RCW 64.38: WA HOA Powers, Assessments, Liens, and Owner Rights

RCW 64.38 is Washington’s Homeowners’ Association Act, the statute that governs how non-condominium residential communities in the state form, operate, collect assessments, and enforce their rules, and it also fixes the rights owners keep no matter what the governing documents say.¹ If you live in a Washington subdivision, townhome community, or planned development that isn’t a condominium, this is the chapter that controls your relationship with the HOA.

Which Communities the Statute Covers

Under RCW 64.38.010, a homeowners’ association is any corporation, unincorporated association, or other legal entity whose members are owners of residential property within the association’s jurisdiction, where membership or ownership creates an obligation to pay toward shared costs like taxes, insurance, maintenance, or improvements on property the member does not individually own.²

The chapter does not apply to associations created under the Condominium Act (RCW 64.34), the Horizontal Property Regimes Act (RCW 64.32), or the Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act (RCW 64.90). Each of those has its own governing statute.¹ Everything else with binding shared-cost obligations almost certainly falls under RCW 64.38.

What the Board Can Do

RCW 64.38.020 sets out the association’s default powers unless the governing documents say otherwise. The board can adopt and amend bylaws and rules, propose and revise budgets, collect assessments, and hire or fire managing agents and contractors. It can sue or be sued on its own behalf or on behalf of two or more owners on matters affecting the community, regulate common areas, grant utility easements across common property, and buy insurance for the association’s benefit.³

Late Charges and Fines

The board can also impose late charges on overdue assessments and levy fines for rule violations. Those fines aren’t open-ended. Before the board can fine you, it must give notice and an opportunity to be heard, and the fine has to follow a schedule the board previously adopted and shared with all owners.³ A fine imposed with no hearing or with no published schedule is on weak legal footing.

How the Budget Gets Adopted

Washington’s budget process catches many owners off guard. Under RCW 64.38.025, the board adopts a proposed budget and sends a summary to every owner within 30 days. It then sets a meeting to consider the budget, held no fewer than 14 and no more than 60 days after the summary goes out.⁴

Here’s the part that surprises people. The budget is ratified automatically unless owners holding a majority of the total votes reject it at that meeting, in person or by proxy. Governing documents can set an even higher rejection threshold. Ratification happens whether or not a quorum is present. So if five owners show up in a 200-lot community and nobody votes to reject, the budget passes.⁴

If owners do reject the budget, or if the board fails to give proper notice, the last ratified budget stays in force. If no budget is ever adopted, the prior year’s continues by default.⁴

Meetings and Notice

The association must hold at least one meeting of all owners each year at the time and place set by the bylaws. Notice of any owner meeting must go out between 14 and 60 days in advance, hand-delivered or sent by first-class mail to each owner’s address on file or another address the owner has designated in writing.⁵

Board meetings, other than executive sessions, must be open for observation by all owners and their authorized agents. The board must keep minutes of all actions, and those minutes must be available to owners. The statute permits owner comment on agenda items and other matters at board meetings but does not require it, so check the bylaws for whether your community guarantees a comment period.⁵

Records You Can Request

RCW 64.38.045 gives owners broad access to association records. The association must retain and make the following available for examination and copying:

The current budget, seven years of receipts and expenditures, accounting records, financial statements, and tax returns.
Meeting minutes (except executive sessions), records of any action taken without a meeting, the declaration and organizational documents, all amendments, and all current rules.
The names of current owners, the addresses the association uses to communicate with them, and the votes allocated to each lot.
Copies of contracts the association was party to within the last seven years, current insurance policies, and any current warranties.
Materials the board relied on to approve or deny architectural requests and to make enforcement decisions, kept for seven years after the decision.
Ballots, proxies, and other voting records for one year after the relevant election or vote.

Records must be available during reasonable business hours, or at a mutually convenient time and location, at the offices of the association or its managing agent.⁶ One boundary: the list of owners is not required to be shared with mortgage holders. If a board refuses a legitimate records request, the statute is clearly on your side.

Liens and Foreclosure for Unpaid Assessments

This is the highest-stakes part of the chapter. If your governing documents authorize a lien for unpaid assessments, RCW 64.38.100 imposes real procedural guardrails before the association can foreclose.

