Governance
WUCIOA Meeting Requirements: The 15-Minute Owner Comment Rule and What Boards Get Wrong
RCW 64.90.445 requires open meetings, 14-day notice, and a minimum 15-minute owner comment period before any board vote. Most boards are not compliant. This guide covers the statutory requirements, executive session limits, remote participation, and documentation best practices.
The Washington Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act (WUCIOA) establishes specific requirements for how HOA boards conduct meetings. With SB 5129 accelerating these provisions to all Washington communities effective January 1, 2026, every board in the state must comply.
The most significant — and most frequently misunderstood — requirement is the 15-minute owner comment rule under RCW 64.90.445.
This guide covers the full statutory framework: what the law requires, what boards get wrong, and how to implement compliant meeting procedures.
What RCW 64.90.445 Requires
Open Meetings
All board meetings and committee meetings must be open to unit owners. This is not discretionary. Owners have a statutory right to attend.
The only exception is executive sessions, which are limited to: 1. Personnel matters (employee performance, compensation) 2. Pending or threatened litigation (communications with legal counsel) 3. Matters that would violate an individual owner's privacy if discussed in open session
Everything else — budgets, assessments, vendor contracts, architectural decisions, policy changes — must be discussed in open session.
Notice Requirements
| Meeting Type | Required Notice | Delivery Method |
|---|---|---|
| Regular board meeting | 14 days advance | Written notice to all owners |
| Urgent/special meeting | 7 days advance | Written notice to all owners |
| Annual meeting | Per governing documents | Written notice to all owners |
Notice must include: - Date, time, and location of the meeting - Agenda (topics to be discussed or voted on) - How to participate remotely (if applicable)
The 15-Minute Owner Comment Rule
RCW 64.90.445(1)(a) requires:
The board must provide at least 15 minutes at the beginning of each board meeting for owner comments before voting on agenda items.
This is specific and prescriptive:
- "At least 15 minutes" — 15 minutes is the floor, not the ceiling. If owners are still speaking at 15 minutes, the board should allow reasonable continuation.
- "At the beginning" — Before any votes. Not at the end. Not in the middle. At the start of the meeting.
- "Before voting on agenda items" — The comment period must precede substantive board action. Votes taken before the comment period are procedurally defective.
Board Materials Available to Owners
Any written materials provided to board members before the meeting must be made available to owners upon request (RCW 64.90.445(1)(b)).
This includes: - Financial reports distributed to the board - Vendor proposals under consideration - Draft budgets or assessment schedules - Any other documents the board will reference during the meeting
Excluded: Executive session materials (attorney communications, personnel records, individual owner information that would violate privacy).
Remote Participation
Boards must permit remote participation in all meetings — even if the governing documents do not explicitly authorize it. WUCIOA overrides any governing document provision that prohibits remote attendance.
What Boards Get Wrong
Mistake 1: Comment Period at the End
Some boards place the owner comment period at the end of the meeting — after all votes have been taken. This does not comply with RCW 64.90.445(1)(a), which requires comments before voting on agenda items.
Fix: Move the comment period to the first agenda item after call to order and roll call.
Mistake 2: Insufficient Time
A board opens the comment period, waits 30 seconds, asks "any comments?" and hearing none, closes the period. This does not satisfy the 15-minute requirement. The period must be available for 15 minutes even if no owners choose to speak.
Fix: Formally open the comment period, note the time, and keep it open for the full 15 minutes. If no owners wish to comment, the board may close the period after 15 minutes. If owners are speaking, extend as reasonably necessary.
Mistake 3: Limiting Topics
Boards that restrict owner comments to "agenda items only" are adding a limitation the statute does not impose. The comment period is for owner comments — period. The board is not required to respond to every comment during the meeting, but it cannot refuse to hear comments on non-agenda topics.
Fix: Allow owners to raise any topic during the comment period. The board can note non-agenda items for follow-up without disrupting the meeting flow.
Mistake 4: No Notice of Materials Availability
Many boards distribute financial reports and vendor proposals to board members before the meeting but do not inform owners that these materials are available. The statute requires availability upon request — but owners cannot request materials they do not know exist.
Fix: Include a statement in the meeting notice that board materials are available to owners upon request.
