The 2028 Deadline

Which law governs your Washington HOA or condo today? Almost nobody can answer that correctly. This book does.

Washington is in the middle of a planned switch from three old statutes to one new law, the Washington Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act (WUCIOA, RCW 64.90). Associations created on or after 1 July 2018 already run on it. Older homeowners associations and condominiums are in between: ten WUCIOA sections have applied to them since 1 January 2026, and everything else arrives on 1 January 2028, when RCW 64.32, 64.34 and 64.38 are repealed.

If someone tells you WUCIOA applied to your older association on 1 January 2026, they are half right. This plain-English guide explains the other half, section by section, for owners, board members, managers and buyers.

Inside you will find:

• The three dates the market confuses, and the law firm headline that told boards WUCIOA applied to everyone in 2026
• The 2024 renumbering. RCW 64.90.075, .080 and .095 are now .360, .365 and .370. Most board memos still cite the dead numbers. The old to new table is here.
• The reach-back list: the ten sections that already bind older associations, including budget ratification, open meetings, emergency powers and reserve studies
• What still runs on the old chapter until 2028: records, fines, voting and ballots, liens, resale certificates, rulemaking, elections and audits
• The early repeals of RCW 64.38.062 and 64.38.180 on 1 January 2026
• The small community and middle housing exemptions, widened in 2025 and 2026
• How to opt in early under RCW 64.90.370, including the easier vote that owners holding 20% of the votes can force
• How your declaration and bylaws interact with the statute, and a drafting defect in RCW 64.90.375
• A ten-step 2028 plan for boards and an eight-step check for owners
• A one-page map of the whole regime by topic, so you know exactly where to look
• An owner checklist, a glossary and eight fill-in letters to send your board, each citing its section

Every rule is labeled with the regime it applies to: post-2018 communities, older HOAs under RCW 64.38, or older condos under RCW 64.32 and 64.34. Every date and figure that could move carries a box naming who to ask. Where the law is unsettled, the book says so.

This is Book One of The Washington HOA & Condo Handbook, the orientation book for the set. The other four go deeper: reserve studies and reserve accounts; budgets, special assessments, meetings, voting and records; fines, liens, collections and foreclosure; and buying, selling, resale certificates and leasing.

About the author. JP O'Connor has chaired a body corporate since 2019 and sits on the committee of a second building. He has seen shared-ownership governance from both sides of the table: as a chair who has had to send collection letters, and as an owner on the receiving end of a board decision. He is not an attorney. He writes plain-English guides that explain what the statute says, show how it works, and name who to ask.

General information only. Not legal advice.