Washington HOA Insurance Requirements

Section 1: Overview — How HOA insurance is regulated in Washington

Washington governs condominiums, cooperatives, and planned communities under a single statute based on the Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act (UCIOA), the Washington Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act (WUCIOA), which carries a statutory insurance mandate for covered communities modeled on UCIOA Section 3-113, with the recorded declaration remaining operationally central.¹ The WUCIOA insurance section is RCW 64.90.470, not RCW 64.90.475, which addresses accounts and records.¹ WUCIOA is based on the 2008 revision of UCIOA, so the 2008 insurance features, including deductible-allocation authority tied to the unit that is the source of a loss, are present, though implemented in Washington's own language.¹⁵

WUCIOA applies to communities created on or after July 1, 2018, and reaches certain earlier communities only through a defined retroactivity list; that list does not include the insurance section, so older communities remain governed by RCW 64.34.352 (Condominium Act), RCW 64.32.220 (Horizontal Property Regimes Act), or RCW 64.38 (Homeowners' Associations Act) and their declarations until a statewide transition takes effect January 1, 2028.⁸⁹ The property-coverage obligation is keyed to building structure, so detached-home planned communities differ from condominiums.¹ Fidelity coverage is a WUCIOA statutory mandate, but D&O coverage is not; it is typically declaration-driven or lender-driven.¹ Washington sits with UCIOA states such as Alaska, Colorado, and Delaware, distinct from CC&R-primary states and from comprehensive prescriptive states like California and Florida. The sections below detail the framework, the allocation of responsibility, and the federal overlay.

Section 2: The statutory insurance framework

2A. The WUCIOA insurance mandate

For communities created on or after July 1, 2018, RCW 64.90.470 requires the association, commencing not later than the first conveyance of a unit to a person other than a declarant, to maintain in its own name, to the extent reasonably available and subject to reasonable deductibles, four coverages: property insurance, commercial general liability insurance, fidelity insurance, and any other insurance the declaration requires.¹ The section descends from the 2008 version of UCIOA Section 3-113, carrying its own single citation history at 2018 c 277 s 315.¹

Property insurance must cover the common elements and, in a plat or miscellaneous community, property that must become common elements, insuring against risks of direct physical loss commonly insured against, in an amount not less than 80 percent of the actual cash value of the insured property at purchase and at each renewal, exclusive of land, excavations, foundations, and other items normally excluded from property policies.¹ The property-coverage obligation is keyed to building structure. Under RCW 64.90.470(2), where a building contains units divided by horizontal boundaries or by vertical boundaries that comprise common walls between units (condominiums and attached or stacked structures), the property insurance must also include the units and, unless the declaration provides otherwise, all improvements and betterments to the units.¹ For a planned community of detached single-family homes, no unit is divided by such boundaries, so the association's property obligation reaches the common elements rather than the dwellings, and owners insure their own homes.¹ Commercial general liability insurance, including medical payments coverage, is required in an amount determined by the board but not less than any amount specified in the declaration, covering occurrences arising from use, ownership, or maintenance of the common elements, and in cooperatives of all units.¹

The mandate is conditioned on coverage being reasonably available. If the property and liability insurance is not reasonably available, RCW 64.90.470(3) requires the association to promptly cause notice of that fact to be given to all unit owners.¹ Loss covered by the property policy is adjusted with the association, and proceeds are payable to an insurance trustee or the association and held in trust, disbursed first for repair or replacement; owners and lienholders receive proceeds only from any surplus after full repair or replacement or termination.¹ Any portion for which insurance is required that is damaged or destroyed must be repaired or replaced promptly unless the community is terminated or 80 percent of owners, including every owner of a unit that will not be rebuilt, vote not to rebuild; cost not paid from proceeds is a common expense.¹ The 2008 deductible authority is implemented not in this section but in the assessments section, RCW 64.90.480(8), which permits the association, if the declaration so provides, to assess a loss within the master-policy deductible against a unit for damage to that unit, excluding earthquake, flood, and similar policies carrying higher-than-standard deductibles.⁵