Mistake 5: Conducting Business in Executive Session
Executive sessions are the most abused meeting provision. Boards routinely discuss vendor contracts, budget strategies, and policy decisions in executive session — topics that do not qualify under RCW 64.90.445(2).
Fix: Limit executive sessions strictly to personnel, litigation, and individual privacy matters. If the topic does not fit one of these three categories, it must be discussed in open session.
WUCIOA's meeting requirements create implicit documentation obligations. When the statute requires open meetings, owner comment periods, and materials availability, the board must be able to demonstrate compliance.
Meeting Minutes
At minimum, meeting minutes should include:
- Date, time, and location — Including whether remote participation was available
- Attendance — Board members present, quorum confirmation, note if any owners attended
- Comment period — Time opened, time closed, summary of comments received (not verbatim transcription, but topic and speaker identification)
- Agenda items discussed — Summary of discussion on each item
- Votes taken — Motion, second, vote count, result
- Executive session — If entered, the specific statutory basis (personnel/litigation/privacy), time entered and exited, and confirmation that no votes were taken in executive session
Materials Distribution Log
Track: - What materials were distributed to board members before the meeting - When they were distributed - Whether any owners requested copies - Whether copies were provided (and when)
Notice Records
Preserve: - Copy of the meeting notice - Date the notice was sent - Distribution list - Method of delivery (email, mail, posting)
Why This Matters
If an owner challenges a board action as procedurally defective — arguing that adequate notice was not given, the comment period was not provided, or materials were not available — the board's defense is its documentation.
Without documentation, the board cannot demonstrate compliance. With documentation, the board has a defensible record that the statutory procedures were followed.
The Standard:
Documentation should be sufficient for an attorney, auditor, or court to reconstruct what happened at the meeting and confirm that statutory procedures were followed — without relying on anyone's memory.
Meeting Compliance Checklist
Use this checklist for every board meeting:
Before the Meeting
- Written notice sent to all owners at least 14 days in advance (7 for urgent)
- Agenda included with notice
- Remote participation option available and communicated
- Board materials available to owners upon request
- Notice statement that materials are available upon request
During the Meeting
- Call to order and quorum confirmed
- Owner comment period opened at start of meeting (before any votes)
- Comment period kept open for at least 15 minutes
- Owner comments summarized in minutes
- All substantive business conducted in open session
- Executive sessions limited to personnel, litigation, and privacy matters
- Votes taken in open session only (no votes in executive session)
After the Meeting
- Minutes drafted and include all required elements
- Materials distribution log updated
- Any owner follow-up items noted and assigned
- Minutes distributed to the board for review and approval at next meeting
How CommunityPay Supports Meeting Compliance
CommunityPay provides the governance infrastructure that makes meeting compliance a system rather than a manual process:
- Meeting notices with automated scheduling and distribution tracking
- Document sharing portal with access logging — when an owner requests board materials, the request and delivery are documented
- Governance workflow with timestamped records of every board decision, vote, and approval
- Immutable audit trail documenting the full meeting lifecycle — notice, attendance, comments, votes, minutes
The goal is not to automate meetings. It is to ensure that the documentation WUCIOA requires is created as a natural byproduct of conducting the meeting — without additional manual effort from the board.
Explore CommunityPay's governance tools | Request a demo
Meeting compliance is one component of broader WUCIOA obligations: - WUCIOA 2026 Compliance Checklist — The complete checklist covering governance, financial operations, resale certificates, and 2028 preparation - Washington Resale Certificate Guide — Resale certificate requirements that depend on proper governance documentation - Washington HOA Law Changes 2026 — Background on SB 5129 and the WUCIOA acceleration timeline
This guide covers WUCIOA meeting requirements under RCW 64.90.445 as applied by SB 5129 effective January 1, 2026. For legal advice specific to your community's meeting procedures, consult a Washington real estate attorney. For a walkthrough of CommunityPay's governance capabilities, contact us.
How CommunityPay Enforces This
- Governance workflow with timestamped meeting records, approvals, and role-based authorization
- Document sharing portal with access logging for board meeting materials
- Immutable audit trail documenting every board decision, vote, and governance action
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