Washington HOA Fining Authority

Section 1: Overview

In Washington, whether an association can fine an owner — and whether it can foreclose when that fine goes unpaid — turns first on a single question: which statute governs the community. Four of them are layered across the state, and the one that applies depends on the community's type and the date it was created. The modern layer is the Washington Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act, or WUCIOA, codified at RCW 64.90. It took effect July 1, 2018, it follows the national Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act, and it governs condominiums, plat (planned) communities, and cooperatives created on or after that date.¹ Three older statutes cover everything built earlier: the Condominium Act, RCW 64.34, for condominiums created between July 1, 1990 and July 1, 2018;² the Horizontal Property Regimes Act, RCW 64.32, for condominiums created before July 1, 1990;³ and the Homeowners' Associations Act, RCW 64.38, for planned-community HOAs formed before July 1, 2018.⁴

WUCIOA reaches back to those older communities only selectively. When lawmakers enacted it, just a short list of its sections — budget ratification, reserve studies, and the provision that lets a community opt in — applied to communities created before 2018. The fining power in RCW 64.90.405(2)(l) was not on that list.⁵ So the first move for any board or manager is to pin down the governing statute, because the fining rules, the due-process steps, and the treatment of liens all differ across the four tracks.

The question that matters most comes next: can an unpaid fine become a lien and support foreclosure? Under all four statutes, the answer is a qualified no. An association can secure a fine, but it cannot foreclose on a balance made up only of fines.⁶ The Quick-Reference table that follows lays out the mechanics, and Section 3C walks through them statute by statute.

Section 2: Quick-Reference Fining Mechanics Table

The table below lays out Washington's fining mechanics at a glance. Because the governing statute depends on community type and creation date, it foregrounds WUCIOA (RCW 64.90) as the modern layer and flags the legacy statutes in Section 3. The Condominiums column tracks the condominium statutes; the Planned Communities column tracks the planned-community statutes. The detailed discussion below sources every value.

Cells reflect WUCIOA (RCW 64.90) for communities created on or after July 1, 2018; communities created earlier may be governed by the Condominium Act (RCW 64.34), the Horizontal Property Regimes Act (RCW 64.32), or the Homeowners' Associations Act (RCW 64.38), as explained in Section 3. Last verified: July 14, 2026.

Section 3: Fining mechanics in detail

3A. Source and outer limits of fining authority

Washington layers four statutes, and the governing one is fixed by community type and creation date. WUCIOA (RCW 64.90) governs condominiums, plat communities, and cooperatives created on or after July 1, 2018.¹ The Condominium Act (RCW 64.34) governs condominiums created on or after July 1, 1990 and before July 1, 2018.² The Horizontal Property Regimes Act (RCW 64.32) governs condominiums created before July 1, 1990.³ The Homeowners' Associations Act (RCW 64.38) governs planned-community HOAs formed before July 1, 2018.⁴

WUCIOA is the most detailed of the four, and the most prescriptive. Its powers provision, RCW 64.90.405(2)(l), lets an association "enforce the governing documents and, after notice and opportunity to be heard, impose and collect reasonable fines for violations of the governing documents in accordance with a previously established schedule of fines adopted by the board of directors and furnished to the owners pursuant to the requirements for notice in RCW 64.90.505."⁷ The test is reasonableness; WUCIOA sets no dollar cap. Its reach back to older communities is narrow. RCW 64.90.365 — the applicability section, recodified from former RCW 64.90.080 — lists the WUCIOA sections that touch pre-2018 communities, and RCW 64.90.405(2)(l) is not among them. A pre-2018 community's fining power therefore still flows from its own governing statute until the 2026-to-2028 phase-in that Section 4 describes.⁵

