Section 1: Overview — Condo safety inspections in Washington

Washington has no milestone or structural inspection statute for condominiums and no structural integrity reserve study (SIRS) requirement of the kind Florida adopted after the Surfside collapse.¹ Safety-inspection obligations for Washington condominiums instead arise from a layered set of sources: the association's general duty to maintain, repair, and replace the common elements under the applicable condominium statute;² the reserve study and reserve funding disclosure requirements;³ the mandatory statewide building code and locally enforced fire codes;⁴ insurer conditions; and the recorded declaration. Which statute governs depends on the declaration's creation date, because Washington layers three regimes: the Washington Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act (WUCIOA, RCW 64.90, effective July 1, 2018), the Washington Condominium Act (RCW 64.34, for condominiums created between July 1, 1990 and June 30, 2018), and the Horizontal Property Regimes Act (RCW 64.32, for condominiums created before July 1, 1990).⁵

Washington imposes strong reserve study requirements, but a reserve study is a funding-adequacy and disclosure tool, not a structural inspection, and the two must be kept distinct.³ That distinction matters because Cascadia subduction zone and Seattle Fault seismic exposure, plus a wet climate with a long history of building-envelope and water-intrusion failures, make structural maintenance a live concern even without an inspection mandate. Nationally, Washington sits with the reserve-study states rather than the structural-mandate states like Florida.⁶ The sections below detail where each obligation originates.

Section 2: The statutory and regulatory framework

2A. The three condominium statutes: maintenance, insurance, and reserves

Washington applies one of three statutes to a condominium by creation date, and their provisions shouldn't be cross-applied. WUCIOA (RCW 64.90) governs condominiums created on or after July 1, 2018; the Washington Condominium Act (RCW 64.34) governs those created between July 1, 1990 and June 30, 2018; and the Horizontal Property Regimes Act (RCW 64.32) governs those created before July 1, 1990.⁵ Under a 2024 enactment, WUCIOA becomes the sole governing statute for all common interest communities on January 1, 2028, when the older acts are repealed.⁷

The core obligation is a general duty to maintain. Under WUCIOA, the association must maintain, repair, and replace the common elements, including limited common elements, and each unit owner must maintain the owner's unit, except as the declaration provides otherwise.² The Condominium Act imposes a parallel duty.⁸ Both statutes also grant the association access rights through units for necessary inspections, but neither sets a fixed inspection schedule; the duty is a general standard of upkeep, not a periodic structural-inspection mandate.

Reserve requirements are the strongest financial-planning obligation and are distinct from any inspection. Under the Condominium Act, a condominium association with significant assets must prepare a reserve study, update it annually, and base an updated study on a visual site inspection by a reserve study professional at least every three years.⁹ WUCIOA imposes the same core requirement, and beginning January 1, 2026 the WUCIOA reserve study requirement applies to pre-2018 communities as well.^3,10 A reserve study identifies components the association must maintain, estimates remaining useful life and replacement cost, and recommends a funding plan; the "visual site inspection" it requires is a funding exercise, not a structural safety inspection.¹¹

Insurance is also statutory. The Condominium Act requires property insurance of at least 80 percent of replacement value plus liability insurance,¹² and WUCIOA imposes similar property and liability requirements and adds a fidelity insurance requirement.¹³ These statutes require reserve studies and insurance but don't impose a scheduled structural or milestone inspection.

2B. The statewide building code, fire and life safety, and elevators

Washington administers a mandatory statewide building code through the State Building Code Council under Chapter 19.27 RCW. The current code is the 2021 edition of the model codes with Washington amendments, effective March 15, 2024.⁴ The State Building Code Act requires each local jurisdiction to enforce the code, and local amendments cannot fall below the state minimum.¹⁴ Jurisdiction over high-rise and multifamily condominiums rests with the local building official, which in Seattle is the Seattle Department of Construction and Inspections.¹⁵ These obligations attach primarily at construction and at the time of alterations or repairs; the code doesn't require a recurring structural inspection of an existing building's envelope.

Fire and life safety is split between state and local authority. The State Fire Marshal's Office sits within the Washington State Patrol, headed by the Director of Fire Protection.¹⁶ The State Fire Marshal conducts fire and life safety inspections of state-licensed facilities such as nursing homes and assisted living facilities, while local fire departments and fire code officials enforce the International Fire Code for other buildings, including residential condominiums; counties enforce the fire code in unincorporated areas.¹⁷ Ongoing fire code obligations for a residential condominium (fire alarms, sprinklers, extinguishers, egress) are enforced at the local level.

Elevator safety is administered by the Department of Labor and Industries under Chapter 70.87 RCW. The department must cause all conveyances to be inspected and tested at least once each year, and an operating permit and certificate must be maintained for each regulated conveyance.¹⁸ Seattle and Spokane run their own elevator inspection programs.¹⁹ Seismic design for the Cascadia subduction zone and the Seattle Fault is addressed through the building code at the design and construction stage, not through a periodic statutory inspection. Together, these regimes impose obligations at construction and for specific systems such as fire protection and elevators, but they don't create a comprehensive periodic structural inspection of the building envelope of the kind Florida mandates.¹

2C. Insurance, the declaration, and the practical inspection drivers

The condominium statutes require property and casualty insurance, but in practice carriers impose their own inspection and maintenance conditions as a condition of writing or renewing a master policy.¹² These carrier requirements are market-driven, not statutory, and they've become a significant practical driver of inspection activity as insurers tighten underwriting on aging buildings.

