How to Amend CC&Rs in Washington State: Vote, Notice, Recording

To amend CC&Rs in Washington State, you need approval from owners holding at least 67 percent of the allocated votes in your association (the default under the Washington Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act), followed by a properly noticed vote, any required lender consent, and recording of the signed, notarized amendment with the county auditor. Your declaration may set a higher threshold, and certain changes carry stricter approval rules. Miss a procedural step and the amendment can be challenged or held unenforceable.

Figure Out Which Law Governs Your Community

Two Washington statutes can control the amendment process, and which one applies depends on when your community was created.

Communities created on or after July 1, 2018, fall under the Washington Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act (WUCIOA). It contains detailed default rules for amendments, voting, notice, and recording, and it fills any gap your declaration leaves open.

Communities created before July 1, 2018, were originally governed by the Homeowners’ Association Act at chapter 64.38 RCW. That older statute is far less detailed and generally defers to your governing documents. If your pre-2018 documents don’t address a procedural question, you have less statutory backup.

That gap closes soon. The legislature passed SB 5796 in 2024, which repeals the older act effective January 1, 2028, and applies WUCIOA to all common interest communities regardless of when they were created. Any provision in your existing documents that conflicts with WUCIOA becomes invalid at that point, with narrow exceptions for creation requirements and recorded maps.¹

Before you propose anything, identify which statute applies, then check whether your declaration has its own amendment provision that overrides the statutory default. Both the declaration and the bylaws can contain procedural requirements. Read both.

Confirm the Voting Threshold You Need to Hit

Under WUCIOA, amending the declaration takes owners holding at least 67 percent of the total allocated votes. Your declaration can set a different number, but not more than 90 percent.² Some amendments require more:

90 percent, including the affected unit owner, to create or increase special declarant rights, add units, change unit boundaries, or change a unit’s allocated interests.²
80 percent of all votes, including 80 percent of votes allocated to units not owned by the declarant, to extend or create development rights.²
Declarant consent, regardless of vote total, for any amendment affecting unexpired special declarant rights.²

WUCIOA also includes a safety valve. If your declaration sets a threshold higher than 67 percent and that supermajority proves unreachable, the amendment can still pass when at least 67 percent vote in favor and no unit owner votes against it, provided proper notice is given.²

For pre-2018 communities still under chapter 64.38 RCW, the statute sets no default threshold. You’re bound by whatever your governing documents specify, and if the documents are silent, you’re in a gray area that likely needs legal counsel. WUCIOA’s 67 percent default will fill that gap in 2028.

Don’t Overlook Lender Consent

Many CC&Rs require the consent of a specified percentage of first-mortgage holders for material changes. WUCIOA states that if the declaration conditions an amendment’s effectiveness on another person’s approval, the amendment isn’t valid without it.²

There is some relief. If a security interest holder’s consent is required, that consent is automatically deemed granted if the holder doesn’t send a written refusal within 60 days after the association delivers notice of the proposed amendment.² Send proper notice to each lender, document delivery, and wait out the 60-day window before finalizing.

Draft the Amendment Precisely

The amendment document should identify each declaration section being changed and state the new language exactly. Vague or internally contradictory wording is the top source of post-amendment disputes. An attorney experienced in Washington community association law can spot conflicts with other provisions in your declaration, with WUCIOA, and with federal requirements like the Fair Housing Act.

Reference the original recorded declaration by its recording number and the county where it was recorded. Include a statement confirming that the required approval procedures were followed and the required threshold was met. Board officers authorized under the bylaws to execute amendments sign the document, and their signatures should be notarized.

Notify Every Owner

WUCIOA requires meeting notice between 14 and 50 days before the meeting date. Notice can go out by any method described in RCW 64.90.515, including mail, hand delivery, and electronic communication where the owner has consented to it.³ The notice must include the full text of the proposed amendment so every owner can review the exact language before voting.

For ballot votes conducted without a meeting, which is common for CC&R amendments, WUCIOA requires at least 14 days between the notice date and the ballot return deadline.⁴ The notice must state the ballot return deadline, the percentage of votes needed to approve, and instructions for how owners can share views with the full membership.

Pre-2018 communities should follow whatever notice procedures their bylaws specify. If the bylaws are silent, using the WUCIOA standards helps avoid procedural challenges.

