Revised Code of Washington
Chapter 64.34 - Condominium Act.
64.34.020 - Definitions.

RCW 64.34.020
Definitions.

In the declaration and bylaws, unless specifically provided otherwise or the context requires otherwise, and in this chapter:
(1) "Affiliate" means any person who controls, is controlled by, or is under common control with the referenced person. A person "controls" another person if the person: (a) Is a general partner, officer, director, or employer of the referenced person; (b) directly or indirectly or acting in concert with one or more other persons, or through one or more subsidiaries, owns, controls, holds with power to vote, or holds proxies representing, more than twenty percent of the voting interest in the referenced person; (c) controls in any manner the election of a majority of the directors of the referenced person; or (d) has contributed more than twenty percent of the capital of the referenced person. A person "is controlled by" another person if the other person: (i) Is a general partner, officer, director, or employer of the person; (ii) directly or indirectly or acting in concert with one or more other persons, or through one or more subsidiaries, owns, controls, holds with power to vote, or holds proxies representing, more than twenty percent of the voting interest in the person; (iii) controls in any manner the election of a majority of the directors of the person; or (iv) has contributed more than twenty percent of the capital of the person. Control does not exist if the powers described in this subsection are held solely as security for an obligation and are not exercised.
(2) "Allocated interests" means the undivided interest in the common elements, the common expense liability, and votes in the association allocated to each unit.
(3) "Assessment" means all sums chargeable by the association against a unit including, without limitation: (a) Regular and special assessments for common expenses, charges, and fines imposed by the association; (b) interest and late charges on any delinquent account; and (c) costs of collection, including reasonable attorneys' fees, incurred by the association in connection with the collection of a delinquent owner's account.
(4) "Association" or "unit owners' association" means the unit owners' association organized under RCW 64.34.300.
(5) "Baseline funding plan" means establishing a reserve funding goal of maintaining a reserve account balance above zero dollars throughout the thirty-year study period described under RCW 64.34.380.
(6) "Board of directors" means the body, regardless of name, with primary authority to manage the affairs of the association.
(7) "Common elements" means all portions of a condominium other than the units.
(8) "Common expense liability" means the liability for common expenses allocated to each unit pursuant to RCW 64.34.224.
(9) "Common expenses" means expenditures made by or financial liabilities of the association, together with any allocations to reserves.
(10) "Condominium" means real property, portions of which are designated for separate ownership and the remainder of which is designated for common ownership solely by the owners of those portions. Real property is not a condominium unless the undivided interests in the common elements are vested in the unit owners, and unless a declaration and a survey map and plans have been recorded pursuant to this chapter.
(11) "Contribution rate" means, in a reserve study as described in RCW 64.34.380, the amount contributed to the reserve account so that the association will have cash reserves to pay major maintenance, repair, or replacement costs without the need of a special assessment.
(12) "Conversion condominium" means a condominium (a) that at any time before creation of the condominium was lawfully occupied wholly or partially by a tenant or subtenant for residential purposes pursuant to a rental agreement, oral or written, express or implied, for which the tenant or subtenant had not received the notice described in (b) of this subsection; or (b) that, at any time within twelve months before the conveyance of, or acceptance of an agreement to convey, any unit therein other than to a declarant or any affiliate of a declarant, was lawfully occupied wholly or partially by a residential tenant of a declarant or an affiliate of a declarant and such tenant was not notified in writing, prior to lawfully occupying a unit or executing a rental agreement, whichever event first occurs, that the unit was part of a condominium and subject to sale. "Conversion condominium" shall not include a condominium in which, before July 1, 1990, any unit therein had been conveyed or been made subject to an agreement to convey to any transferee other than a declarant or an affiliate of a declarant.
(13) "Conveyance" means any transfer of the ownership of a unit, including a transfer by deed or by real estate contract and, with respect to a unit in a leasehold condominium, a transfer by lease or assignment thereof, but shall not include a transfer solely for security.
(14) "Dealer" means a person who, together with such person's affiliates, owns or has a right to acquire either six or more units in a condominium or fifty percent or more of the units in a condominium containing more than two units.
(15) "Declarant" means:
(a) Any person who executes as declarant a declaration as defined in subsection (17) of this section; or
(b) Any person who reserves any special declarant right in the declaration; or
(c) Any person who exercises special declarant rights or to whom special declarant rights are transferred; or
(d) Any person who is the owner of a fee interest in the real property which is subjected to the declaration at the time of the recording of an instrument pursuant to RCW 64.34.316 and who directly or through one or more affiliates is materially involved in the construction, marketing, or sale of units in the condominium created by the recording of the instrument.
(16) "Declarant control" means the right of the declarant or persons designated by the declarant to appoint and remove officers and members of the board of directors, or to veto or approve a proposed action of the board or association, pursuant to RCW 64.34.308 (5) or (6).
(17) "Declaration" means the document, however denominated, that creates a condominium by setting forth the information required by RCW 64.34.216 and any amendments to that document.
(18) "Development rights" means any right or combination of rights reserved by a declarant in the declaration to: (a) Add real property or improvements to a condominium; (b) create units, common elements, or limited common elements within real property included or added to a condominium; (c) subdivide units or convert units into common elements; (d) withdraw real property from a condominium; or (e) reallocate limited common elements with respect to units that have not been conveyed by the declarant.
