Washington HOA Political Signs

1. Overview: How political signs are regulated in Washington HOAs

Washington bars a community association's governing documents from prohibiting the outdoor display of political yard signs on an owner's or resident's own property, while permitting the association to adopt reasonable rules on where and how those signs are displayed.^1,2 The protection is statutory, and the applicable statute turns on the community's formation date: RCW 64.38.034 governs homeowners' associations whose declarations were recorded before July 1, 2018, and RCW 64.90.510, part of the Washington Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act (WUCIOA), governs common interest communities created on or after July 1, 2018.³ Both statutes let an association regulate placement and manner but not impose an outright ban.

A recent decision narrowed what pre-2018 HOAs may do. In Landesberg v. Fairway Village Homeowners Association (April 9, 2024), the Washington Court of Appeals, Division Two, held that RCW 64.38.034 doesn't permit an HOA to impose time-based restrictions, there a rule barring signs more than 60 days before an election, on political yard signs displayed before an election.⁴

A further change is scheduled. Under ESSB 5796 (Chapter 321, Laws of 2024), WUCIOA is set to supersede RCW 64.38 and govern all Washington community associations effective January 1, 2028, after which the RCW 64.90.510 standard will apply to communities now under RCW 64.38.⁵

The protection is a statutory grant, not a First Amendment right. A Washington association is a private entity created by recorded covenants, not a government actor, so the federal First Amendment doesn't constrain its sign rules.⁴ The sections that follow set out which statute applies, the text of each provision, the constitutional framing, and the operational rules that result.

2. The legal framework for political signs

Which statute applies, and the two political-sign provisions

The first analytical step in any Washington political-sign question is classification: identify the community's type and formation date, then apply the correct statute. Washington maintains four community-association statutes. RCW 64.32 (the Horizontal Property Regimes Act, 1963) governs condominiums created before July 1, 1990. RCW 64.34 (the Washington Condominium Act) governs condominiums created from July 1, 1990 through June 30, 2018. RCW 64.38 (the Homeowners' Associations Act, enacted 1995) governs planned-community HOAs whose declarations were recorded before July 1, 2018. RCW 64.90 (WUCIOA) governs all common interest communities, condominiums and HOAs alike, created on or after July 1, 2018.³

Only two of the four contain a political-sign provision. RCW 64.38.034(1) provides that the governing documents of a pre-2018 HOA "may not prohibit the outdoor display of political yard signs by an owner or resident on the owner's or resident's property before any primary or general election," and that the documents "may include reasonable rules and regulations regarding the placement and manner of display of political yard signs." The section applies retroactively to any governing documents in effect on July 24, 2005, and any inconsistent provision in documents then in effect is void and unenforceable.¹

RCW 64.90.510(2), the WUCIOA provision for post-2018 communities, is worded differently. It states that "an association may not prohibit display of signs, including outdoor signs, regarding candidates for public or association office, or ballot issues, on or within a unit or limited common element, but an association may adopt reasonable rules pertaining to the placement and manner of those displays."² Three differences matter. WUCIOA protects signs "regarding candidates for public or association office, or ballot issues," which reaches association-election and ballot-measure signage, not only "political yard signs." It attaches the protection to a "unit or limited common element" rather than to "the owner's or resident's property." And it contains no "before any primary or general election" clause. As originally enacted, RCW 64.90.510(2) let associations "adopt rules governing the time, place, size, number, and manner of those displays"; ESSB 5796 removed that language in 2024 and replaced it with "reasonable rules pertaining to the placement and manner," aligning the WUCIOA standard with RCW 64.38.034 and dropping the express authority to regulate timing.^2,5

Condominiums under RCW 64.32 or RCW 64.34 have no specific statutory political-sign provision; neither chapter addresses political signs.⁶ Practitioners advise those associations to follow the RCW 64.38.034 standard, but that's guidance, not a statutory command. After January 1, 2028, the gap closes because ESSB 5796 repeals RCW 64.32, 64.34, and 64.38 and brings every community under WUCIOA, so RCW 64.90.510 will then govern condominiums and HOAs regardless of formation date.⁵

One provision that doesn't belong here is the flag protection. RCW 64.38.033, and the WUCIOA equivalent at RCW 64.90.510(1), bars an association from prohibiting outdoor display of the flag of the United States. That's a flag provision, distinct from the political-sign provisions.⁷

The First Amendment and the source of the protection

The federal First Amendment restrains government, not private parties. Its Free Speech Clause applies only to state action, so a person's speech rights under it run against government actors, not against private entities. A Washington community association is a private entity created by recorded covenants that owners accept as a condition of ownership, not an arm of the state. Division Two made the point directly in Landesberg, quoting the Washington Supreme Court's decision in Southcenter Joint Venture v. National Democratic Policy Committee: the constitutional free-speech provisions "protect a person only against actions by a state actor, not against actions of a private entity," and "HOAs are private entities, not state actors."⁴

The consequence is that an owner's right to display a political sign in a Washington association comes from RCW 64.38.034 or RCW 64.90.510, not from the First Amendment. This matters in practice: the statute defines the scope of the right, so the analysis is one of statutory text, not constitutional doctrine. An owner can't enlarge the protection by invoking the Constitution, and an association can't defend a ban by arguing the Constitution doesn't reach it, because the statute does.