The Condominium Act tracks WUCIOA's structure. RCW 64.34.304(1)(k) lets an association levy reasonable fines under a previously established schedule furnished to owners, after notice and an opportunity to be heard and in accordance with procedures in the declaration, bylaws, or rules.⁸ The Homeowners' Associations Act mirrors that language in RCW 64.38.020(11).⁹ The Horizontal Property Regimes Act is the exception: it grants no express fining power. RCW 64.32.060 says only that noncompliance opens the door to an action to recover sums due, for damages, or for injunctive relief.¹⁰ For pre-1990 condominiums, then, fining authority comes from the governing documents rather than the statute, and any fine rests on the declaration and bylaws plus the common-law expectation of reasonable notice and a chance to respond. Across all four tracks, the governing documents fill in the operational detail — the schedule of fines, the notice mechanics, any cure period — and courts require that the rules being enforced be reasonable and consistent with the statute.

3B. The required fining procedure

Under WUCIOA the procedure is prescriptive on two points and silent on the rest. RCW 64.90.405(2)(l) requires notice and an opportunity to be heard before a fine lands, and it requires the fine to conform to a previously established schedule that the board has adopted and furnished to owners.⁷ The statute treats that schedule like a rule: the board must notice any new or updated schedule the same way it notices rules under RCW 64.90.505.¹¹ WUCIOA fixes no minimum notice period, no hearing-request deadline, and no written-decision requirement. Those details live in the governing documents, and boards should calendar them from their own declaration, bylaws, and rules rather than from the statute.

The Condominium Act (RCW 64.34.304(1)(k)) and the Homeowners' Associations Act (RCW 64.38.020(11)) impose the same two-part predicate: notice and an opportunity to be heard, plus a previously established, furnished schedule of fines.^8,9 Both leave the timing to the procedures set in the governing documents. The Horizontal Property Regimes Act supplies no statutory fining procedure at all; a pre-1990 condominium that wants to fine has to rely on authority in its governing documents, and the process still has to meet the common-law expectation of reasonable notice and a meaningful chance to respond.¹⁰

Neither WUCIOA nor the legacy statutes expressly allow or forbid per-day or continuing fines. Whether a violation can be fined on a recurring basis depends on the adopted schedule and the governing documents, and it is always bounded by the statutory reasonableness limit. The practical point holds: identify the governing statute first, because WUCIOA and the two condominium-and-HOA legacy acts require a published schedule and a hearing right, while the Horizontal Property Regimes Act leaves fining entirely to the governing documents.

3C. Enforcement of unpaid fines: assessments, liens, and foreclosure

This subsection carries the highest risk of error, so each statute gets its own treatment. Under WUCIOA, RCW 64.90.010(3) defines "assessment" to include "fines or fees levied or imposed by the association pursuant to this chapter or the governing documents."¹² Because the statutory assessment lien in RCW 64.90.485(1) attaches to unpaid assessments, a fine falls inside the lien. WUCIOA also gives the association a limited-priority lien ahead of a prior recorded first mortgage, but only up to the common-expense assessments that would have come due in the six months before foreclosure begins (RCW 64.90.485(3)(a)) — and that priority amount expressly leaves fines out.⁶ The association can foreclose the lien judicially under chapter 61.12 RCW, or nonjudicially under chapter 61.24 RCW if the declaration grants a power of sale. Here is the critical limit: RCW 64.90.485(22), in the version effective January 1, 2026, bars an association from starting foreclosure unless the owner "owes at least a sum equal to the greater of: (i) Three months or more of assessments, not including fines, late charges, interest, attorneys' fees, or costs . . . or (ii) $2,000 of assessments, not including fines, late charges, interest, attorneys' fees, or costs."⁶ A balance made up only of fines cannot support foreclosure.

