Washington HOA Reserve Studies

Section 1: Overview — Reserve study requirements in Washington

Washington tells a community association to do four things. Commission a reserve study built on a physical site inspection by a reserve study professional. Update that study every year. Send a professional back for a fresh visual inspection at least every third year. And, for any association that owes a study, hold the reserves in a segregated account and disclose where the funding stands — in the annual budget and to anyone buying in.^1,8 The framework now is the Washington Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act (WUCIOA), Chapter 64.90 RCW, and its reserve provisions sit at RCW 64.90.535 through 64.90.560.^1,8 The structure is layered. Three predecessor acts still govern many existing communities: the Washington Condominium Act (Ch. 64.34, condominiums created 1990 to 2018), the Homeowners' Associations Act (Ch. 64.38, planned communities formed before WUCIOA), and the Horizontal Property Regimes Act (Ch. 64.32, condominiums created before July 1, 1990).^2,3,6 On funding, Washington runs a study-and-disclosure model: preparing the study, keeping the account, and disclosing the funding position are all mandatory, while the board decides the funding level and then discloses it, rather than meeting a fixed percentage floor.^9,10 Washington is an established mandate state and a 2008-UCIOA adopter, so its version carries the reserve-study provisions that earlier-version UCIOA states such as Vermont and West Virginia do not.¹ The sections below set out the framework, the compliance duties by community type, and the recent legislative activity.

Section 2: The reserve framework under Washington law

2A. The reserve-study and physical-inspection mandate

Under WUCIOA, an association must prepare and update a reserve study in line with Chapter 64.90 RCW unless it qualifies for an exemption.¹ A reserve study professional must prepare the initial study and base it on that professional's visual site inspection of completed improvements — or, where construction is still underway, on a review of plans for the unbuilt improvements.¹ The association then updates the study every year, and at least every third year a reserve study professional must prepare an updated study off a new visual site inspection.¹ That two-part cadence — an annual financial update plus a triennial on-site re-inspection — is the operational core of the Washington mandate, and the predecessor condominium and HOA acts mirror it.^2,3 The exemptions are narrow. Unless the governing documents say otherwise, the requirement does not reach communities restricted to nonresidential use, communities with only nominal reserve costs, or any case where the study or update would cost more than ten percent of the annual budget.¹

RCW 64.90.550 prescribes what the study must contain. It must include a reserve component list covering each component whose replacement cost exceeds one percent of the annual budget (setting aside reserve contributions for that component), and for each it must give quantities, useful life, remaining useful life, and current replacement cost.⁹ It must identify the level of study performed — Level I full study, Level II update with a visual site inspection, or Level III update without one — present a 30-year projection, and state recommended contribution rates for a full funding plan (100 percent funded by the end of the 30-year period), a baseline funding plan (reserve balance above zero throughout the period without special assessments), and the professional's own recommended rate.⁹ It must also disclose any current deficit or surplus on a dollars-per-unit basis.⁹

An association that must obtain a study must establish one or more reserve accounts. It may not commingle them with other association funds, it must hold them in an interest-bearing account at a U.S. financial institution, and it must title them solely in the association's name and have the board administer them.⁸ On the funding level, the statute sets no fixed percentage floor. The study and its three funding scenarios are mandatory, but the board makes the contribution decision and then discloses it: the annual budget must state whether the association has a study meeting RCW 64.90.550, how far the budget meets or departs from the study's recommendations, and the per-unit deficiency or surplus.¹⁰ Owners hold a lever. Once more than three years have passed since the last professional study, owners of units holding at least 20 percent of the votes may deliver a record to the board demanding that it place the cost of a study in the next budget.¹³ One or more owners may also sue to enforce the study requirements, and a court may order specific performance and award attorneys' fees to the prevailing party; an association's noncompliance does not excuse an owner from paying assessments.¹³

2B. The layered statute structure

WUCIOA (Ch. 64.90) governs common interest communities created in Washington on or after July 1, 2018, and the Act applies selected provisions to communities that already existed.⁴ ESSB 5129 extended the reserve-study section, RCW 64.90.545, to communities created before July 1, 2018, effective January 1, 2026, and codified the reach at RCW 64.90.365(1)(h).^4,5 The Washington Condominium Act (Ch. 64.34) governs condominiums created between July 1, 1990, and June 30, 2018; its reserve account, reserve study, and content provisions sit at RCW 64.34.380 through 64.34.392, including a reserve-study requirement for associations with significant assets and an exemption for condominiums of ten or fewer units that vote by two-thirds to opt out.^2,16 The Homeowners' Associations Act (Ch. 64.38) governs planned-community HOAs formed before WUCIOA; its reserve provisions sit at RCW 64.38.065 through 64.38.085, with the content list at RCW 64.38.070.^3,11 The Horizontal Property Regimes Act (Ch. 64.32) governs condominiums created before July 1, 1990; the reserve obligations reach those communities because RCW 64.34.380(4) extends the condominium reserve sections to Chapter 64.32 condominiums intended for residential use.² To find which act's reserve provisions apply, a manager identifies the community's type and vintage, then checks WUCIOA's preexisting-community provisions, because RCW 64.90.545 now reaches pre-2018 communities regardless of the act that created them.⁴ All three predecessor acts — Ch. 64.32, 64.34, and 64.38 — are repealed effective January 1, 2028, after which WUCIOA governs nearly all residential common interest communities.⁶