Two frequently cited U.S. Supreme Court sign cases don't change this. Reed v. Town of Gilbert (2015) and City of Austin v. Reagan National Advertising (2022) concern municipal sign codes enacted by governments and the content-neutrality standard that applies to them. They govern city and county ordinances, not the private covenants of an association, and don't constrain association sign rules.

The Washington Constitution protects freedom of speech, and in some settings more broadly than the First Amendment (Article I, Section 5).⁸ The operative source for association political signs, however, remains the statute. The Landesberg court treated the constitutional free-speech provisions as inapplicable to a private HOA and resolved the case on statutory grounds; absent Washington authority applying Article I, Section 5 to a private association's sign restrictions, the constitution isn't the source of the protection.⁴

How the statutes interact with governing documents, and their limits

The applicable statute overrides conflicting governing documents. Under RCW 64.38.034, a provision in documents in effect on July 24, 2005 that is inconsistent with the section is "void and unenforceable," so a pre-2018 HOA may not ban political yard signs even if its declaration purports to.¹ Under WUCIOA, an association "may not prohibit" the covered displays, and WUCIOA generally doesn't allow governing documents to vary the rights it confers on owners.² In both regimes, a declaration's flat prohibition on political signs is unenforceable.

What an association may still do is adopt reasonable rules on placement and manner. Both statutes use that formulation. The open question after Landesberg is timing. The Court of Appeals held that "placement" and "manner" in RCW 64.38.034 don't include "time," and that the statute's first sentence, barring prohibition of signs "before any primary or general election," itself governs timing; a pre-2018 HOA therefore may not impose a pre-election display-period limit such as a 60-day window.⁴ The challenged rule read: "Political signs are not to be displayed more than 60 days prior to an election and must be removed within three days of the election." The court noted the owners didn't challenge, and conceded the validity of, the removal-within-three-days-after-the-election requirement, and the rules keeping signs out of common areas and clear of sight lines; those are permissible placement-and-manner or post-election terms.⁴

Regulable subjects, then, are placement (where the sign sits on the owner's property or unit) and manner (how it's displayed, including size limits framed as manner, mounting, and sight-line safety), plus post-election removal timing. The protected location is the owner's or resident's own property under RCW 64.38.034 and the unit or limited common element under RCW 64.90.510; neither statute compels an association to allow signs in common areas it controls.^1,2

A facially valid rule can still create liability if enforced selectively or by viewpoint. Enforcing a size or placement rule against one candidate's supporters but not another's invites a challenge and, in the pre-2018 context, exposure to attorneys' fees under RCW 64.38.050.⁹ The operational takeaway is narrow: a Washington association may adopt reasonable placement-and-manner rules but may not prohibit political signs, and, under RCW 64.38 after Landesberg, may not impose time-based restrictions before an election.

3. Operational rules for Washington associations

A. What an association may not do

An association may not prohibit the covered display: a pre-2018 HOA may not prohibit outdoor political yard signs on the owner's or resident's property before any primary or general election (RCW 64.38.034), and a post-2018 community may not prohibit signs regarding candidates for public or association office, or ballot issues, on or within a unit or limited common element (RCW 64.90.510).^1,2 Under RCW 64.38, an HOA may not impose time-based restrictions on political yard signs before an election, such as a 60-day pre-election window (Landesberg, Division Two, 2024).⁴ An association may not enforce its sign rules selectively or based on the viewpoint or candidate a sign supports, which under RCW 64.38 risks a fee award to the owner.⁹ No one, including a board member or manager, may remove or deface a lawfully placed political sign without authorization; doing so is a misdemeanor under RCW 29A.84.040.¹⁰

B. What an association may regulate

A pre-2018 HOA may adopt reasonable rules on the placement and manner of political yard signs (RCW 64.38.034), and a post-2018 community may adopt reasonable rules pertaining to the placement and manner of covered displays (RCW 64.90.510).^1,2 Permissible terms include where a sign sits on the owner's property or unit, sight-line and safety limits, and, per Landesberg, a requirement to remove signs within a set period after the election; a pre-2018 HOA may not use "manner" or "placement" to reach pre-election timing.⁴ Condominiums under RCW 64.32 or RCW 64.34 have no specific statutory sign provision and should apply the RCW 64.38.034 placement-and-manner standard as prudent practice until WUCIOA governs them on January 1, 2028.^6,5

