Washington HOA Pet Restrictions

Washington pet restrictions at a glance

Section 1: Overview — How pet restrictions work in Washington

Washington has no statute regulating homeowners' association pets. Pet restrictions come from the recorded declaration or CC&Rs and from rules the board adopts within whichever of four common-interest statutes governs the community, and the main legal limit on those restrictions is fair housing law's assistance-animal reasonable-accommodation requirement.¹ The governing statute depends on community type and creation date: the Washington Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act, WUCIOA, RCW 64.90, for communities created on or after July 1, 2018; the Condominium Act, RCW 64.34, for condominiums created July 1, 1990 through June 30, 2018; the Homeowners' Associations Act, RCW 64.38, for planned communities created before July 1, 2018; and the Horizontal Property Regimes Act, RCW 64.32, for condominiums created before July 1, 1990.²

Washington has enacted no statutory right to keep a pet, in contrast to California, where Civil Code § 4715(a) provides that "no governing documents shall prohibit the owner of a separate interest within a common interest development from keeping at least one pet."³ Washington is a full-adoption UCIOA state — WUCIOA is based on the 2008 Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act, a framework Washington shares with nine other states — that layers WUCIOA over three older statutes for pre-2018 communities.¹ The dominant constraint on any pet rule is the assistance-animal overlay under the federal Fair Housing Act and the Washington Law Against Discrimination, RCW 49.60, enforced by the Washington State Human Rights Commission.⁴ Nationally, Washington sits with the large majority of states where pet authority is document-based rather than statutory, over a federal assistance-animal floor common to every state. What follows sets out the four-statute framework, the federal and state fair housing overlay, the operational rules that hold up, and recent legislative activity.

Section 2: The legal framework for pet restrictions

2A. The four-statute layered framework and the source of pet authority

Pet restrictions in Washington carry no statutory basis. The recorded declaration or CC&Rs impose them, along with rules the board adopts under authority the governing statute confirms.⁵ The first analytical step for any Washington pet question is identifying which of four statutes governs the specific community, because the statutes layer by community type and creation date and are not interchangeable. WUCIOA, RCW 64.90, governs common-interest communities, condominiums, cooperatives, and plat or planned communities, created on or after July 1, 2018.¹ The Condominium Act, RCW 64.34, governs condominiums created July 1, 1990 through June 30, 2018.⁶ The Homeowners' Associations Act, RCW 64.38, governs planned-community homeowners' associations created before July 1, 2018.⁷ The Horizontal Property Regimes Act, RCW 64.32, governs condominiums created before July 1, 1990.⁸ In every case the substantive pet rules live in the declaration or CC&Rs and in board rules, not in the statute.

WUCIOA reaches back on selected points. RCW 64.90.365, the section formerly numbered 64.90.080, applies enumerated WUCIOA provisions to communities created before July 1, 2018 and displaces inconsistent provisions of the older chapters, but only as to events occurring on or after July 1, 2018 and without invalidating existing governing-document provisions.² None of these retroactive provisions creates a pet-keeping right. Washington is a full-adoption UCIOA state, since WUCIOA tracks the 2008 Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act, and the Nonprofit Corporation Act, RCW 24.03A, supplies corporate formalities for the associations, most of which are nonprofit corporations.⁹ Washington uses the recorded declaration as the controlling governing document, and it has no statutory right to keep a pet.

For any pet question the order of precedence runs: federal and state fair housing law, mandatory, first; then the governing statute's mandatory provisions; then the declaration or CC&Rs; then the bylaws; then board rules. A restriction valid under the declaration still yields to the fair housing assistance-animal requirement.

