The New Washington Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act (WUCIOA)

Washington state enacted a new Common Interest Community (CIC, condominiums, homeowner associations, and real estate cooperatives) law that went into effect July 1, 2018.  The new law, formally labelled RCW 64.90, applies in whole to all Common Interest Communities created after July 1, 2018, replacing both the Condo Act (RCW 64.34) and the HOA Act (RCW 64.38) for such communities.  The new WUCIOA law also has some ramifications on existing condominium and homeowners’ communities created before July 1, 2018. Existing communities can elect to have the WUCIOA law wholly apply to their community if the membership votes in favor of that direction.

A key component of the new UWCIOA law that applies to all existing communities created before July 1, 2018 is that budget, assessment, and special assessment ratification process must evolve to a process like the Condominium Act, RCW 64.34.  This means the Board must approve the budget, send a notice to owners, and set a budget ratification meeting 14-50 days from notice.   Then, unless a majority of the vote rejects the budget, it is then ratified.

WUCIOA also requires information that must be disclosed with the proposed budget including income and common expenses, assessments per unit, date assessments are due, amount of assessments budgeted for contribution to the reserve fund, and balance of the reserve fund per unit. The budget must also contain a statement whether the association has a reserve study that meets WUCIOA’s requirements, and how close the budget is to meeting the recommendations of the reserve study.

The Trestle Team has been fully trained and briefed by several of Washington State’s top Community Association Attorney’s.   Please contact your Trestle Community Manager for details about WUCIOA and how it may apply to your association.