C. Enforcement and fining constraints

Before fining a homeowner or acting on a sign violation, an association should follow the notice, hearing, and pre-adopted fine-schedule requirements in its governing documents and the applicable chapter; a penalty imposed without the required process is vulnerable to challenge. A prevailing party in litigation over a Chapter 64.38 violation may recover reasonable attorneys' fees and costs (RCW 64.38.050); WUCIOA contains a parallel fee provision (RCW 64.90.685), which raises the cost of defending an unenforceable ban.^9,11 Self-help removal is constrained: RCW 29A.84.040 makes unauthorized removal or defacement of a lawfully placed political sign a misdemeanor, so an association should pursue its documented enforcement process rather than remove a sign itself.¹⁰

D. Rule adoption and disclosure

Placement-and-manner rules must be adopted through the association's rule-making authority and furnished to owners to be enforceable; a rule buried in an unpublished manual is a weak foundation for enforcement, a point underscored in Landesberg, where the 60-day limit had been added to a home-improvement manual without any public announcement.⁴ After January 1, 2028, communities now under RCW 64.38 will need their sign rules to conform to RCW 64.90.510; boards should review and, where necessary, restate governing documents ahead of the transition.⁵

4. Recent legislative and judicial activity

A. Recent bills

A related 2025 measure, ESSB 5129 (Chapter 119, Laws of 2025), phases several WUCIOA provisions into all communities effective January 1, 2026 but doesn't change the political-sign standard.¹²

B. Recent rulings

C. Active legislative debates

No qualifying bill specific to association political signs, beyond the ESSB 5796 transition to WUCIOA and the ESSB 5129 phase-in, was identified in the current legislative record.

5. National positioning and related coverage

Washington sits among the owner-protective statute states on political signs, alongside California (Civil Code § 4710), Arizona (A.R.S. §§ 33-1808 and 33-1261), Maryland (Real Property §§ 11-111.2 and 11B-111.2), Nevada (NRS 116.325), and Montana (Mont. Code Ann. § 70-1-522).^{13,14,15,16,17} Like those states, Washington bars an association from prohibiting political yard signs while allowing reasonable placement-and-manner rules, and, under RCW 64.38 after Landesberg, doesn't permit time-based restrictions before an election. A distinctive Washington feature is that the applicable statute turns on formation date, with RCW 64.38.034 governing pre-2018 HOAs and RCW 64.90.510 governing post-2018 communities, and WUCIOA set to govern all associations after January 1, 2028. For multi-state operators, the practical rule is to identify which statute governs each Washington community first, adopt only reasonable placement-and-manner rules, and never impose an outright ban.

HOA Weekly's Washington Political Signs coverage updates quarterly as the Legislature and the Washington courts act, which matters here given Landesberg and the January 1, 2028 transition. Federal frameworks (FHA, ADA, FDCPA, SCRA, and OTARD) apply to Washington associations regardless of the state framework, but the federal First Amendment doesn't supply a basis to challenge an association's sign rules.

Footnotes

1. RCW 64.38.034, Political yard signs—Governing documents (effective until January 1, 2028) ↩
2. RCW 64.90.510(2), unit owner rights—signs (WUCIOA) ↩
3. RCW 64.90.075, applicability to common interest communities by formation date ↩
4. Landesberg v. Fairway Village Homeowners Association, No. 57740-2-II, Wash. Ct. App. Div. II (Apr. 9, 2024) ↩
5. ESSB 5796 (Chapter 321, Laws of 2024), bill summary and status ↩
6. Chapter 64.34 RCW, Washington Condominium Act (no specific political-sign provision) ↩
7. RCW 64.38.033, Flag of the United States—Outdoor display—Governing documents ↩
8. Washington State Constitution, Article I, Section 5 (freedom of speech) ↩
9. RCW 64.38.050, violations—remedies—attorneys' fees ↩
10. RCW 29A.84.040, Political advertising, removing or defacing ↩
11. RCW 64.90.685, effect of violations—remedies (WUCIOA) ↩
12. ESSB 5129 (Chapter 119, Laws of 2025), bill summary and status ↩
13. California Civil Code § 4710 (noncommercial signs and posters) ↩
14. Arizona Revised Statutes § 33-1808 (planned communities—political signs) ↩
15. Maryland Code, Real Property § 11B-111.2 (homeowners associations—political signs) ↩
16. Nevada Revised Statutes § 116.325 (right to exhibit political signs) ↩
17. Montana Code Annotated § 70-1-522 (political signs) ↩