The bill creates a new voluntary property title protection program that county auditors may develop and implement to help prevent land record fraud. Under the program, property owners may record a "fraud protection instrument" that bars recording a transfer of ownership of that property unless a secure personal identification number is used, an approved override process is followed, or a release of the fraud protection instrument is recorded. Auditors may delay recording or entering a transfer instrument for up to five business days when such a fraud protection instrument is on file, and county treasurers or excise agents may delay processing a real estate excise tax refund application for up to five days for affected properties. The bill adds a new section to chapter 36.22 RCW, amends RCW 65.04.030 to permit such recording delays, and exempts fraud protection instruments and releases recorded under the program from certain existing recording assessments and surcharges (amendments to RCW 36.22.185, 36.22.240, and 36.22.250 are included). The bill also requires county auditors beginning January 1, 2024 to collect a $100 covenant homeownership program assessment per recorded document (with certain surcharge distribution changes phased in through July 1, 2024). The bill also directs the Department of Commerce to allocate funds derived from the document recording fee or other sources into specified accounts (home security fund account, affordable housing for all account, and landlord mitigation program account) with administration caps of up to 10 percent and at least 90 percent required for programmatic grants and operations as detailed in the act. The home security fund prioritizes homelessness assistance grants and permanent supportive housing with a county right of first refusal for grant awards (if a county refuses or fails to respond within a department-established time frame, the department must seek alternative grantees), and the affordable housing account focuses on grants for operations, maintenance, and rent supplements for units serving extremely low-income households. The act defines very low-income households as at or below 50% of area median income and extremely low-income households as at or below 30% of area median income by cross-reference to RCW 36.70A.030. Section 6 of the act takes effect immediately. The text provided omits full statutory language and definitions for key terms (for example, the bill text here does not define "fraud protection instrument," "secure personal identification number," or "approved override process"), cuts off part of RCW 36.22.250 subsection language, and does not specify the department-established time frame for county responses to the right of first refusal; those details are therefore uncertain from the extracted material.

If enacted, counties would be allowed to offer a voluntary title-protection option that lets a property owner record an instrument to block most ownership transfers unless a secure PIN, an approved override, or a formal release is used; county auditors could pause filing a transfer for up to five business days and county treasurers or excise agents could pause real estate excise tax refund processing for up to five days when such a protection is on record. Practically, property owners gain a new tool to try to stop deed scams, while county auditors and treasurers gain new duties and discretionary holds that could slow some transactions; auditors also must begin collecting a $100 covenant homeownership assessment on recorded documents starting January 1, 2024, and the recorded fraud-protection filings are exempted from certain existing surcharges. Key operational details—what exactly counts as a fraud protection instrument, how the secure PIN and override work, and any required forms or timelines for audits and overrides—are not specified in the provided text. The bill also redirects and specifies how new or existing recording fees and surcharges are used, immediately giving the Department of Commerce authority to allocate funds into a home security fund, an affordable housing account, and a landlord mitigation account with up to 10 percent allowed for administration and at least 90 percent targeted to grants and operations for homelessness assistance and extremely low-income housing needs; counties get a right of first refusal to receive certain grant funds, and the department must find local alternatives if a county declines or does not respond. This will likely increase dedicated grant funding for homeless services, supportive housing operations, and landlord mitigation programs and place new administrative responsibilities on Commerce to run those grant programs and manage county grant offers, but exact fee amounts, some distribution details, and the deadline counties have to accept grants are not fully shown in the extracted text.