The recorded declaration is the operative document for many buildings. A condominium's inspection cadence, allocation of maintenance responsibility between the association and unit owners, and any building-specific inspection provisions are commonly set by the declaration and the board rather than by statute; the maintenance duty statutes apply "except to the extent provided by the declaration."² Where the association is incorporated as a nonprofit, the Washington Nonprofit Corporation Act (RCW 24.03A) supplies corporate-formality rules only and imposes no inspection duty.²⁰ The operational takeaway is that, absent a statutory inspection mandate, a Washington condominium's actual inspection obligations come from the statewide building code and local fire codes, insurer conditions, and the declaration, read together.

1. Fla. Stat. § 553.899 (Florida milestone inspection requirement, enacted by SB 4-D, 2022), for comparison; Washington has no equivalent statute. ↩
2. RCW 64.90.440 (WUCIOA), Maintenance, repair, replacement — Liability of unit owner — Inspection. ↩
3. RCW 64.90.545 (WUCIOA), Reserve study. ↩
4. Washington State Building Code Council, State Codes, Regulations & Guidelines (2021 codes effective March 15, 2024). ↩
5. Chapter 64.34 RCW (Condominium Act), noting condominiums created prior to July 1, 1990 are governed by Chapter 64.32 RCW; WUCIOA (Chapter 64.90 RCW) governs communities created on or after July 1, 2018. ↩
6. California Civil Code § 5551 (SB 326), exterior elevated element inspections, for comparison; Washington has no equivalent statute. ↩
7. Engrossed Substitute Senate Bill 5796 (Chapter 321, Laws of 2024), repealing RCW 64.32, 64.34, and 64.38 and applying WUCIOA to all common interest communities effective January 1, 2028. ↩
8. RCW 64.34.328 (Condominium Act), Upkeep of condominium (association responsible for maintenance, repair, and replacement of common elements). ↩
9. RCW 64.34.380 (Condominium Act), Reserve account — Reserve study — Annual update (updated reserve study based on visual site inspection at least every three years). ↩
10. House Bill Report, ESSB 5129 (Chapter 119, Laws of 2025), extending WUCIOA reserve study and other provisions to pre-2018 communities effective January 1, 2026. ↩
11. RCW 64.90.550 (WUCIOA), Reserve study — Contents (reserve component list, remaining useful life, replacement cost, and funding plan). ↩
12. RCW 64.34.352 (Condominium Act), Insurance (property insurance not less than 80 percent of actual cash value, plus liability insurance). ↩
13. RCW 64.90.470 (WUCIOA), Insurance (property, liability, and fidelity insurance requirements). ↩
14. Municipal Research and Services Center, Building Codes and Building Permits (State Building Code Act, Chapter 19.27 RCW, requires local jurisdictions to enforce the State Building Code; local amendments cannot reduce minimum standards). ↩
15. Seattle Department of Construction and Inspections, Code Adoption (SDCI adopts the 2021 model codes with State of Washington and local Seattle amendments). ↩
16. RCW 43.43.934, Director of fire protection (State Fire Marshal) — Duties; the Director of Fire Protection is appointed within the Washington State Patrol. ↩
17. Municipal Research and Services Center, Local Government Fire Services — Authority and Requirements (counties administer and enforce the International Fire Code in unincorporated areas under RCW 19.27.110; local fire code officials enforce elsewhere). ↩
18. RCW 70.87.120(2)(a): "the department shall cause all conveyances to be inspected and tested at least once each year," administered by the Department of Labor and Industries under Chapter 70.87 RCW. ↩
19. Seattle Department of Construction and Inspections, Elevator & Escalator Inspections (Seattle conducts its own annual conveyance inspections). ↩
20. Chapter 24.03A RCW, Washington Nonprofit Corporation Act (corporate-formality requirements only; no inspection duty). ↩
21. RCW 64.55.030, Inspection required (building enclosure of multiunit residential buildings inspected during initial construction and rehabilitative construction). ↩
22. Engrossed House Bill 1403 (Chapter 201, Laws of 2025), "Simplifying condominium construction statutes," signed May 7, 2025, effective July 27, 2025. ↩
23. Parisien v. Eighty South Jackson Condominium Ass'n, No. 40267-3-III (Wash. Ct. App. Div. III, May 8, 2025) ↩
24. 3710 Irongate, LLC v. Unit Owners Ass'n of Judson Plaza Condominium, No. 86717-2-I (Wash. Ct. App. Div. I, 2025). ↩
25. HUD, FHA Condominiums (insurance coverage, financial condition, pending legal action, and physical property condition; condominium projects must comply with applicable state law and remain in good standing) ↩