Washington HOA Board Elections

Section 1: Overview — How board elections are governed in Washington

Washington runs HOA and condominium board elections through the Washington Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act, or WUCIOA — a statute built on the 2008 model Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act that took effect July 1, 2018 and now sits on top of older laws that still govern the state's earlier condominiums and planned communities. WUCIOA lives at RCW Chapter 64.90, and it governs common interest communities created on or after July 1, 2018. Some of its provisions reach back to communities that existed before that date.¹

Which statute controls depends on the type of community and when it came into being. Condominiums created between July 1, 1990 and July 1, 2018 generally answer to the Washington Condominium Act, RCW Chapter 64.34. Condominiums created before July 1, 1990 may still operate under the Horizontal Property Regimes Act, RCW Chapter 64.32. And planned communities and homeowners associations formed before WUCIOA generally fall under the Homeowners' Associations Act, RCW Chapter 64.38.² Most of these associations are also nonprofit corporations under the Washington Nonprofit Corporation Act, RCW Chapter 24.03A, which supplies director gap-fillers wherever the governing statute and the bylaws stay silent.³

WUCIOA tracks the 2008 UCIOA — the most recent model from the Uniform Law Commission — and that sets Washington apart from the states anchored to the 1982 UCIOA (Alaska, Colorado, Minnesota, Nevada, and West Virginia) and from earlier model years. Only four states adopted the 2008 version: Washington, Connecticut, Delaware, and Vermont.⁴ The sections that follow lay out the board-election framework, the predecessor statutes, the order of precedence, and the nuts and bolts of running and contesting an election.

Section 2: The election framework

2A. WUCIOA board governance and declarant control

WUCIOA puts the association in the hands of a board, and the board provision at RCW 64.90.410 spells out who sits on it and how the owners elect it. As of the transition meeting, the board must hold at least three members, and a majority of them must be unit owners — though the board need not have more members than the community has units.⁵ Once declarant control ends, appointed members may not make up more than one-third of the board, and an appointed member carries no more authority than anyone else on it.⁵

The declaration may set a period of declarant control, and during it the declarant may appoint and remove officers and board members. Under RCW 64.90.415, that period ends no later than the earliest of these triggers: 60 days after the declarant conveys 75 percent of the units that may be created to owners other than the declarant; two years after the last unit conveyance (except to a dealer); two years after the declarant last exercised any right to add new units; or the day the declarant records an amendment voluntarily surrendering the right to appoint and remove officers and board members.⁶ Owner representation phases in before full turnover. No later than 60 days after owners take 25 percent of the units, they must elect at least one member and at least 25 percent of the board; no later than 60 days after they reach 50 percent, they must elect at least 33⅓ percent. And within 30 days after declarant control ends, the board must schedule a transition meeting where the owners choose the owner-elected board.⁶

WUCIOA fixes the floor on board size, the owner-majority rule, the declarant-control termination triggers, and the transition timeline at the statutory level. It leaves the rest — the precise number of directors, term length, term limits, staggering, and most eligibility criteria — to the declaration and bylaws. Because WUCIOA follows the 2008 UCIOA, its declarant-control and board provisions look structurally different from the 1982-anchored states and the 1994-model states; the text that controls is the current Washington statute.

2B. The predecessor statutes by community type and creation date

For communities formed before WUCIOA, the governing statute turns on type and date. The Washington Condominium Act, RCW Chapter 64.34, draws on the 1980 Uniform Condominium Act and governs condominiums created between July 1, 1990 and July 1, 2018; its board provision, RCW 64.34.308, directs owners to elect a board of at least three members, a majority of them unit owners, within 30 days after declarant control ends.⁷ The Horizontal Property Regimes Act, RCW Chapter 64.32, dates to 1963, governs condominiums created before July 1, 1990, and leaves board administration to the declaration and bylaws.⁸ The Homeowners' Associations Act, RCW Chapter 64.38, dates to 1995, governs planned communities and homeowners associations formed before WUCIOA, and leaves the manner of electing and removing directors to the bylaws.⁹

