Washington Resale Certificates: What HOAs Must Disclose

When a unit in a Washington condominium or homeowners association sells, state law requires the association to produce a resale certificate disclosing the financial and legal status of the unit and the association. This is not optional. The buyer has the right to cancel the transaction if the certificate is not delivered or is materially inaccurate.

The Two Governing Statutes

Washington has two statutes that govern resale certificates, depending on when the community was created:

Both statutes require substantially the same disclosures. WUCIOA (RCW 64.90) adds a few additional items and caps the preparation fee at $275 for the initial certificate and $100 for updates. For background on broader statutory changes affecting associations, see Washington HOA Law Changes for 2026.

What the Certificate Must Include

The statute requires disclosure of at least the following:

Financial Status of the Unit

• Current assessment balance (what the owner owes)
• Delinquent amounts and late fees
• Special assessments approved or pending
• Any liens or encumbrances

Financial Status of the Association

• Current operating budget
• Balance sheet and revenue/expense statement (accrual basis, current within 120 days)
• Prior year annual financial statement
• Assessments past due association-wide (>30 days)
• Association monetary obligations past due (>30 days)
• Anticipated capital expenditures exceeding 5% of annual budget

These financial figures must come from actual accounting records. Self-reported numbers from spreadsheets are a leading cause of inaccurate certificates. See why most accounting software is not legally defensible for context on why the data source matters.

Reserve Fund

• Current reserve balance and percent funded
• Most recent reserve study date and findings
• If no reserve study exists, explicit disclosure of that fact

Reserve balances should be pulled from fund accounting records that maintain segregation between operating and reserve funds. A comingled ledger cannot produce a defensible reserve disclosure.

Insurance

• Master insurance policy details (property, general liability, D&O)
• Coverage amounts, carriers, deductibles
• Fidelity bond coverage

Governance

• Governing documents: CC&Rs, bylaws, rules and regulations, amendments
• Pending litigation or unsatisfied judgments
• Board composition
• Any pending votes to approve material actions

Compliance

• Known violations against the unit
• Health or building code violations
• Leasehold terms (if applicable)
• Electric vehicle charging provisions (WUCIOA)
• Alienability restraints or right of first refusal

The 11 Statutory Disclosure Sections

Beyond the financial and governance data that can be pulled from the ledger, Washington law requires the board or association to make affirmative disclosures about specific legal and compliance matters. These are the items most frequently left as "unknown" in hand-prepared certificates — and the ones most likely to cause problems at closing.

7 Standard Disclosures (Both Statutes)

These apply to all Washington associations regardless of which statute governs:

Unit violations are unique — they are unit-specific and must be checked fresh for each certificate, not stored as association-wide defaults.

4 Additional WUCIOA Disclosures (RCW 64.90.640 Only)

Communities governed by WUCIOA must additionally disclose:

Why "Unknown" Is Not Compliant

Many hand-prepared certificates leave these sections blank or mark them as "N/A." Under the statute, silence is not disclosure. If the board has not investigated whether there is pending litigation, the certificate should say so explicitly — not omit the section entirely. A certificate with 7 "unknown" statutory sections shifts risk to the association, the title company, and the buyer.

The correct approach is to have the board confirm each disclosure affirmatively. "No pending litigation" is a disclosure. "Unknown" is an admission that the board has not done its due diligence. Both are valid answers, but the distinction matters to escrow officers and underwriters.

Why Manual Preparation Fails

Most associations prepare resale certificates by hand. A board member or property manager opens a spreadsheet, looks up the owner's balance, checks for violations, and types the information into a Word document or fillable PDF.

This process has predictable failure modes:

Data staleness. The balance sheet in the certificate might be from last quarter. The statute requires it to be current within 120 days on an accrual basis. A hand-prepared certificate often uses whatever financial statement was last produced, regardless of age. For more on why this matters, see Why HOA Resale Certificates Take So Long.

Omission. The statute lists 15+ required disclosure items. Manual preparation relies on the preparer remembering all of them. Items like "anticipated capital expenditures exceeding 5% of budget" or "reserve study absence disclosure" are routinely missed.

Calculation errors. Assessment balances that include or exclude late fees inconsistently. Reserve fund percentages calculated against the wrong denominator. Special assessment remaining balances that don't match the payment ledger.

Statutory disclosure gaps. The 11 board-level disclosures described above are the most commonly omitted. Without a guided workflow, preparers forget to ask the board about litigation, code violations, or warranty status.

No audit trail. If a buyer disputes the accuracy of a certificate, there is no record of what data was used to prepare it. The preparer's memory is the only evidence. Compare this with continuous governance attestation, where every decision is captured as an immutable artifact.

What a System-Generated Certificate Changes

When the resale certificate is generated directly from the association's system of record, each of these failure modes is eliminated:

Real-time data. Financial balances are calculated from the general ledger at the moment of generation. There is no data entry step where errors can be introduced.

Statute-driven completeness. The system maps each statutory requirement to a data source. If a required item is unavailable, the certificate explicitly discloses that fact rather than omitting it silently.

Guided statutory disclosures. Before generating a certificate, the board is presented with each of the 11 statutory disclosure questions in plain language. Previously confirmed answers are pre-filled. The board reviews, updates if needed, and confirms. Every answer records provenance: who confirmed it, when, and from what source (board resolution, property manager, or self-reported).

Governing documents bundled automatically. When CC&Rs, bylaws, and rules are uploaded and tagged in the document repository, the certificate package includes them without manual assembly.

Immutable artifact. The generated certificate is content-hashed and stored as an institutional packet. The exact data used to produce it — including the board's confirmed statutory disclosures — is preserved in a frozen snapshot, enabling third-party verification months or years later.

The Buyer's Right to Cancel

Under both statutes, the purchaser may cancel the purchase agreement: - If the resale certificate is not provided within 10 days - Within 5 days of receiving the certificate (RCW 64.90)

This creates real liability for the association. An inaccurate or incomplete certificate can delay closings, trigger cancellations, or expose the board to claims. The certificate is not administrative paperwork. It is a legal disclosure document with consequences.

Who Receives the Certificate

Resale certificates are typically requested by and delivered to: - Title companies preparing title insurance - Escrow officers managing the closing - Real estate agents representing buyers - Buyers directly exercising their statutory rights - Lenders underwriting the purchase

Each recipient evaluates the certificate differently, but all rely on its accuracy.

Fee Caps and Delivery Requirements

The fee cap under WUCIOA means associations cannot charge excessive amounts for certificate preparation. A system that generates certificates in minutes rather than hours makes the $275 cap viable even for complex communities.

What to Look for in a Resale Certificate

Whether you are a board member preparing one, a title company reviewing one, or a buyer receiving one, these are the signals that matter:

1. Is the balance sheet current within 120 days? If not, the certificate may not meet statutory requirements.
2. Are all required sections present? Missing sections are not the same as "not applicable" sections. The statute requires affirmative disclosure.
3. Are the statutory disclosures answered, not blank? A certificate with 7 "unknown" sections is technically deficient. Look for affirmative "yes" or "no" answers with board confirmation dates.
4. Does it include governing documents? The CC&Rs, bylaws, and rules should be bundled or their absence explicitly noted.
5. Is there a reserve study? If not, the certificate must disclose that fact.
6. Are special assessments disclosed? Both active and approved-but-not-yet-levied assessments must appear.
7. Is there a content hash or verification mechanism? An immutable artifact with a content hash protects all parties against post-delivery tampering.

See how CommunityPay generates resale certificates from the system of record

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Why HOA Resale Certificates Take So Long

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