2C. The declaration, corporate law, and fiduciary backstop

The statutory reserve requirements run alongside each association's recorded declaration and bylaws. WUCIOA provisions that grant a right to, or impose an obligation on, an owner, association, or board generally may not be varied by the governing documents, though the documents may impose stricter requirements.¹ The recorded declaration governs operational matters inside the statutory framework, and where it conflicts with a non-waivable WUCIOA provision, the statute controls.⁴ At the entity level, Washington community associations usually organize as nonprofit corporations under the Washington Nonprofit Corporation Act, Chapter 24.03A RCW, which took effect January 1, 2022, and replaced the former Chapter 24.03 RCW.¹⁷ That act supplies the corporate-level fiduciary duties of care and loyalty that board members owe, and those duties apply to reserve decisions even though the funding level is discretionary.^17,18 The practical point is straightforward: in Washington, a reserve study built on a physical inspection and a segregated reserve account are statutory obligations across the layered framework, and the declaration and board judgment operate inside that framework rather than displacing it.^1,8

Section 3: Compliance obligations

A. Study and inspection obligations

A non-exempt WUCIOA association must prepare a reserve study, through a reserve study professional and off a visual site inspection (mandatory, RCW 64.90.545, Ch. 64.90 for current communities; the same duty reaches pre-2018 communities from January 1, 2026).^1,4 It must update the study every year (mandatory, RCW 64.90.545; RCW 64.34.380(3) for 1990 to 2018 condominiums; RCW 64.38.065(3) for pre-WUCIOA HOAs).^1,2,3 At least every third year, a reserve study professional must prepare an updated study off a new visual site inspection (mandatory, RCW 64.90.545; same triennial cycle under Ch. 64.34 and Ch. 64.38).^1,2,3 The preparer must be a reserve study professional — an independent person suitably qualified by knowledge, skill, experience, training, or education, with no state license required (RCW 64.90.010; RCW 64.38.010).⁷

B. Funding obligations

An association that must obtain a study must establish and maintain one or more reserve accounts (mandatory, RCW 64.90.535, Ch. 64.90).⁸ The board sets the funding level in its reasonable discretion rather than meeting a statutory floor, and then discloses it (discretionary-with-disclosure, RCW 64.90.550 and RCW 64.90.525).^9,10 Under the predecessor acts, by contrast, the statute "encouraged" rather than required a reserve account (RCW 64.34.380(1) for condominiums; RCW 64.38.065(1) for HOAs).^2,3

C. Disclosure obligations

The ratified annual budget must disclose whether the association has a study meeting RCW 64.90.550, how far the budget departs from the study's recommendations, and the per-unit deficiency or surplus (mandatory, RCW 64.90.525, Ch. 64.90).¹⁰ On resale, the resale certificate must state whether a current study prepared under RCW 64.90.545 and 64.90.550 exists and, if not, must carry a statutory warning to the purchaser (mandatory, RCW 64.90.640, Ch. 64.90; condominiums currently use RCW 64.34.425).¹²

D. Account and governance obligations

The association must hold reserve funds uncommingled, in an interest-bearing account at a U.S. financial institution, titled solely in the association's name and administered by the board (mandatory, RCW 64.90.535).⁸ When the board withdraws from reserves for unforeseen or unbudgeted non-reserve costs, it must record the withdrawal in the minutes, notice it to owners, and repay it on a schedule that runs no longer than 24 months unless that would impose an unreasonable burden (mandatory procedure, RCW 64.90.540).¹⁴ Owners holding at least 20 percent of the votes may demand a study after three years, and owners may sue to compel compliance (RCW 64.90.555).¹³ Board members owe corporate fiduciary duties under Chapter 24.03A RCW when they make reserve and funding decisions (RCW 24.03A; RCW 64.90.405).^17,19

Section 4: Recent legislative and judicial activity

A. Recent bills

Two recent measures reshaped Washington's reserve landscape. One pulled pre-2018 communities onto the WUCIOA schedule starting in 2026. The other set the clock for retiring the predecessor acts entirely.