To find the governing statute, first ask whether the community is a condominium or a planned community, then ask when it was created. WUCIOA reaches back to preexisting communities for certain provisions: RCW 64.90.405(1)(b) and (c), RCW 64.90.525, and RCW 64.90.545 — financial statements, budget ratification, and reserve studies — have applied to pre-2018 communities since July 1, 2018, and 2024 and 2025 amendments extend WUCIOA's meeting and governance provisions to all communities effective January 1, 2026, with full applicability and repeal of the three predecessor chapters effective January 1, 2028.¹⁰

For managers of older communities, that creates a moving target. Until 2028, an older association runs on its legacy statute plus a growing list of WUCIOA provisions that reach back — so for any given election mechanic, you have to check both the legacy chapter and the WUCIOA reach-back list as it stands on the date of the election.

2C. Corporate law, the bylaws, and order of precedence

Most Washington associations are nonprofit corporations under the Washington Nonprofit Corporation Act, RCW Chapter 24.03A, which supplies the default rules for director election, terms, removal, and vacancies wherever the applicable common-interest statute and the governing documents stay silent.³ This is corporate scaffolding, not an HOA election statute; it fills gaps rather than setting community-association election policy.

The order of precedence runs in a clear line: from the mandatory provisions of the applicable common-interest statute, to that statute's default provisions as modified by the declaration and bylaws, to the governing documents themselves, to the Nonprofit Corporation Act gap-fillers, and finally to board-adopted rules. Under WUCIOA, the parties may not vary the effect of the chapter by agreement except where the chapter expressly allows it, and they may not waive the rights it confers.¹¹ The practical takeaway: the controlling election rule depends first on community type and creation date — which decides whether WUCIOA, the Condominium Act, the Horizontal Property Regimes Act, or the Homeowners' Associations Act governs — and only then on the governing documents and corporate defaults.

Section 3: Election mechanics

The table below sets out each mechanic by community type and names the governing source. Every numeric value carries a footnote to its primary source.

A. Eligibility and nominations

Under WUCIOA, a majority of the board must be unit owners, and after declarant control no more than one-third of the board may be appointed; that much is mandatory. Additional qualifications — good standing, residency, and the like — come from the declaration and bylaws.⁵ The Condominium Act draws the same line for 1990-to-2018 condominiums, requiring a unit-owner majority.⁷ WUCIOA requires the election notice to state the number of open positions, the qualifications, and the nomination process, but the governing documents — not the statute — set the nomination method itself, and that holds across all four community types.¹³

B. Notice, annual meeting, and quorum

WUCIOA requires at least one owners meeting each year and notice of any annual or special owners meeting not less than 14 and not more than 50 days before the meeting; these provisions reach preexisting communities effective January 1, 2026.¹³ The Condominium Act requires an annual meeting and notice not less than 14 nor more than 60 days before a meeting.¹⁴ The statutory election quorum runs 20 percent of votes under WUCIOA, unless the organizational documents provide otherwise,¹⁹ 25 percent under the Condominium Act, unless the bylaws specify more,²⁰ and 34 percent under the Homeowners' Associations Act, unless the governing documents specify otherwise;²¹ the governing documents may vary each default. The Horizontal Property Regimes Act sets no quorum, so the bylaws set it.⁸

C. Voting methods, proxies, and ballots

WUCIOA lets owners vote in person, by absentee ballot, by proxy, or by ballot without a meeting, and it requires that the election of board members proceed by secret ballot, with incumbents and candidates barred from the ballots until they are counted.¹⁶ Proxies follow the same rules as RCW 24.06.110 and, unless the proxy says otherwise, expire 11 months after issuance; an association may vary WUCIOA's proxy and absentee-ballot rules only as the chapter allows.¹⁶ The Condominium Act authorizes in-person, absentee, and proxy voting with an 11-month proxy limit,¹⁷ while the Horizontal Property Regimes Act and the Homeowners' Associations Act allow in-person, absentee, and proxy voting and leave most procedure to the governing documents.¹⁸ None of the four statutes addresses cumulative voting, so it exists only where the declaration and bylaws provide for it.

