Community ResourcesEvent Recap
Keep Your Home. Know Your Rights. What Our Members Learned at Power Hour.
Last Thursday, March 19th at McKinney Center, two guests from the King County Dispute Resolution Center sat down with our members and delivered the kind of session that people act on the same day they leave the room.
Jada Berteaux runs KCDRC’s HOMES program, which helps income-eligible homeowners navigate Washington State’s Senior Citizen and Disabled Property Tax Exemption. Ryan is KCDRC’s Learning Coordinator and a Pacific Northwest native who spent a decade in operations and process improvement before bringing that same systems thinking to social justice and housing work. Together, they covered the full landscape of tools available to senior homeowners in King County — and the room left with more than information. They left with a plan.
The Senior Property Tax Exemption
The program itself is straightforward in concept. Washington State allows qualifying homeowners to freeze the taxable value of their primary residence, which means that as property values continue to climb in Seattle and King County — and they always climb — your property taxes do not go up with them. For the median-value King County home, that protection is worth roughly $5,000 a year. Over a decade, that’s $50,000 that stays in your household.
The qualifications for 2026: you’re 61 or older, you own and live in your home as your primary residence, and your household income is under $84,000 a year. Social Security counts toward that income figure. Most other income sources count too, though Jada was careful to explain that Washington’s income calculation differs from IRS adjusted gross income, so the numbers on your tax return and the numbers on the exemption application don’t always match. That’s one of many places where having KCDRC walking alongside you matters.
The 2026 update that drew the most reaction in the room: the disability rating requirement for veterans has been reduced from 80% to 40%. Veterans who looked at this program before and didn’t qualify because of that threshold should look again. The application portal is live now at senior-exemption.kingcounty.gov, and online is strongly preferred over paper — paper applications create significant processing backlogs.
RANS: The Fraud Alert Tool Every Homeowner Should Be Using
Ryan’s contribution to the session went beyond the tax exemption. He introduced members to RANS — the Recording Activity Notification System, a free service from the King County Recorder’s Office at recordsearch.kingcounty.gov.
Here’s what RANS does: you register your name and your parcel number, and any time a land records document is recorded in your name in King County, you receive an email alert. Immediately. That means if someone tries to file a fraudulent deed, transfer your property without your consent, or record any document against your home — you know about it the same day. You don’t find out months later when the damage is already done.
This is one of the most practical fraud protection tools available to homeowners in King County, and most people have never heard of it. Registration is free, takes about five minutes, and lives at recordsearch.kingcounty.gov/LandmarkWeb/FraudAlert. BLHN is building a step-by-step sign-up guide for members — watch for it in the next newsletter.
How to Get Help
Apply for the Senior Tax Exemption online at senior-exemption.kingcounty.gov. If you need help, KCDRC’s HOMES program is the right call — reach Jada at [email protected] or 206-650-3286. The King County Assessor’s Office is at [email protected] or 206-296-3920. For in-person application help, visit myfreetaxeswa.org and search for “Property Tax Exemption Help (King County).”
And sign up for RANS today at recordsearch.kingcounty.gov/LandmarkWeb/FraudAlert. It is free, it takes five minutes, and it is the closest thing to a home fraud alarm system that exists right now.
Send us an email at [email protected] to request a copy of Jadas presentation slides.