintroduce this bill in the longer 2027 session.
We will re-engage with the trial lawyers, hone our strategies and work closely with our legislative champions, who we are so grateful for, to take it to the finish line next year. We are in a good position to prefile the bill this November and will have our sponsors ready to go at the opening bell. A Waiver Valuations bill is also something we hope to pursue in the upcoming legislative session. For details and history on that, check out our 2025 February Update.
We'd like to thank members of the Coalition who stood with us to show up throughout the process with traveling to Olympia, attending our Day on the Hill event, making late night phone calls, and sending last-minute emails to Representatives to make our voices heard. We are STRONGER together and we sincerely appreciate all the effort you put in. That collective, unified support is truly invaluable and it makes an impression.
We'd also like to send our sincerest thanks to our lobbyist, Tony Sermonti, the Department of Licensing, the Real Estate Appraiser Commission, and members of the Appraisal Institute Seattle chapter and the National Government Affairs committee for their support and guidance along the way. You all deserve to be recognized for your efforts to help Washington State appraisers. There is indeed power in numbers.
We will return with more updates closer to when we begin preparations for filing again later this year.
Thank you, all.
February 2026 Update
On January 21, the Appraisers Coalition of Washington held our annual Day on the Hill, and it was a big success. If you could not make it this year, we hope you can join us next year!
It was a full day at the Capitol meeting directly with legislators and staff to share the issues impacting appraisers and the public we serve. We met with Representatives Zahn, Lekanoff, Peterson, Barkis, and Low, as well as Senator Bateman. Thank you to each of them for taking the time to meet and listen to our concerns.
A special thank you to Representatives Low, Goodman, and Barkis for sponsoring our statute of limitations bill for appraisers! A public hearing has already been secured in the House Consumer Protection and Business Committee, and we believe our meetings at the Capitol helped bring that momentum forward.
We are also continuing to work on securing a legislative sponsor for the waiver valuations bill related to right-of-way appraisal work. More to come on both of these bills soon.
For now, please take a moment to support the Statute of Limitations bill (HB 2477) by going to this Link and clicking the "Send a Comment to Your Legislators" button.
January 2026 Update
The Appraisers’ Coalition has a list of exciting opportunities to support Washington appraisers through legislative activism.
We recently met with the Washington State Department of Licensing (DOL) to discuss our 2026 legislative priorities. The three key initiatives are a statute of limitations update affecting appraisal-related claims, waiver valuations for right-of-way valuation assignments, and a solution to officially recognize mass appraisal experience for credentialing purposes. The conversation was productive, and we appreciate the DOL’s engagement on all three items. We look forward to continuing to work closely with DOL as these proposals move through the legislative process.
Join us on the 21st for our annual Day on the Hill, with co-host Appraisal Institute Seattle Chapter.