2B. Federal fair housing constraints: assistance animals

The Fair Housing Act, 42 U.S.C. § 3601 et seq., bars disability discrimination in housing and defines discrimination to include the refusal to make reasonable accommodations in rules, policies, practices, or services when necessary to give a person with a disability an equal opportunity to use and enjoy a dwelling, 42 U.S.C. § 3604(f)(3)(B). Homeowners' and condominium associations count as covered.¹⁰ Permitting an assistance animal despite a no-pet policy or a pet restriction counts as a reasonable accommodation, and because assistance animals are not pets, no-pet bans, breed limits, size and weight limits, number limits, and pet fees and deposits simply do not reach them.¹¹

The FHA category of "assistance animal" runs broader than the Americans with Disabilities Act category of "service animal." It includes animals that perform tasks and animals that provide disability-related emotional support, with no training requirement for a support animal. This FHA/ADA distinction is the single most common error on this topic: the FHA and the Washington Law Against Discrimination, not the ADA's narrow service-animal definition, a dog, or in some cases a miniature horse, individually trained to perform tasks, govern residential HOA accommodation requests. The ADA may reach association facilities open to the public, such as a clubhouse rented to non-residents, but it does not govern the internal residential accommodation analysis.

For roughly two decades the operative federal reference was HUD's guidance, most recently FHEO Notice 2020-01, January 28, 2020, whose fact sheet stated that "housing providers may not exclude or charge a fee or deposit for assistance animals because these animals serve an important function that individuals with disabilities that affect major life activities need in order to have equal opportunity in housing."¹¹ That guidance has since been withdrawn: HUD's withdrawal was effective September 17, 2025 and was formalized in a Federal Register notice published April 6, 2026, FR-6571-N-01, and HUD issued new enforcement guidance on May 22, 2026 stating that its Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity will pursue animal-accommodation complaints only where the animal is individually trained to perform disability-related work or tasks, so HUD no longer administratively expects providers to accommodate untrained emotional support animals.¹² The FHA statute is unchanged, however: the § 3604(f)(3)(B) accommodation requirement and a resident's private right of action in court both remain, so an untrained support animal can still be protected through private FHA litigation and through state law.

Where a disability or disability-related need is not obvious, an association may request reliable documentation. It may not require registration, certification, or licensing of the animal, a specific breed, professional training for a support animal, detailed medical records, or any pet deposit, pet fee, or additional insurance for the animal. An association may deny a specific assistance animal only on an individualized finding that the accommodation imposes an undue financial and administrative burden, fundamentally alters operations, or that the specific animal poses a direct threat or would cause substantial physical damage no other accommodation could reduce. A denial cannot rest on breed, size, or generalized fear, and the owner remains responsible for the animal's conduct and any damage it causes.

2C. Washington law overlay: the Law Against Discrimination and dog law

The Washington Law Against Discrimination, RCW 49.60, bars housing discrimination based on disability and backs the same assistance-animal accommodation analysis. It is a state statute operating alongside the federal FHA, is construed liberally, and is enforced by the Washington State Human Rights Commission, housing complaints may be filed within one year, with HUD as the parallel federal enforcer.⁴ The Law Against Discrimination narrowly defines "service animal," limited to dogs and, in some cases, miniature horses, for public-accommodations purposes but expressly carves housing accommodations out of that narrow definition, so the broader reasonable-accommodation analysis continues to govern assistance animals in dwellings.¹³ Because HUD narrowed its administrative enforcement in 2026, the state statute and the private FHA suit now carry more of the weight for untrained support animals in Washington.

Washington does have a service-animal misrepresentation statute: RCW 49.60.214(1) makes it "a civil infraction under chapter 7.80 RCW for any person to misrepresent an animal as a service animal or service animal trainee," with a maximum penalty of $500, and it authorizes the two permitted inquiries in a place of public accommodation.¹⁴ That provision governs public accommodations, not the housing accommodation analysis, and must be kept distinct from it.