The Condominium Act reaches the same result through parallel text. The lien in RCW 64.34.364 secures unpaid assessments, carries a six-month priority over a prior mortgage, and can be foreclosed judicially or nonjudicially. Its foreclosure threshold likewise demands the greater of three months of assessments or $2,000, "not including fines," so a fine-only balance is not foreclosable.¹³ The Horizontal Property Regimes Act lien in RCW 64.32.200 is weaker: it takes priority only after tax liens and everything unpaid on mortgages of record, with no super-priority over a first mortgage, and it is foreclosed judicially "in like manner as a mortgage." Its threshold is the greater of three months of assessments or $200, again "not including fines." And because RCW 64.32 grants no statutory fining power, whether a fine is lienable at all in a pre-1990 condominium turns on the declaration.¹⁴

The Homeowners' Associations Act is the outlier on the lien question. RCW 64.38.100 creates no statutory lien; it operates only "if the governing documents of an association provide for a lien" for unpaid assessments. A pre-2018 planned community's lien is therefore governing-document-derived, and the statute then adds preforeclosure notice requirements and the same foreclosure threshold — the greater of three months of assessments or $2,000, "not including fines."¹⁵ Short of foreclosure, WUCIOA gives an association another tool: under RCW 64.90.405(2)(x) it may suspend a right or privilege of an owner who fails to pay an assessment, though it may not deny that owner access to the unit or to the limited common elements allocated to it.¹⁶

Section 4: Recent legislative and judicial activity

A. Recent bills

B. Recent appellate rulings

Beyond Landesberg, a search of published Washington appellate opinions from 2022 through 2026 turns up no decision squarely on the enforceability of an HOA or condominium fine, the required fining procedure, or the lien-and-foreclosure treatment of fines. Recent action on assessment liens and foreclosure has come from the legislature, not the courts. Boards looking for a directly on-point fine decision should treat this as an open area and rely on the statutory text.

C. Active legislative debates

The active thread is implementation, not new fining rules. WUCIOA cleanup and phase-in legislation has continued session after session, following SB 5796 and SB 5129, and more conforming amendments are likely as the January 1, 2028 repeal of the three legacy statutes draws closer.

Section 5: National positioning and related coverage

Washington belongs to the UCIOA family: it enacted a modern, comprehensive statute — WUCIOA — and layered it over three legacy acts. It adopted the 2008 version of the model act, alongside states like Connecticut, Delaware, and Vermont, while other UCIOA-family states — Nevada, Colorado, and West Virginia among them — took the earlier 1982 version. Washington uses its own RCW section numbers rather than the UCIOA model numbers.¹ That sets it apart from CC&R-primary states, where fining authority rests almost entirely on the governing documents. The defining Washington feature is the four-statute layering: the governing statute — and with it the fine standard, the due-process steps, and the lien treatment — depends on community type and creation date until the 2028 consolidation.

On the treatment of fines in liens and foreclosure, Washington leans protective of owners. It folds fines into the assessment lien but bars foreclosure on a fine-only balance, and that bar runs through every track, using the same "not including fines" language in RCW 64.90.485, RCW 64.34.364, and RCW 64.38.100.⁶ Washington also has no dedicated common-interest-community regulator to adjudicate fine disputes, and it requires no separate HOA-manager license — common-interest-community managers are exempt from real estate broker licensure under RCW 18.85.151.²¹ Disputes run through the Superior Courts, with appeals to the Court of Appeals (three divisions) and discretionary review by the Supreme Court.

HOA Weekly updates this Washington Fining Authority coverage quarterly, as the Legislature and the Washington appellate courts act. Federal frameworks apply on top of the state framework regardless — notably the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, which can reach third-party collection of fines, along with the Fair Housing Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, and the OTARD rule.

