Washington condo and HOA financial records: what RCW 64.90.530 requires.

This page is not a substitute for an attorney. RCW 64.90 — the Washington Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act — applies in full to communities created on or after July 1, 2018. For older communities the picture is narrower: RCW 64.90.365 extends only a specific list of sections to associations created before that date, and Section 64.90.530 is not on that list. So for a pre-2018 condominium or HOA, 64.90.530 applies only if the association has elected into the chapter; otherwise its financial-statement duties come from the older statutes (RCW 64.34 for condominiums, RCW 64.38 for HOAs). Check the governing documents, or ask counsel, to confirm which regime applies. The accounting takeaway is narrower still: Section 64.90.530 sets four specific obligations for financial statements, audits, and where association money is held.

1. Annual accrual-basis financial statement

What the statute requires: subsection (1) requires the association to prepare, or cause to be prepared, at least annually, a financial statement "in accordance with accrual based accounting practices." That is the legal minimum — an annual statement on the accrual basis. The subsection does not itself dictate how the books are kept month to month.

What Common Ledger recommends (a practice choice, not a legal requirement): keep the books on the accrual basis throughout the year, so the annual statement is a report you already have rather than a year-end conversion from cash-basis records. That is about accuracy and audit readiness — it is our recommendation, not something RCW 64.90.530 mandates.

2. The CPA audit threshold

Subsection (2) requires an annual audit by a certified public accountant for associations with annual assessments of $100,000 or more. Associations below that threshold are also subject to an annual audit requirement by default, but it "may be waived annually by unit owners other than the declarant of units to which a majority of the votes in the association are allocated, excluding the votes allocated to units owned by the declarant." In practice: know your total annual assessments against the $100,000 line, and if you're under it, confirm whether the ownership actually voted to waive the audit for the current year — a waiver has to happen, it isn't automatic.

3. Association funds have to sit in the association's own name

Subsection (3) requires the association to keep all of its funds "in the name of the association with a qualified financial institution." The funds "must not be commingled with the funds of any other association or with the funds of any managing agent of the association or any other person, or be kept in any trust account or custodial account in the name of any trustee or custodian." For a management company handling multiple associations, this means one association's dues cannot sit in a shared operating or trust account with another client's money, or the manager's own funds.

4. Managing agents must deposit promptly

Subsection (4) requires a managing agent who accepts or receives association funds to "promptly deposit all such funds into an account maintained by the association" under subsection (3) (or the alternative account structure permitted by RCW 64.90.535). Funds collected on the association's behalf are not meant to sit in a manager's operating account pending a batch transfer.