D. Terms, vacancies, removal, and recall

None of the four statutes fixes director term length, term limits, or staggering — the bylaws set them. On vacancies, WUCIOA and the Condominium Act let the board fill a vacancy not resulting from removal for the unexpired term, and the Homeowners' Associations Act lets the board fill vacancies for the unexpired portion of a term.^5,7,23 On removal, WUCIOA lets owners remove an owner-elected director with or without cause by the lesser of a majority of votes held by eligible owners or two-thirds of votes cast at the meeting, provided the notice lists the removal, and separately lets the board remove a director who runs more than 60 days delinquent in assessments and stays uncured after 30 days.²² The Condominium Act requires a two-thirds vote of the voting power present and entitled to vote at a meeting with a quorum,⁷ and the Homeowners' Associations Act requires a majority of the voting power present;²³ owners generally may not remove declarant-appointed members by vote during declarant control.

Section 4: Recent legislative and judicial activity

A. Recent bills

B. Recent appellate rulings

No published Washington appellate decision in the past 36 months squarely addresses board elections, contested elections, declarant-control transition, director removal, or owner voting under WUCIOA or the predecessor statutes. The most recent governing authority on how far courts will defer to a community-association board's decisions is the Washington Supreme Court's ruling in Surowiecki v. Hat Island Community Association, No. 99138-3 (Feb. 24, 2022).

C. Active legislative debates

After ESSB 5796 and ESSB 5129, stakeholders — among them the Community Associations Institute and HOA United — keep pressing for technical corrections to WUCIOA's meeting, voting, and disclosure provisions, and observers expect further clean-up legislation amending WUCIOA's governance provisions in upcoming sessions as the 2026 and 2028 transition dates draw closer.²⁴

Section 5: National positioning and related coverage

Washington is a UCIOA state that adopted the 2008 model in WUCIOA, which sets it apart from the 1982-anchored states (Alaska, Colorado, Minnesota, Nevada, and West Virginia) and places it in the small group of 2008-version states alongside Connecticut, Delaware, and Vermont.⁴ What defines Washington for board elections is a layered framework where the governing statute depends on community type and creation date: WUCIOA for communities created on or after July 1, 2018, the Condominium Act for 1990-to-2018 condominiums, the Horizontal Property Regimes Act for pre-1990 condominiums, and the Homeowners' Associations Act for pre-WUCIOA planned communities — all of it pending the 2028 transition. For a multi-state operator, the practical rule is plain: in Washington, first pin down the community type and creation date to find the governing statute, then check which WUCIOA provisions reach the older community as of the election date.

HOA Weekly updates its Washington board-elections coverage quarterly as the legislature and the courts act — a cadence that matters during the staged 2026-to-2028 WUCIOA transition. Federal frameworks — the Fair Housing Act, the ADA, the FDCPA, the SCRA, and the FCC's OTARD rule — also reach Washington associations no matter what the state framework says.

