Washington HOA reserve funding rules, explained

Who this page applies to

This page explains the Washington common interest community and HOA regime across two overlapping statutory frameworks: the legacy RCW 64.38 (Homeowners’ Associations) and the successor RCW 64.90 (Washington Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act, WUCIOA). RCW 64.38 is repealed effective January 1, 2028 by 2024 c 321, and RCW 64.90 is the forward framework.

Before relying on the rules below, you need to answer one question: which chapter governs your community today, and does that answer change before or after the 2028 repeal date?

It does not cover:

• Washington condominiums under older pre-WUCIOA chapters that have not transitioned to RCW 64.90. Those are governed by separate legacy statutes during the transition period.
• Cooperative housing and timeshare regimes, which sit under separate chapters.
• The exact applicability rules in RCW 64.90 for pre-July 1, 2018 communities, which were not fully extracted for this page. A board operating near that cutoff should verify applicability directly.

If your community is a Washington HOA or common interest community, the rules below describe the reserve-study framework under both chapters and the transition mechanics that link them.

The rule in ordinary language

Washington HOA reserves sit in an active statutory transition, and reading the rule correctly means reading both chapters and understanding which one governs your community, when.

Four things follow from that:

1. The legacy chapter is going away on a fixed date. RCW 64.38 is repealed effective January 1, 2028 by 2024 c 321. Until that date, RCW 64.38’s reserve framework continues to apply to the communities it governs. After that date, RCW 64.38 is no longer in force and those communities will sit entirely inside the RCW 64.90 framework (or under whatever transitional provisions RCW 64.90 specifies for them).
2. The successor chapter already has a statutory reserve-study mandate. Under RCW 64.90.545, an association subject to the chapter must prepare and update a reserve study, unless a narrow statutory exemption applies. The study must be performed by a reserve study professional initially, updated annually, and at least every third year updated by a reserve study professional with a visual site inspection. That is a more prescriptive reserve-study cadence than many states impose.
3. RCW 64.90 has three express exemptions from the reserve-study requirement. The statute exempts (a) nonresidential-only communities, (b) communities with nominal reserve costs, and (c) communities where the cost of the reserve study or update exceeds 10% of the association’s annual budget — unless the governing documents require otherwise. These are narrow carve-outs, not general waivers. Most residential communities do not qualify for any of them.
4. Applicability to older communities is the complicated part. RCW 64.90 contains detailed applicability rules for which common interest communities are subject to the chapter and how older statutes apply during the transition. Two Washington HOAs created the same year can end up under different chapters depending on their documents and opt-in history. The correct answer is a document-reading question, not a date-reading question.

The practical result is that Washington is one of the only states in the country where “what is the reserve rule?” legitimately has two different answers — and the answer depends on which chapter reaches the specific community, which in turn depends on applicability and the transition calendar.

What is actually different about Washington

Three things readers routinely get wrong, specifically in Washington:

1. “Washington has no reserve-study requirement” is wrong under WUCIOA. RCW 64.90.545 imposes an annual reserve-study update plus a three-year professional cycle with a visual site inspection. That is a more rigorous cadence than the typical elective-reserves or disclosure-driven state. Readers who have seen an older summary of Washington law that treats reserves as a soft obligation are reading outdated material.
2. The 2028 repeal is not the start of the transition — it is the end. RCW 64.90 has been in force for several years already, and many Washington communities are already inside the successor framework. January 1, 2028 is the date the legacy RCW 64.38 is formally removed, not the date the new framework becomes effective. Boards that are “waiting for 2028 to start complying with WUCIOA” have misread the timeline.
3. The 10%-of-budget exemption is narrow and fact-specific. RCW 64.90.545’s exemption for communities where the cost of the reserve study exceeds 10% of the annual budget is a real statutory escape hatch, but it is narrow. A community that wants to rely on that exemption needs to be able to document the cost side of the comparison — and it does not apply if the governing documents require a reserve study anyway.

Operational questions to ask

If you are on a board:

• Which chapter governs the association today — RCW 64.38 or RCW 64.90? If the answer is ambiguous, the applicability provisions in RCW 64.90 are the first place to look.
• When is the association currently scheduled to transition fully to RCW 64.90? January 1, 2028 is the legacy-repeal backstop, but many communities will be there earlier depending on their documents and opt-in history.
• Under RCW 64.90.545, does the association have a current reserve study prepared by a reserve study professional, with annual updates and a three-year professional site-visit update cycle? Missing any limb of that schedule is a compliance question, not a budgeting preference.
• If the association is claiming a statutory exemption (nonresidential, nominal, or 10%-of-budget), is the basis for that exemption documented?

If you are an owner:

• Ask the board which statutory framework governs the association. If the board cannot answer directly, that is already a warning sign that the transition has not been fully worked through.
• Under RCW 64.90.545, the association should have — or be working toward — a current reserve study. Request it.
• If you believe the board is treating RCW 64.90 as optional or deferred, check whether the association is relying on one of the three statutory exemptions. If not, the study is a statutory duty regardless of budget preference.

If you are a buyer:

• The governing chapter is the first diligence question. A Washington HOA under RCW 64.90 is a meaningfully more regulated reserve environment than one still operating under RCW 64.38.
• Ask for the current reserve study and the most recent annual update. If the community is under RCW 64.90 without an exemption and has no current study, that is a compliance gap, not just a funding choice.
• Factor the 2028 repeal date into your diligence. A community you buy into today in 2026 will be fully inside RCW 64.90 no later than January 1, 2028 — the legacy chapter is going away regardless of board preference.

What to do next

If you are trying to decide what a specific Washington community’s reserve posture means for a board decision, an owner dispute, or a buyer’s closing, the next useful step is usually determining which chapter governs the community today, reading RCW 64.90.545 against that answer, and — if RCW 64.90 applies — verifying that the reserve study exists, is current, and is being updated on the statutory cadence.

This page is the explainer layer, not a legal memo. For the underlying statute text, follow the source link in the callout above.