What Are the New HOA Laws in Washington State?

The new HOA laws in Washington State do two things at once: they consolidate every community association under a single statute by January 1, 2028, and they immediately expand homeowner protections around foreclosure, property improvements, board transparency, and voting. The centerpiece is SB 5796, which repeals the four older statutes governing different types of associations and folds every community into the Washington Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act (WUCIOA) at RCW 64.90. A companion bill, SB 5129, brings several WUCIOA rules to older communities starting January 1, 2026, so some of the changes reach you well before the full 2028 transition.

One Statute for Every Community by 2028

Washington community associations have operated under one of four statutes depending on the community’s type and age: the Horizontal Property Regimes Act, the Washington Condominium Act, the Homeowners’ Association Act (RCW 64.38), or WUCIOA (RCW 64.90). WUCIOA originally applied only to communities created on or after July 1, 2018.

SB 5796 changes that. On January 1, 2028, WUCIOA applies to every community association in the state regardless of when it was created, and the four older statutes are repealed.¹ Homeowners in neighboring developments will no longer have different rights based on when their community was platted.

SB 5129 pulls parts of that transition forward. Effective January 1, 2026, several WUCIOA provisions already apply to communities still under the older statutes, including meeting requirements, board emergency powers, electric vehicle charging station siting, and heat pump approval rules.² If your association has not yet opted into WUCIOA, these rules still reach you before 2028.

Stronger Foreclosure Protections on Unpaid Assessments

The most immediate change for homeowners in financial trouble comes from RCW 64.90.485, which sets detailed conditions an association must satisfy before it can foreclose on an assessment lien.

The association must mail a notice of delinquency within thirty days after an assessment becomes past due. The notice goes to the unit address and any other address the owner has provided, in English and in any other language the owner has listed as a correspondence preference.³ For fifteen days after that notice, the association cannot take any other collection action. During that window the only charges it can add are the actual printing and mailing cost, an administrative fee of no more than $10, and one late fee capped at $50 or five percent of the unpaid assessment, whichever is less.

Before filing a foreclosure action, the association must also clear these hurdles:

A minimum debt threshold of three months of assessments or $2,000 in assessments, whichever is greater. Fines, late fees, interest, and collection costs do not count toward this minimum.
A second preforeclosure notice, mailed at least ninety days after the assessments became past due and no sooner than sixty days after the first notice.
A waiting period of at least ninety days from the date the minimum debt amount first accrued.
Completion of mediation, with the mediator’s certification issued, if the owner has been referred to it.

The statute also caps the attorneys’ fees that receive lien priority at $2,000 or the amount of the underlying lien, whichever is less.³ Associations can no longer stack legal fees on a modest delinquency to inflate the claim, and the layered notice and waiting periods give homeowners real time to catch up.

What Your HOA Can No Longer Prohibit

Washington has steadily narrowed what boards may block on individual lots. Associations may still impose reasonable aesthetic or placement rules, but they cannot use design guidelines to flatly prohibit the improvements below.

Solar Panels

Under RCW 64.38.055, an association may not prohibit a homeowner from installing solar energy panels that meet state and local health and safety standards.⁴ The board may require that panels not be visible from the street and may impose aesthetic conditions, but only if those restrictions do not decrease performance by more than ten percent or increase cost by more than five percent. RCW 64.90.510 carries a similar rule for WUCIOA communities and lets boards require painted frames and visible wiring to match roofing.⁵

Electric Vehicle Charging Stations

Associations cannot prohibit a homeowner from installing an EV charging station for personal use within the unit boundaries or a designated parking space, and cannot unreasonably withhold approval when wiring must run through common areas.⁶ The homeowner pays for the installation, uses a qualified electrical contractor, complies with building codes, and provides a certificate of insurance naming the association as an additional insured within fourteen days of receiving approval. RCW 64.90.513 sets substantially the same rules under WUCIOA.⁷

Drought-Resistant and Fire-Safe Landscaping

An association cannot ban drought-resistant landscaping, xeriscaping, pollinator habitat (including beehives compliant with local rules), or wildfire ignition-resistant landscaping.⁸ Reasonable aesthetic and placement guidelines are allowed, but they cannot make these landscape choices unreasonably expensive or effectively impossible. The statute protects the right to maintain a fire buffer within the building ignition zone, defined as the area up to 200 feet from a home’s foundation. RCW 64.90.512 mirrors the protection under WUCIOA.⁹

Flags, Signs, and Compost Bins

RCW 64.38.034 protects outdoor display of the United States flag.¹⁰ SB 5796 extends further for WUCIOA communities: associations cannot prohibit the installation of a flagpole or the display of signs (including outdoor signs), though reasonable rules on size, placement, and manner are allowed. The same legislation bars associations from restricting the storage of compost, garbage, or recycling receptacles, subject to reasonable screening requirements when the receptacles are not scheduled for collection.¹

Adult Family Homes

Once WUCIOA fully applies, an association cannot prohibit a unit from being used as an adult family home, though it may impose reasonable rules on licensing, liability waivers, insurance, and facility access. Violations of this restriction carry a civil penalty of up to $1,000.

