In short
The reserve sections of the Condominium Act and the Homeowners' Association Act are repealed on January 1, 2028, and WUCIOA's rules take over for nearly every community. For an older association that means a study updated every year, a professional site visit at least every third year, fixed exemptions in place of a hardship excuse, and a longer list of required contents.
Washington has run two sets of community association law side by side since July 1, 2018. Communities created after that date answer to the Washington Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act, chapter 64.90 RCW. Most communities created before it still answer to the older acts: the Condominium Act (chapter 64.34), the Horizontal Property Regimes Act (chapter 64.32) and the Homeowners’ Association Act (chapter 64.38).
That arrangement has an end date. In 2024 the Legislature passed a law, chapter 321 of the Laws of 2024, that repeals the older acts effective January 1, 2028. The Legislature’s own disposition tables list the reserve sections of both the Condominium Act and the Homeowners’ Association Act as repealed on that date. RCW 64.90.360 confirms the other side of the switch: its limit on which communities WUCIOA covers runs only “before January 1, 2028.”
For a board, the practical question is narrower than the whole act. What happens to the reserve study?
The rule an older condominium follows today
Until the end of 2027, a condominium under the Condominium Act works from RCW 64.34.380. That section encourages, but does not require, a reserve account. It requires an association with significant assets to prepare a reserve study and update it every year, and once in any three-year stretch a reserve study professional has to walk the site for the update. Every one of those duties carries an escape: it applies unless doing so would impose an unreasonable hardship.
That hardship clause is the part most boards remember. It has no definition in the statute, which leaves a board room to argue that a professional visit can wait.
An older homeowners association has its own reserve sections in chapter 64.38, at RCW 64.38.065 and .070. Those are also on the 2028 repeal list.
There is a wrinkle worth knowing even now. Since 2018, a short list of WUCIOA sections has applied to older communities for events after July 1, 2018, and RCW 64.90.545, the WUCIOA reserve study section, is on that list. How that list interacts with your own declaration is a question for the association’s attorney. What is not in doubt is the direction of travel.
The rule from January 1, 2028
Once the older acts are gone, the reserve study duty for nearly every Washington community is the one in RCW 64.90.545:
- An initial study prepared by a reserve study professional, from a visual site inspection or from plans where buildings are unfinished.
- An updated study every year.
- At least every third year, an update prepared by a reserve study professional from a visual site inspection.
The hardship clause does not carry over. In its place are four fixed exemptions: communities limited to nonresidential use, communities with nominal reserve costs, certain middle housing communities (an exemption added in 2026), and any year in which the study would cost more than 10 percent of the association’s annual budget. A community that does not fit one of the four needs a study.
What the study itself has to contain
The contents list grows too. RCW 64.34.382 and RCW 64.90.550 overlap heavily: both want a component list with lives and costs, the reserve balance, the percent funded, the interest and inflation assumptions, full and baseline funding plans, a 30-year projection and the warning paragraph that begins “This reserve study should be reviewed carefully.”
WUCIOA adds two items an older condominium may never have seen in its study:
- The per-unit deficit or surplus. The fully funded balance minus the actual reserve balance, shared out by each unit’s share of common expenses. Owners tend to read this line first.
- Independence. The study must say not only whether a reserve study professional helped prepare it but whether that professional was independent.
The budget summary owners receive each year under RCW 64.90.525 also has to report the per-unit figure, and to say how far the budget departs from the study’s recommended contributions.
Resale certificates change shape
Sellers in older communities will feel the switch through the resale certificate. Under RCW 64.90.640 the certificate must include a copy of the most current reserve study, a statement of whether the association has a study that complies with the statute, and, if it does not, a prescribed warning that begins “This association does not have a current reserve study.” Buyers generally have five business days after receiving the certificate to cancel.
An older condominium whose last professional visit was in 2021 may find, in early 2028, that its study no longer counts as current. That is a poor moment to discover it, with a sale pending.
A sensible order of work
Boards have a year to get ready. A workable sequence:
- Find the last study with a professional site visit. Note its date and level. If it will be more than three years old by early 2028, plan a site visit for 2027.
- Ask for a study written to RCW 64.90.550 now. Most firms that work in Washington already use the WUCIOA format. Asking for it in 2027 means the 2028 update is a routine refresh rather than a new document.
- Prepare owners for the per-unit figure. If the association is underfunded, the number can be large. Explaining it before it appears in a budget summary avoids a difficult meeting.
- Review the governing documents with the association’s attorney. Some declarations repeat the old statute’s wording. They may need amending to match the new framework, and the attorney can say whether amending now is worth it.
- Diary the cycle. Once on WUCIOA, the site visit falls due at least every third year whatever the board’s view of hardship.
What this does not change
The switch does not make a study more expensive in itself, and it does not force any particular funding level. WUCIOA requires the study to show full and baseline funding plans; it leaves the choice of contribution to the board and the owners who ratify the budget. What it removes is the option of going without the information.
If your association is unsure which act governs it today, or how the 2018 overlap applies to its declaration, the association’s attorney is the right person to ask. The statute text on the Legislature’s website is linked below.