(19) "Dispose" or "disposition" means a voluntary transfer or conveyance to a purchaser or lessee of any legal or equitable interest in a unit, but does not include the transfer or release of a security interest.
(20) "Effective age" means the difference between the estimated useful life and remaining useful life.
(21) "Electronic transmission" or "electronically transmitted" means any electronic communication not directly involving the physical transfer of a writing in a tangible medium, but that may be retained, retrieved, and reviewed by the sender and the recipient of the communication, and that may be directly reproduced in a tangible medium by a sender and recipient.
(22) "Eligible mortgagee" means the holder of a mortgage on a unit that has filed with the secretary of the association a written request that it be given copies of notices of any action by the association that requires the consent of mortgagees.
(23) "Foreclosure" means a forfeiture or judicial or nonjudicial foreclosure of a mortgage or a deed in lieu thereof.
(24) "Full funding plan" means setting a reserve funding goal of achieving one hundred percent fully funded reserves by the end of the thirty-year study period described under RCW 64.34.380, in which the reserve account balance equals the sum of the deteriorated portion of all reserve components.
(25) "Fully funded balance" means the current value of the deteriorated portion, not the total replacement value, of all the reserve components. The fully funded balance for each reserve component is calculated by multiplying the current replacement cost of that reserve component by its effective age, then dividing the result by that reserve component's useful life. The sum total of all reserve components' fully funded balances is the association's fully funded balance.
(26) "Identifying number" means the designation of each unit in a condominium.
(27) "Leasehold condominium" means a condominium in which all or a portion of the real property is subject to a lease, the expiration or termination of which will terminate the condominium or reduce its size.
(28) "Limited common element" means a portion of the common elements allocated by the declaration or by operation of RCW 64.34.204 (2) or (4) for the exclusive use of one or more but fewer than all of the units.
(29) "Master association" means an organization described in RCW 64.34.276, whether or not it is also an association described in RCW 64.34.300.
(30) "Mortgage" means a mortgage, deed of trust or real estate contract.
(31) "Person" means a natural person, corporation, partnership, limited partnership, trust, governmental subdivision or agency, or other legal entity.
(32) "Purchaser" means any person, other than a declarant or a dealer, who by means of a disposition acquires a legal or equitable interest in a unit other than (a) a leasehold interest, including renewal options, of less than twenty years at the time of creation of the unit, or (b) as security for an obligation.
(33) "Real property" means any fee, leasehold or other estate or interest in, over, or under land, including structures, fixtures, and other improvements thereon and easements, rights and interests appurtenant thereto which by custom, usage, or law pass with a conveyance of land although not described in the contract of sale or instrument of conveyance. "Real property" includes parcels, with or without upper or lower boundaries, and spaces that may be filled with air or water.
(34) "Remaining useful life" means the estimated time, in years, before a reserve component will require major maintenance, repair, or replacement to perform its intended function.
(35) "Replacement cost" means the current cost of replacing, repairing, or restoring a reserve component to its original functional condition.
(36) "Reserve component" means a common element whose cost of maintenance, repair, or replacement is infrequent, significant, and impractical to include in an annual budget.
(37) "Reserve study professional" means an independent person who is suitably qualified by knowledge, skill, experience, training, or education to prepare a reserve study in accordance with RCW 64.34.380 and 64.34.382.
(38) "Residential purposes" means use for dwelling or recreational purposes, or both.
(39) "Significant assets" means that the current total cost of major maintenance, repair, and replacement of the reserve components is fifty percent or more of the gross budget of the association, excluding reserve account funds.
(40) "Special declarant rights" means rights reserved for the benefit of a declarant to: (a) Complete improvements indicated on survey maps and plans filed with the declaration under RCW 64.34.232; (b) exercise any development right under RCW 64.34.236; (c) maintain sales offices, management offices, signs advertising the condominium, and models under RCW 64.34.256; (d) use easements through the common elements for the purpose of making improvements within the condominium or within real property which may be added to the condominium under RCW 64.34.260; (e) make the condominium part of a larger condominium or a development under RCW 64.34.280; (f) make the condominium subject to a master association under RCW 64.34.276; or (g) appoint or remove any officer of the association or any master association or any member of the board of directors, or to veto or approve a proposed action of the board or association, during any period of declarant control under RCW 64.34.308(5).
(41) "Tangible medium" means a writing, copy of a writing, facsimile, or a physical reproduction, each on paper or on other tangible material.
(42) "Timeshare" shall have the meaning specified in the timeshare act, RCW 64.36.010(11).
(43) "Unit" means a physical portion of the condominium designated for separate ownership, the boundaries of which are described pursuant to RCW 64.34.216(1)(d). "Separate ownership" includes leasing a unit in a leasehold condominium under a lease that expires contemporaneously with any lease, the expiration or termination of which will remove the unit from the condominium.
(44) "Unit owner" means a declarant or other person who owns a unit or leases a unit in a leasehold condominium under a lease that expires simultaneously with any lease, the expiration or termination of which will remove the unit from the condominium, but does not include a person who has an interest in a unit solely as security for an obligation. "Unit owner" means the vendee, not the vendor, of a unit under a real estate contract.
(45) "Useful life" means the estimated time, between years, that major maintenance, repair, or replacement is estimated to occur.

[ 2021 c 227 § 4. Prior: 2011 c 189 § 1; 2008 c 115 § 8; 2004 c 201 § 9; 1992 c 220 § 2; 1990 c 166 § 1; 1989 c 43 § 1-103.]
NOTES:

Reviser's note: The definitions in this section have been alphabetized pursuant to RCW 1.08.015(2)(k).


Effective date—2011 c 189: See note following RCW 64.38.065.


Effective date—1990 c 166: "This act shall take effect July 1, 1990." [ 1990 c 166 § 16.]

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