McEntire legislation to streamline records in common interest communities passes House
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McEntire legislation to streamline records in common interest communities passes House
On Thursday, the state House of Representatives passed legislation to streamline rules and regulations in common interest communities.
House Bill 1043, introduced by Rep. Joel McEntire was the result of an idea brought to him by constituents in the 19th District.
“There was a fairly extensive list of issues and concerns the constituents brought to me. As I looked through the list and did my research, it became apparent we need to look at creating some uniformity for the common interest communities,” said McEntire, R-Cathlamet.
Currently, common interest communities are governed by four statutes, depending on the type of community and the timeframe it was created.
A common interest community is a form of real estate where each homeowner or unit owner has an exclusive interest in a unit and a shared interest in a common area property. Common interest communities are administered by an association of unit owners, such as a homeowners association or a condominium unit owners association.
“While there are a number of things this bill would change, one that stuck out the most was the difficulty these organizations had for board elections in their communities,” said McEntire. ” We want to make sure common interest communities are having fair and balanced elections. Everyone deserves to have their voice heard in the homeowners associations.”
The bill would:
- amend association recordkeeping requirements in the Homeowners' Association Act, the Washington Condominium Act, and the Horizontal Property Regimes Act to align with association recordkeeping requirements for lists of unit owners under the Washington Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act (WUCIOA), with certain modifications to the WUCIOA recordkeeping requirements.
- amend the WUCIOA association recordkeeping requirements for lists of unit owners and revises WUCIOA withholding requirements for other association records.
The bill is McEntire's first piece of legislation to be passed by the House of Representatives.
“I am pleased to have such strong bipartisan support on this bill. My first term was under the COVID protocols and restrictions. There was not a lot of camaraderie or bipartisanship happening over our Zoom sessions,” said McEntire. “However, it has been great to be in Olympia in person. It has been satisfying knowing you can sit down and work together or even just visit with your colleagues on both sides of the aisle as we work to make Washington a better place to live.”
The bill passed the House unanimously and is now headed to the Senate for consideration.
