The Washington State Legislature recently passed two bills amending the Washington Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act (WUCIOA), both of which take effect on June 11, 2026.
House Bill 2304 expands the types of condo buildings eligible for warranty insurance as an alternative to statutory warranties for condos. Under the new law, declarants and dealers may offer express warranties backed by insurance (i.e., a “1-2-10 warranty”) for new or conversion condo buildings with 12 or fewer units and four or fewer stories. This is an expansion of last year’s small-condo express-warranty alternative, which was limited to ADUs and buildings with two or fewer stories (or three or fewer stories if one story was used for parking or commercial space).
Substitute House Bill 2354 makes several technical amendments to WUCIOA. The bill:
- Creates a new exemption for small middle-housing plat communities (six or fewer units) from almost all of the WUCIOA provisions if the annual average assessment is $1,000 or less;
- Expands the existing small-community exemption from certain portions of WUCIOA to communities that amend their declarations to qualify for exemption—that existing exemption is for plat communities of 50 or fewer units, with no reserved development rights, and annual average assessments of $1,000 or less;
- Increases the threshold for audited financial statements to associations that have annual assessments of $100,000 or more—the threshold was previously $50,000 or more;
- Exempts middle-housing communities from reserve study requirements so long as they do not contain certain reserve components; and
- Changes the rules around financial responsibility for electric vehicle charging stations and heat pumps that benefit only one owner’s unit—now the costs of those heat pumps and charging stages must be borne by the benefited unit owner even if the govern documents say otherwise.
These changes have important implications for condominium developers, unit owners, associations, and real estate practitioners. We encourage clients to contact us to review and update their form condominium declarations, bylaws, purchase-and-sale agreements, and disclosure materials to ensure compliance with the amended statute.
Please contact Kurt Kruckeberg, Zac DeLap, or Jesse Johnson for guidance on how these changes may affect your property and opportunities for strategic involvement.
The information contained in this update is provided for informational purposes only. It should not be construed as business, legal, accounting, tax, financial, investment or other advice on any matter and should not be relied upon as such.