2B. Applicability, retroactivity, and earlier communities

WUCIOA applies to all common interest communities created in Washington on or after July 1, 2018.³ A defined set of provisions reaches communities created before that date through the preexisting-communities section, formerly RCW 64.90.080 and now codified at RCW 64.90.365; the insurance section, RCW 64.90.470, is not on that retroactivity list, and the 2025 acceleration of selected provisions to January 1, 2026 also did not add it.⁸¹⁰ Earlier condominiums therefore remain under RCW 64.34.352, which requires property insurance of not less than 80 percent of actual cash value and liability coverage, or, for pre-1990 condominiums, under RCW 64.32.220, which requires insurance only if the declaration, bylaws, a majority of owners, or a mortgagee so requires; many pre-2018 planned communities fall under RCW 64.38, which is thin on insurance, leaving the recorded declaration to govern.²¹¹¹² A manager taking over an older Washington community must determine the governing act by creation date before relying on any general "Washington condominium insurance" reference, because the applicable statute, and whether fidelity coverage is mandatory, turns on that date until the statewide transition on January 1, 2028.⁹

2C. The declaration, corporate law, and the federal and market overlay

WUCIOA permits the declaration to vary limited insurance defaults; RCW 64.90.015 lists RCW 64.90.470(2), on coverage where units are attached, and (11), on all-nonresidential communities, among the provisions a declaration may vary, while the core mandate may not be varied by agreement.⁶ Fidelity insurance is a statutory requirement under WUCIOA at RCW 64.90.470(1)(c), but the section sets no dollar amount and no coverage formula, and D&O liability coverage is not mentioned in the section at all; absent a declaration or lender requirement, D&O is optional.¹ The Washington Nonprofit Corporation Act, RCW 24.03A, permits indemnification of directors and officers but does not mandate insurance, and it is distinct from any insurance mandate.⁴ A separate layer of federal and secondary-market requirements from Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, FHA, and the National Flood Insurance Program applies to associations whose units are financed conventionally or through FHA; these are lender or federal requirements, not Washington statute.⁷ Market conditions also shape coverage without changing the statutory floor: earthquake loss is excluded from standard property policies and purchased separately, a material decision given Cascadia Subduction Zone and Seattle Fault exposure; wildfire exposure in eastern Washington and the wildland-urban interface affects availability and cost; and flood exposure brings NFIP into play in Special Flood Hazard Areas.¹³

Section 3: Coverage allocation and compliance obligations

A. Association coverage obligations

Under RCW 64.90.470, a WUCIOA-covered association must maintain property insurance on the common elements at not less than 80 percent of actual cash value, commercial general liability insurance, and fidelity insurance, all to the extent reasonably available, and must notify owners if required property or liability coverage is not reasonably available; these obligations are mandatory and generally may not be varied by the declaration.¹ The property obligation is keyed to building structure, so in a detached-home planned community the association insures the common elements rather than the dwellings.¹

B. Coverage allocation between association and owners

In condominiums and attached or stacked structures, the master policy must reach the units and, unless the declaration provides otherwise, improvements and betterments, so the owner's own policy typically addresses personal property, interior items beyond the master scope, and loss-assessment exposure; the association's policy is primary where an owner also carries coverage on the same risk (RCW 64.90.470(4)(d)).¹ In detached-home planned communities the posture reverses: because the association's property obligation does not reach the detached dwellings, each owner insures their own home, and this allocation flows from the building-structure keying rather than from a variable declaration term.¹

C. Deductibles, proceeds, and repair-or-replace

By default the association bears the master-policy deductible as a common expense, but RCW 64.90.480(8) permits the association, if the declaration so provides, to assess a loss within the deductible against a unit for damage to that unit, excluding earthquake, flood, and similar high-deductible policies; RCW 64.90.480(6) and (7) additionally allow assessment against an owner for expense caused by willful misconduct or gross negligence, or by negligence where the declaration so provides, after notice and an opportunity to be heard.⁵ Proceeds are held in trust and disbursed first for repair or replacement, which the association must complete promptly unless the community is terminated or 80 percent of owners vote not to rebuild, and cost not covered by proceeds is a common expense that exposes owners through assessment.¹ The maintenance and repair allocation in RCW 64.90.440 operates alongside these insurance rules.¹⁴