Meetings, Voting, and Records

Notice and Virtual Attendance

Under both RCW 64.38.035 and RCW 64.90.445, the board must give owners notice of any regular or special meeting at least fourteen days in advance.¹¹ Under WUCIOA, quorum is met when twenty percent of the votes are represented at the start of a meeting, whether in person, by proxy, by absentee ballot, or through real-time communication that includes a telephone option.¹

Electronic and Secret Ballots

RCW 64.90.455 authorizes electronic voting alongside paper ballots. The association must deliver instructions and a paper ballot to every owner who has not consented to electronic voting; consent can be given in writing or simply by casting an electronic ballot. Each ballot must be verified as coming from the owner entitled to vote, and electronic votes must be retrievable in the association’s records.¹²

Certain decisions require a secret ballot: electing or removing board members, amending the declaration or governing documents, and reallocating a common element for one owner’s exclusive use. Sitting board members and candidates cannot access or participate in counting ballots before results are announced at the meeting.

Access to Records

Under RCW 64.38.045, an association must keep financial records, minutes from all board and member meetings, records of actions taken without a meeting, a membership list with names, addresses, and voting allocations, tax returns for the past seven years, and detailed receipts and expenditures. It must provide access to requested records within ten days of a written request.¹³

RCW 64.90.495 sets the WUCIOA equivalent and adds privacy protections. Before releasing records to owners, the association must redact Social Security numbers, unlisted phone numbers, email addresses, bank and credit card information, tax identification numbers, personnel files, and individual files belonging to other owners.¹⁴ Reasonable copy fees are allowed, but the association cannot refuse access to non-confidential documents.

When a management company’s relationship with the association ends, the managing agent must turn over all electronic records within five days and all written records within ten business days, so outgoing managers cannot hold records during a transition.

Borrowing Against Future Assessments

Once WUCIOA applies, if the board wants to borrow money secured by future assessment income, it must notify all owners with the loan’s purpose, maximum amount, estimated repayment assessments, projected spending, and loan terms. Owners then have between fourteen and fifty days to reject the proposal at a meeting; the loan proceeds only if a majority of all votes in the association does not reject it.¹⁵

Board Duties and Fines

Under RCW 64.90.410, every board member and officer must act in good faith, with the care an ordinarily prudent person in a similar position would exercise, and in a manner they reasonably believe serves the association’s best interests, the same standard that applies to nonprofit corporation directors under chapter 24.03A RCW.¹⁶

An association can levy fines only after giving the homeowner notice and an opportunity to be heard before the board or its designated representative, and only under a fine schedule the board has previously adopted and distributed to owners.¹⁷ A fine imposed without those steps can be challenged as invalid. If you receive a fine notice, you are entitled to present your side before the board votes.

SB 5796 also lets boards remove discriminatory covenants from governing documents without a vote of the owners. Any owner can request removal, and the board must act within ninety days.

Buying or Selling a Unit

Resale Certificates

Before a unit in a WUCIOA community can be sold, the owner must furnish the buyer a resale certificate signed by an association officer or authorized agent. RCW 64.90.640 requires it to disclose current and delinquent assessments on the selling unit and any special assessments already levied; a statement, current within forty-five days, of past-due assessments across all units; any anticipated repair or replacement expense expected to exceed five percent of the annual budget; whether the association has a current reserve study; the prior year’s annual financial statement plus the most recent balance sheet and income/expense statement; a description of the association’s insurance with broker contact information; and any unsatisfied judgments and pending litigation.¹⁸ If the association fails to provide the certificate or provides one with material misstatements, the buyer may have grounds to cancel the contract.

Reserve Studies

Under RCW 64.90.545, associations subject to WUCIOA must prepare and update a reserve study annually. The study must be prepared by an independent reserve study professional qualified by knowledge, skill, experience, training, or education. Board members, officers, employees of the association, the developer, and the developer’s affiliates cannot serve as the reserve study professional.¹⁹

Washington does not require associations to fully fund their reserves; funding levels remain a board decision. But the study’s findings must appear in the resale certificate, so underfunding becomes visible during resale, and communities with chronically low reserves tend to face special assessments when major repairs come due.

1
Washington State Legislature. Senate Bill Report SB 5796
2
Washington State Legislature. Senate Bill Report SB 5129
3
Washington State Legislature. RCW 64.90.485 – Liens, Enforcement, Notice
4
Washington State Legislature. RCW 64.38.055 – Solar Energy Panels
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Washington State Legislature. RCW 64.90.510 – Solar Energy Panels
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Washington State Legislature. RCW 64.38.062 – Electric Vehicle Charging Stations
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Washington State Legislature. RCW 64.90.513 – Electric Vehicle Charging Stations
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Washington State Legislature. RCW 64.38.057 – Landscaping Choices
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Washington State Legislature. RCW 64.90.512 – Drought-Resistant Landscaping
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Washington State Legislature. RCW 64.38.034 – Flag Display
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Washington State Legislature. RCW 64.90.445 – Meetings
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Washington State Legislature. RCW 64.90.455 – Voting
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Washington State Legislature. RCW 64.38.045 – Financial and Other Records
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Washington State Legislature. RCW 64.90.495 – Association Records
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Washington State Legislature. RCW 64.90.405 – Association Powers
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Washington State Legislature. RCW 64.90.410 – Board Member Duties
17
Washington State Legislature. RCW 64.38.020 – Powers of Association
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Washington State Legislature. RCW 64.90.640 – Resale Certificates
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Washington State Legislature. RCW 64.90.545 – Reserve Studies