1. Washington State Legislature, Wash. Rev. Code ch. 64.90, Washington Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act ↩ ↩ ↩
2. Washington State Legislature, Wash. Rev. Code ch. 64.34, Condominium Act (condominiums created on or after July 1, 1990 and before July 1, 2018) ↩ ↩
3. Washington State Legislature, Wash. Rev. Code ch. 64.32, Horizontal Property Regimes Act (condominiums created before July 1, 1990) ↩ ↩
4. Washington State Legislature, Wash. Rev. Code ch. 64.38, Homeowners' Associations Act (planned-community HOAs formed before July 1, 2018) ↩ ↩
5. Washington State Legislature, Wash. Rev. Code § 64.90.365, Applicability to preexisting common interest communities (recodified from former § 64.90.080; lists the WUCIOA sections applying to communities created before July 1, 2018) ↩ ↩
6. Washington State Legislature, Wash. Rev. Code § 64.90.485, Association liens—Enforcement—Notice of delinquency—Second notice (subsection (1) statutory lien; subsection (3)(a) six-month limited priority excluding fines; subsection (22) foreclosure threshold, "not including fines," effective January 1, 2026) ↩ ↩ ↩ ↩
7. Washington State Legislature, Wash. Rev. Code § 64.90.405, Powers and duties (subsection (2)(l), reasonable fines after notice and opportunity to be heard per a schedule of fines) ↩ ↩
8. Washington State Legislature, Wash. Rev. Code § 64.34.304, Powers of unit owners' association (subsection (1)(k), reasonable fines after notice and opportunity to be heard under a previously established schedule) ↩ ↩
9. Washington State Legislature, Wash. Rev. Code § 64.38.020, Association powers (subsection (11), reasonable fines after notice and opportunity to be heard under a previously established schedule) ↩ ↩
10. Washington State Legislature, Wash. Rev. Code § 64.32.060, Compliance with bylaws and rules and regulations required (noncompliance is grounds for an action to recover sums due, for damages, or for injunctive relief; no express fining power) ↩ ↩
11. Washington State Legislature, Wash. Rev. Code § 64.90.505, Rules—Notice (schedules of fines noticed in the same manner as rules) ↩
12. Washington State Legislature, Wash. Rev. Code § 64.90.010, Definitions (subsection (3) defines "assessment" to include "fines or fees levied or imposed by the association pursuant to this chapter or the governing documents") ↩
13. Washington State Legislature, Wash. Rev. Code § 64.34.364, Lien for assessments—Notice of delinquency—Second notice (six-month priority; foreclosure threshold requiring the greater of three months of assessments or $2,000 "not including fines," effective January 1, 2026) ↩
14. Washington State Legislature, Wash. Rev. Code § 64.32.200, Assessments for common expenses—Enforcement of collection—Liens and foreclosures (lien prior only after tax liens and mortgages of record; judicial foreclosure; threshold the greater of three months of assessments or $200 "not including fines") ↩
15. Washington State Legislature, Wash. Rev. Code § 64.38.100, Liens for unpaid assessments—Notice of delinquency—Second notice (lien exists only "if the governing documents of an association provide for a lien"; foreclosure threshold the greater of three months of assessments or $2,000 "not including fines") ↩
16. Washington State Legislature, Wash. Rev. Code § 64.90.405(2)(x), Powers and duties (suspension of a right or privilege of an owner who fails to pay an assessment, with limits on denying access to the unit and its limited common elements) ↩
17. Washington State Legislature, Engrossed Substitute S.B. 5129, ch. 119, 2025 Wash. Sess. Laws (effective July 27, 2025) ↩
18. Washington State Legislature, Engrossed Substitute S.B. 5796, ch. 321, 2024 Wash. Sess. Laws (effective June 6, 2024; repeals Wash. Rev. Code chs. 64.32, 64.34, 64.38, and ch. 58.19 effective January 1, 2028) ↩
19. Washington State Legislature, Engrossed Substitute S.B. 5686, ch. 393, 2025 Wash. Sess. Laws (foreclosure mediation program; amendments to Wash. Rev. Code §§ 64.90.485, 64.34.364, and 64.38.100) ↩
20. Landesberg v. Fairway Village Homeowners Ass'n, 30 Wn. App. 2d 660, 546 P.3d 502 (Wash. Ct. App. Div. II 2024) ↩
21. Washington State Legislature, Wash. Rev. Code § 18.85.151, Exemptions from real estate broker licensing (common interest community managers exempt) ↩