The owner must owe at least the greater of three months of assessments or $2,000 in assessments before a foreclosure action can even be filed. Fines, late charges, interest, and attorney fees do not count toward that threshold.⁷

The association must also work through a two-notice process. After assessments have been past due for at least 90 days, it mails a preforeclosure notice. A second notice follows at least 60 days later. At least 90 days must have passed since the minimum amount accrued, and the board itself must formally vote to approve filing a foreclosure action against the specific lot. If the owner was referred to mediation under RCW 61.24.163, the association cannot proceed until mediation concludes or the certification deadline passes.⁷

Every step of collection and foreclosure must be commercially reasonable. If you fall behind and receive a preforeclosure notice, treat it seriously, but know the statute gives you time and a specific sequence the association has to follow.

Uses the HOA Cannot Ban

Certain owner activities are protected by statute, and any conflicting language in the governing documents is void.

Political Yard Signs

Under RCW 64.38.034, the governing documents cannot prohibit political yard signs on an owner’s or resident’s property before any primary or general election. The association can adopt reasonable rules on placement and display, but those rules can’t be used to effectively ban the signs. The provision applies retroactively to any governing documents in effect on July 24, 2005, and any conflicting provision is void.⁸

Solar Energy Panels

RCW 64.38.055 prevents the governing documents from prohibiting solar panel installation on any structure the owner has exclusive use of, including roofs, garages, and carports. The association can regulate installation for safety or aesthetic consistency, but those regulations cannot significantly reduce the system’s efficiency.⁹

Flag Display

Chapter 64.38 also protects an owner’s right to display the United States flag outdoors. An association can adopt rules about size or placement, but it cannot prohibit the display outright.

Satellite Dishes and Antennas

Federal law layers over the chapter here. The FCC’s Over-the-Air Reception Devices rule, at 47 CFR 1.4000, prohibits associations from restricting the installation of satellite dishes one meter or smaller in diameter, TV antennas, and fixed wireless antennas on property within the owner’s exclusive use or control. Any rule that unreasonably delays installation, increases cost, or prevents acceptable signal quality is preempted. The rule does not reach common areas; it applies to your own lot, balcony, or exclusive-use space.¹⁰

Active-Duty Servicemembers

The Servicemembers Civil Relief Act adds protections when an association tries to foreclose on a lot owned by an active-duty service member. The association generally cannot foreclose without a court order while the owner is on active duty, and the service member is entitled to an automatic 90-day stay of foreclosure proceedings. These protections apply when the obligation predates the owner’s active-duty service.

The Standard Board Members Are Held To

RCW 64.38.025 holds board members and officers to the same standard of care required of directors of a nonprofit corporation under chapter 24.03A RCW.⁴ That standard has three parts: directors must act in good faith, with the care an ordinarily prudent person in the same position would use under similar circumstances, and in a manner they reasonably believe serves the association’s best interests.¹¹

It isn’t a perfection standard. Directors who make informed decisions in good faith are not personally liable just because the outcome was bad. But a director who acts out of self-interest, ignores financial problems, or refuses to look into red flags is exposed to claims from the association and its members.

1
Washington State Legislature. Chapter 64.38 RCW Homeowners Associations
2
Washington State Legislature. RCW 64.38.010 Definitions
3
Washington State Legislature. RCW 64.38.020 Association Powers
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Washington State Legislature. RCW 64.38.025 Board of Directors Standard of Care Restrictions Budget Ratification
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Washington State Legislature. RCW 64.38.035 Association Meetings Notice Board of Directors
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Washington State Legislature. RCW 64.38.045 Association Records
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Washington State Legislature. RCW 64.38.100 Liens for Unpaid Assessments
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Washington State Legislature. Chapter 64.38 RCW Homeowners Associations – RCW 64.38.034 Political Yard Signs
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Washington State Legislature. RCW 64.38.055 Solar Energy Panels Prohibition on Restrictive Covenants
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eCFR. 47 CFR 1.4000 Restrictions Impairing Reception of Television Broadcast Signals
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Washington State Legislature. RCW 24.03A.495 Standards of Conduct for Directors