Big Changes for Common Interest Communities (and a bonus adjudication update)

This blog post discusses changes recently passed to the Washington Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act. These changes will impact many property owners in Washington State – possibly including you!

During the 2024 session, the Washington State Legislature passed ESSB 5796, significantly amending the Washington Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act (“WUCIOA;” Ch. 64.90 RCW). The biggest change is that effective July 1, 2028, the Horizontal Property Regimes Act (Ch. 64.32 RCW), which applies to residential condominiums created on or before July 1, 1990, the Washington Condominium Act (Ch. 64.34 RCW), which applies to condominiums created after July 1, 1990, and the Homeowners’ Association Act (Ch. 64.38 RCW), which provides a framework for homeowners’ associations created before July 1, 2018, will all be repealed, and WUCIOA will be the sole governing statute for all types of common interest communities. If you’re in a homeowners’ association, condo owners’ association, or co-op (or even if your property used to be in one but it’s now essentially defunct), this applies to you.

The differences between WUCIOA and the older condominium owners’ or homeowners’ association statutes are too many to list and cover a broad range of topics, including setting fees, budgeting, voting, unlawful covenants, and a variety of other subjects. It is likely that any given common interest community’s CC&Rs or practices will be out of compliance with WUCIOA in some way. As of July 1, 2028, all provisions in CC&Rs that do not comply with WUCIOA will be automatically invalid. RCW 64.90.375. If a common interest community tries to act on an invalid provision or otherwise acts inconsistently with WUCIOA, any homeowner can bring a lawsuit to force the association to comply with WUCIOA, and the statute allows a court to award legal fees to a prevailing homeowner. RCW 64.90.685. We therefore advise all homeowners associations, condominium owners associations, and all other types of common interest communities to meet with an attorney with expertise in real estate law to discuss whether changes to their CC&Rs or practices are needed well before July 1, 2028.