1. RCW Chapter 64.90, Washington Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act ↩
2. RCW 64.90.080, Common interest communities, preexisting (identifying chapters 64.32, 64.34, and 64.38 RCW) ↩
3. RCW 64.90.410(1)(b) (standards of care, conflict-of-interest rules, and immunities apply regardless of the form in which the association is organized); RCW 64.38.025(1) (care and loyalty required of a director of a corporation organized under chapter 24.03A RCW) ↩
4. RCW 64.90.900, Short title (Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act); Uniform Law Commission, Common Interest Ownership Act enactment status (1982, 1994, and 2008 versions) ↩
5. RCW 64.90.410, Board members, officers, and committees (board of at least three members, majority unit owners; appointed members no more than one-third; board may fill vacancies not resulting from removal) ↩
6. RCW 64.90.415, Period of declarant control—Transition ↩
7. RCW 64.34.308, Board of directors and officers (effective until January 1, 2028) (board elected within 30 days after declarant control ends; two-thirds owner vote to remove a non-declarant director) ↩
8. RCW 64.32.090, Contents of declaration (administration by a board of directors and adoption of bylaws left to the declaration); Chapter 64.32 RCW, Horizontal Property Regimes Act ↩
9. RCW 64.38.030, Association bylaws (effective until January 1, 2028) (number, qualifications, terms, and manner of electing and removing directors set by bylaws) ↩
10. RCW 64.90.080 (reach-back of RCW 64.90.405(1)(b)–(c), 64.90.525, and 64.90.545 to pre-July-1-2018 communities); Chapter 64.34 RCW dispositions and Chapter 64.38 RCW dispositions (repeals by 2024 c 321, effective January 1, 2028) ↩
11. RCW 64.90.015, Variation by agreement (provisions may not be varied by agreement, and rights conferred may not be waived, except as expressly provided) ↩
12. RCW 64.34.324, Bylaws (effective until January 1, 2028) (number, qualifications, and terms of office of directors provided in the bylaws) ↩
13. RCW 64.90.445, Meetings (annual meeting; 14-to-50-day notice; agenda and removal-item disclosure) ↩
14. RCW 64.34.332, Meetings (effective until January 1, 2028); RCW 64.34.308(3) (14-to-60-day budget-ratification meeting notice) ↩
15. RCW 64.38.035, Association meetings—Notice—Board of directors (effective until January 1, 2028) ↩
16. RCW 64.90.455, Unit owner voting (in-person, absentee, proxy, and ballot-without-a-meeting voting; secret ballot for director elections; incumbents and candidates barred from ballot access until counted; proxy as in RCW 24.06.110, terminating 11 months after issuance) ↩
17. RCW 64.34.340, Voting—In person, absentee ballots, proxies (effective until January 1, 2028) (majority of votes cast determines outcome; 11-month proxy limit) ↩
18. RCW 64.32.280, Voting—In person, absentee ballots, proxies (Chapter 64.32 RCW dispositions) ↩
19. RCW 64.90.450, Quorum (20 percent of votes unless the organizational documents provide otherwise) ↩
20. RCW 64.34.336, Quorums (effective until January 1, 2028) (25 percent unless the bylaws specify a larger percentage) ↩
21. RCW 64.38.040, Quorum for meeting (effective until January 1, 2028) (34 percent unless the governing documents specify a different percentage) ↩
22. RCW 64.90.520, Officers and board members—Removal (owner removal by the lesser of a majority of votes held by eligible owners or two-thirds of votes cast; board removal of a director delinquent more than 60 days and uncured after 30 days) ↩
23. RCW 64.38.025, Board of directors—Standard of care—Restrictions—Budget—Removal from board (effective until January 1, 2028) (majority of voting power present may remove a director; board may fill vacancies for the unexpired term) ↩
24. ESSB 5129 (2025), chapter 119, Laws of 2025; Senate Bill Report ESSB 5129 (write-in candidate blank space; secret-ballot and ballot-access changes; January 1, 2026 application to all communities) ↩
25. ESSB 5796 (2024), chapter 321, Laws of 2024 ("WUCIOA for All"); House Bill Report ESSB 5129 (noting 2024 repeal of older statutes effective January 1, 2028) ↩
26. Surowiecki v. Hat Island Community Ass'n, No. 99138-3 (Wash. Feb. 24, 2022) (slip opinion retrievable from the Washington Courts opinions search by docket 99138-3; reported at 199 Wn.2d 271, 504 P.3d 795) ↩