On dog law, Washington applies a strict-liability bite statute: RCW 16.08.040 makes an owner liable for a bite to a person lawfully present on public or private property regardless of the dog's former viciousness or the owner's knowledge, which displaces any common-law "one-bite" characterization.¹⁵ The state addresses dangerous and potentially dangerous dogs by statute in RCW 16.08.070 through 16.08.100.¹⁶ On breed, RCW 16.08.110, effective January 1, 2020, bars a city or county from regulating or banning dogs by breed unless it maintains an exemption process such as the American Kennel Club Canine Good Citizen test; this conditions local government ordinances and does not by its terms bind a private association's declaration.¹⁷ These are government-facing rules; an association's authority over an animal adjudicated dangerous flows from its declaration and rules, subject always to the assistance-animal analysis.

Section 3: Operational rules and compliance obligations

A. Enforceable pet restrictions (what holds up)

Restrictions on the number, size, weight, and type of animals, and leash and waste rules in common areas, generally hold up when properly adopted in the declaration or CC&Rs and implemented through rules the board is authorized to adopt under the governing statute.⁵ Under the Homeowners' Associations Act an association may adopt and amend rules and regulate the use of common areas, RCW 64.38.020, and under the Condominium Act the unit owners' association holds the same rule-making power, RCW 64.34.304; WUCIOA confirms the board's regulatory authority over residential use and occupancy, RCW 64.90.510.¹⁸¹⁹ Every such restriction yields to the assistance-animal accommodation requirement.

B. Handling an assistance-animal request

When an owner requests an accommodation, the association may confirm the disability and the disability-related need only where they are not obvious, and may then request reliable documentation such as a letter from a health care professional; it may not demand certification, registration, a specific breed, or proof of training for a support animal.¹¹ The expectation is a timely, good-faith interactive response. A denial is defensible only on an individualized direct-threat or undue-burden finding as to the specific animal, never on breed, size, or generalized concern.¹⁰

C. Pet fees, deposits, and insurance

For ordinary pets, an association may charge fees or deposits if the declaration or CC&Rs authorize them.⁵ It may not charge any pet deposit, pet fee, or additional insurance premium for a qualifying assistance animal, which is treated as an extension of the resident rather than a pet; the owner remains liable for actual damage the animal causes.¹¹ Federal administrative enforcement of the no-fee position narrowed in 2026 for untrained emotional support animals, and a July 2025 federal district court decision, discussed in Section 4, held that fee waivers are not automatic, but the state Law Against Discrimination analysis and a resident's private FHA claim continue to protect qualifying assistance animals.

D. Enforcement and disclosure

Pet violations are enforced under the governing statute and the declaration or CC&Rs. The Condominium Act and the Homeowners' Associations Act authorize reasonable fines after notice and an opportunity to be heard, RCW 64.34.304, RCW 64.38.020, and WUCIOA provides an enforcement action with recovery of reasonable attorneys' fees and permits alternative dispute resolution, RCW 64.90.685.¹⁸¹⁹²⁰ Significant disputes proceed in the Washington Superior Courts, with civil appeals to the Washington Court of Appeals, Division I in Seattle, Division II in Tacoma, Division III in Spokane, and review by the Washington Supreme Court. Pet restrictions are disclosed to buyers through the resale certificate or public offering statement; WUCIOA's resale certificate, RCW 64.90.640, must disclose use, occupancy, and other restrictions, and the Condominium Act requires a comparable certificate, RCW 64.34.425.²¹²²

Section 4: Recent legislative and judicial activity

A. Recent bills

B. Recent appellate rulings

No qualifying Washington Court of Appeals or Supreme Court decision addressing HOA pet restrictions or assistance-animal accommodation in a common-interest community has turned up in the 36-month window, July 2023 forward. In the absence of a Washington appellate ruling, the federal FHA and the Washington Law Against Discrimination assistance-animal frameworks control. The most consequential recent development is federal and administrative rather than judicial: HUD's 2025 withdrawal of its assistance-animal guidance and its May 22, 2026 enforcement guidance narrowing federal enforcement to trained animals, alongside Henderson v. Five Properties, LLC, No. 24-750, 2025 WL 1951763 (E.D. La. July 16, 2025), in which Judge Sarah S. Vance granted summary judgment for the landlord over a $400 animal fee, holding the tenant "failed to establish that the waiver of the animal fee was indispensable and essential to ameliorate her disability" and finding the HUD Notice's no-fee position "unpersuasive."¹²