B. Recent appellate rulings

A targeted review of Washington appellate opinions from June 2023 through June 2026 turned up no Washington Court of Appeals or Supreme Court decision that squarely addresses the reserve study, the physical-inspection requirement, reserve funding, or board fiduciary duty in the reserve context under Chapter 64.90, 64.34, or 64.38 RCW. The leading appellate authority on board discretion, Surowiecki v. Hat Island Community Association (Washington Supreme Court, 2022), turns on equitable assessment allocation rather than reserves and falls outside the review window.²⁰

C. Active legislative debates

The main open debate is how to handle the staged "WUCIOA for All" transition, as boards of pre-2018 communities weigh opting in early against riding the phased 2026-to-2028 schedule. No bill amending the WUCIOA reserve provisions is pending beyond the enacted 2024 and 2025 measures.

Section 5: National positioning and related coverage

Washington sits among the established mandate states that require reserve studies, and as a 2008-UCIOA adopter it carries reserve-study provisions that earlier-version UCIOA states such as Vermont and West Virginia lack. It runs alongside non-UCIOA hard-mandate states, including California — whose Civil Code § 5550 directs the board to cause a visual inspection of the major components at least once every three years — and Florida, Oregon, Utah, and Virginia.²¹ What sets Washington apart is the pairing: a physical-inspection requirement (an initial visual site inspection plus a re-inspection at least every third year) joined to a study-and-disclosure funding model, under which the study and disclosures are mandatory while the board still judges the funding level. For a multi-state operator, the takeaway is concrete: manage a Washington portfolio across the layered statute structure until January 1, 2028, attributing each community's reserve obligations to the correct act by type and vintage, after which WUCIOA becomes the single framework.

HOA Weekly's Washington Reserve Studies coverage updates quarterly as the Legislature and the Washington appellate courts act. Federal frameworks — the Fair Housing Act, the ADA, the FDCPA, the SCRA, and the FCC OTARD rule — also apply to Washington associations no matter what the state framework says.

1. RCW 64.90.545, Reserve study (Washington State Legislature) ↩
2. RCW 64.34.380, Reserve account—Reserve study—Annual update (effective until Jan. 1, 2028) (Washington State Legislature) ↩
3. RCW 64.38.065, Reserve account and study (effective until Jan. 1, 2028) (Washington State Legislature) ↩
4. RCW 64.90.365, Common interest communities—Exceptions (preexisting-community applicability) (Washington State Legislature) ↩
5. Engrossed Substitute Senate Bill 5129, Chapter 119, Laws of 2025, "Concerning common interest communities" (Washington State Legislature) ↩
6. Chapter 64.90 RCW, reviser's note (chapters 64.32, 64.34, and 64.38 RCW repealed by 2024 c 321, effective Jan. 1, 2028) (Washington State Legislature) ↩
7. RCW 64.38.010, Definitions, "reserve study professional" (Washington State Legislature); see also RCW Ch. 64.90.010 definitions ↩
8. RCW 64.90.535, Reserve accounts—Where held—Disbursements (Washington State Legislature) ↩
9. RCW 64.90.550, Reserve study—Contents (Washington State Legislature) ↩
10. RCW 64.90.525, Budgets—Assessments—Special assessments (Washington State Legislature) ↩
11. RCW 64.38.070, Reserve study—Requirements (effective until Jan. 1, 2028) (Washington State Legislature) ↩
12. RCW 64.90.640, Unit resales—Resale certificate (Washington State Legislature) ↩
13. RCW 64.90.555, Reserve study—Demand—Enforcement (Washington State Legislature) ↩
14. RCW 64.90.540, Reserve account—Withdrawals (Washington State Legislature) ↩
15. RCW 64.38.085, Reserve account and study—Liability (effective until Jan. 1, 2028) (Washington State Legislature) ↩
16. RCW 64.34.392, Reserve account and study—Exemption—Disclosure (effective until Jan. 1, 2028) (Washington State Legislature) ↩
17. RCW 24.03A.005, Short title; effective date 2021 c 176, Jan. 1, 2022 (Washington State Legislature) ↩
18. Chapter 24.03A RCW, Washington Nonprofit Corporation Act (director fiduciary duties) (Washington State Legislature) ↩
19. RCW 64.90.405, Powers and duties (reserve account and study powers) (Washington State Legislature) ↩
20. Washington Courts opinion search (Surowiecki v. Hat Island Community Association, No. 99138-3, decided Feb. 24, 2022) (Washington State Courts) ↩
21. California Civil Code § 5550, reserve study visual inspection at least once every three years (California Legislative Information) ↩