Valerie Farris Oman


The Washington Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act (WUCIOA) was adopted by the Washington State legislature earlier this year and took effect on July 1, 2018. WUCIOA can be found at RCW 64.90 et seq., and governs all community associations – including condos, HOAs, and co-ops – created on or after that date. Communities created before July 1, 2018 will still be governed primarily by existing statutes1


WUCIOA by amending their governing documents.


The existing statutes that govern how community associations are regulated are vague and have led to many disputes between owners and their associations. WUCIOA attempts to remedy that lack of clarity, and provides specific guidance about the rights and obligations of the owners and the association, and even banks that loan money to purchasers. This article covers just a few of the many issues that WUCIOA addresses, and discusses how the WUCIOA provisions may be better (or worse) for different communities.


Adopting WUCIOA Some WUCIOA provisions apply to all existing communities, including the section on how existing communities may adopt WUCIOA. There is a specific process required to adopt WUCIOA:


1. The first step is to adopt WUCIOA as your community’s governing statute. To do so, the board must:


a) Prepare an amendment to the declaration adopting WUCIOA.


b) Send the amendment to the owners along with notice that in 30 or more days, an association meeting will be held on the amendment.


c) Set a deadline for the owners to complete voting, and send the owners the final proposed amendment with a ballot for their vote.


d) The amendment will pass if at least 30% of the owners vote and 67% of votes approve. This is a much lower adoption threshold than normal, making WUCIOA easy to adopt.


2. The second step is to delete declaration provisions which conflict with WUCIOA. To do so, the board must:


a) Prepare an amendment deleting provisions which conflict with WUCIOA.


b) Send the amendment to the owners along with notice that in 30 or more days, an association meeting will be held on the amendment.


c) Provide owners with an opportunity to comment on the amendment at this meeting.


16 Community Associations Journal | September 2018


d) The amendment may then be approved by two-thirds of the board. No vote of the owners is required to adopt this amendment.


unless they choose to “adopt”


3. The final step is to adopt optional WUCIOA provisions and delete/change non-conflicting provisions in the declaration. This step is not mandatory but allows the association to make desired changes like removing references to the declarant, moving governance issues to the bylaws, allocate expense to only units benefitted, assess the association’s insurance deductible against a unit, and more.


At each of these three stages, the amendments take effect when recorded.


Budget Ratification Under WUCIOA, all communities – even Old Act condos that have never been required to ratify a budget – must follow the budget ratification process outlined in RCW 64.90.525. Under WUCIOA, the board must:


1. Adopt a proposed budget.


2. Within 30 days of adoption, provide copies of the budget to the owners along with a budget summary.


3. Set a meeting between fourteen and fifty days after providing the budget to the members.


4. Give owners an opportunity to vote on the budget at that meeting.


5. The budget is ratified unless a majority of the total votes in the association (not just the votes of the members present at the meeting) reject the budget. Even if there is no quorum, the budget is ratified.


6. If the budget is rejected, or if notice is not provided, the last budget to be ratified remains in effect until a new budget is ratified.


Specific information must be contained in the proposed budget, including: projected income and common expenses, the amount of assessments per unit, the date assessments are due, the amount of assessments budgeted for reserves, and the current balance of reserve funding per unit. The proposed budget must also contain a statement of whether the association has a reserve study that meets WUCIOA’s requirements, and how close the budget is to meeting the recommendations of that reserve study.


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