C. Active legislative debates

Proposals in recent sessions to cap residential pet deposits and limit pet rent, for example Senate Bill 6064, have targeted the Residential Landlord-Tenant Act rather than common-interest communities and have not been enacted; no active proposal specific to HOA pet rules or assistance animals in associations has turned up.

Section 5: National positioning and related coverage

By how they treat HOA pets, states fall into two groups. A small group grants a statutory pet-keeping right, and California's Civil Code § 4715, a right to keep at least one pet, defined to include any domesticated bird, cat, dog, aquarium aquatic animal, or other animal, is the clearest example.³ The large majority, including Washington, leave pet authority to the declaration or CC&Rs with no pet statute, and all states share the same federal floor, the Fair Housing Act's assistance-animal reasonable-accommodation requirement. For a multi-state operator, that means in Washington the binding pet rules come from the declaration or CC&Rs, the governing statute depends on the community's type and creation date, and the assistance-animal analysis applies uniformly. Washington's distinctive features are a four-statute framework layered by community type and creation date, WUCIOA over three older statutes, converging on WUCIOA by 2028, a strict-liability dog-bite statute paired with a conditional restriction on local breed-specific ordinances, and a three-division Court of Appeals.

HOA Weekly's Washington Pet Restrictions coverage updates quarterly as the Legislature and the courts act. The federal Fair Housing Act's assistance-animal framework applies to Washington associations regardless of the state framework.

1. RCW Chapter 64.90, Washington Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act ↩
2. RCW 64.90.365 (formerly 64.90.080), Common interest communities — Exceptions / preexisting communities ↩
3. California Civil Code § 4715 (right to keep at least one pet) ↩
4. RCW 49.60.010, Law Against Discrimination — purpose; Washington State Human Rights Commission ↩
5. RCW 64.90.510, Regulatory authority — Limitations — Association may adopt certain rules ↩
6. RCW Chapter 64.34, Condominium Act ↩
7. RCW Chapter 64.38, Homeowners' Associations ↩
8. RCW Chapter 64.32, Horizontal Property Regimes Act ↩
9. RCW Chapter 24.03A, Washington Nonprofit Corporation Act ↩
10. HUD, Fair Housing Act and assistance animals (42 U.S.C. § 3604(f)(3)(B)) ↩
11. HUD, Fact Sheet on HUD's Assistance Animals Notice (FHEO-2020-01, issued Jan. 28, 2020; guidance since withdrawn) ↩
12. Federal Register, Notification of Withdrawal of FHEO Guidance Documents (FR-6571-N-01, Apr. 6, 2026; withdrawal effective Sept. 17, 2025) ↩
13. RCW 49.60.040, Definitions (service animal; housing carve-out) ↩
14. RCW 49.60.214, Misrepresentation of an animal as a service animal — Civil infraction ↩
15. RCW 16.08.040, Dog bites — Liability ↩
16. RCW 16.08.070, Dangerous dogs and related definitions ↩
17. RCW 16.08.110, Breed-based dog regulation — conditions ↩
18. RCW 64.38.020, Association powers ↩
19. RCW 64.34.304, Unit owners' association — Powers ↩
20. RCW 64.90.685, Action to enforce — attorneys' fees — alternative dispute resolution ↩
21. RCW 64.90.640, Unit resales — Resale certificate ↩
22. RCW 64.34.425, Resales of units (Condominium Act resale certificate) ↩
23. ESSB 5129 (2025), Chapter 119, Laws of 2025 ↩
24. ESSB 5796 (2024), Chapter 321, Laws of 2024 ↩