D. Fidelity, D&O, and disclosure

Fidelity insurance is mandatory for WUCIOA-covered communities under RCW 64.90.470(1)(c), with no statutory dollar amount, while D&O coverage is not required by the section and is declaration- or lender-driven; under the older acts fidelity coverage is not statutorily required and is set by the declaration or by lenders.¹ An insurer that issues a policy under RCW 64.90.470 must provide certificates or memoranda of insurance to the association and, on request made in a record, to any unit owner or holder of a security interest, and may not cancel or refuse to renew without complying with the applicable provisions of chapter 48.18 RCW.¹

Section 4: Recent legislative and judicial activity

A. Recent bills

B. Recent appellate rulings

No published decision of the Washington Court of Appeals (Division I, II, or III) or the Washington Supreme Court in the past 36 months squarely construes the WUCIOA insurance section, RCW 64.90.470, or the Condominium Act insurance section, RCW 64.34.352, on coverage scope, deductible allocation, or the application of proceeds. Insurance-allocation and coverage disputes between owners and associations proceed through the Washington Superior Courts, are appealed to the Washington Court of Appeals in its three divisions (Division I in Seattle, Division II in Tacoma, Division III in Spokane), and reach the Washington Supreme Court on discretionary review; this coverage will be updated when a qualifying ruling issues.

C. Active legislative debates

The dominant development is the statewide transition under ESSB 5796 (Chapter 321, Laws of 2024), which repeals the older acts effective January 1, 2028 and will bring all communities, including their insurance obligations, under WUCIOA.⁹ The Insurance Commissioner has also advanced wildfire-availability proposals, including SB 5928 (companion HB 2277) on wildfire risk models and score disclosure, which passed the Senate 48-1 but did not advance out of the House Consumer Protection & Business Committee, reflecting continuing regulatory attention to property-insurance availability that affects association premiums and renewals.¹⁵

Section 5: National positioning and related coverage

Washington sits in the first of three broad categories of association insurance regulation: UCIOA states that impose a statutory insurance mandate keyed to Section 3-113 and conditioned on reasonable availability, alongside Alaska, Colorado, and, as another 2008-based state, Delaware. The second category is the comprehensive non-UCIOA prescriptive states, notably California under the Davis-Stirling Act and Florida under Chapter 718 with its structural-inspection and reserve requirements. The third is CC&R-primary and traditional-statute states such as Alabama, Arkansas, and Mississippi. Washington's distinctive features are its 2008 UCIOA basis, so modern deductible machinery and a statutory fidelity requirement are present; its heavily layered regime keyed to creation date; and an acute seismic-and-wildfire market. For a multi-state operator entering Washington, the practical implication is that the governing act must be identified by creation date before any insurance obligation is stated. The ongoing transition of all communities into WUCIOA by January 1, 2028 means the insurance section will become universal, and no amendment has changed RCW 64.90.470 since its 2018 effective date.

HOA Weekly's Washington Insurance Requirements coverage updates quarterly as the legislature and the Washington Supreme Court act and as the property-insurance market shifts. Federal frameworks, including Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, FHA, NFIP, and FHA fair-housing accommodation rules, also apply to Washington associations regardless of the state framework, with a fuller treatment to follow at /federal/ once that section is built.

1. RCW 64.90.470, Insurance (Washington State Legislature) ↩
2. RCW 64.34.352, Insurance (Washington Condominium Act) ↩
3. RCW 64.90.360, Common interest communities (applicability) ↩
4. Chapter 24.03A RCW, Washington Nonprofit Corporation Act ↩
5. RCW 64.90.480, Assessments and capital contributions ↩
6. RCW 64.90.015, No variation by agreement ↩
7. Fannie Mae Selling Guide B7-4-02, Fidelity/Crime Insurance Requirements for Project Developments ↩
8. RCW 64.90.365, Common interest communities — Exceptions (preexisting communities) ↩
9. SB 5796, Chapter 321, Laws of 2024 (Washington State Legislature) ↩
10. ESSB 5129 Final Bill Report, Chapter 119, Laws of 2025 ↩
11. RCW 64.32.220 (Horizontal Property Regimes Act) ↩
12. Chapter 64.38 RCW, Homeowners' Associations ↩
13. Earthquake insurance, Washington Office of the Insurance Commissioner ↩
14. RCW 64.90.440, Maintenance, repair, replacement ↩
15. 2026 legislative summary, Washington Office of the Insurance Commissioner ↩