Run the Vote

Getting enough owners to participate is the hard part. WUCIOA lets owners vote in person at a meeting, by absentee ballot if the proposed text was included in the meeting notice, or by ballot without a meeting.⁴ If the association allows electronic voting, it must also provide a tangible ballot to any owner who hasn’t consented to electronic communication.

For ballot votes without a meeting, the number of ballots returned must meet or exceed the quorum that would be required if the vote were held at a meeting. If the association doesn’t receive enough ballots to reach quorum or to approve the proposal by the deadline, the board can extend the deadline for up to 11 months with additional notice to all owners.⁴

Verify that each ballot was cast by the owner entitled to vote. Once the deadline passes or enough votes are in, tally the results and pass a board resolution certifying the outcome.

Record the Amendment With the County

An approved amendment has no legal effect until it is recorded. WUCIOA is explicit: every amendment to the declaration must be recorded in every county where any portion of the community is located, and the amendment is effective only upon recordation.² An amendment that receives unanimous approval but never gets filed is unenforceable against anyone.

File the executed, notarized document with the county auditor. Washington recording fees include a base charge of $5 for the first page and $1 for each additional page, plus a mandatory per-instrument surcharge of $183 and smaller surcharges for library and modernization funds.⁵⁶ Total recording costs typically run $200 to $350 depending on page count and county. Confirm the exact figure with the auditor’s office before filing.

After recording, distribute a copy of the recorded amendment to all homeowners. It prevents later disputes from owners who claim they never knew about the change.

Amendments the Board Can Adopt Without an Owner Vote

Not every amendment needs a membership vote. WUCIOA allows the board, with a two-thirds vote of its members and 30 days’ advance notice to owners, to adopt and record limited amendments on its own:

Corrective amendments that fix math errors, inconsistencies, or scrivener’s errors, or clarify ambiguities about objectively verifiable facts. The declarant can also make these corrections unilaterally within five years of the original document’s recording.²
Removing language that limits the association’s ability to deal with the declarant more restrictively than it can deal with other parties.
Removing provisions that limit the association’s or owners’ rights in direct conflict with WUCIOA.²

These board-only amendments cannot make substantive policy changes. They’re for corrections and for removing provisions that shouldn’t have been there in the first place.

Removing Discriminatory Covenants

Older declarations sometimes contain language restricting ownership or occupancy based on race, religion, national origin, or other protected characteristics. These provisions are void under federal fair housing law and Washington’s anti-discrimination statute, RCW 49.60.224.

Washington provides a streamlined removal process that bypasses the normal amendment vote. Under RCW 64.38.028, the board can remove discriminatory covenants by a simple majority vote of its members, without any owner approval. Any board officer can sign the amendment, and it must be recorded in the public records. If an owner sends a written request asking the board to remove discriminatory language, the board must act within a reasonable time.⁷

Deadline to Challenge an Amendment

If you think an amendment was adopted through improper procedures or violates the law, act quickly. Under WUCIOA, absent fraud, any legal challenge to the validity of an amendment must be brought within one year after it is recorded.² That clock runs from the recording date, not from when you learned about the amendment.

For pre-2018 communities still under chapter 64.38 RCW, no specific amendment challenge deadline exists in the statute. A challenge would likely fall under Washington’s general six-year statute of limitations for written contract claims at RCW 4.16.040.⁸ After the 2028 WUCIOA transition, the one-year limit will apply to every community.

Common grounds for challenge include failure to meet the required voting threshold, inadequate notice, failure to obtain required lender consent, and amendments that violate WUCIOA’s substantive limits, such as changing unit boundaries without 90 percent consent. If you suspect a procedural defect, get an attorney involved fast. The one-year window under WUCIOA is unforgiving.

1
Washington State Legislature. Washington Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act – RCW 64.90.375
2
Washington State Legislature. RCW 64.90.285 Amendment of Declaration
3
WA.gov. RCW 64.90.445
4
Washington State Legislature. RCW 64.90.455 Unit Owner Voting
5
Washington State Legislature. RCW 36.18.010 Auditor’s Fees
6
Washington State Legislature. RCW 36.22.250 Document Recording Surcharge
7
Washington State Legislature. RCW 64.38.028 Removal of Discriminatory Provisions in Governing Documents
8
Washington State Legislature. RCW 4.16.040 Actions Limited to Six Years