Washington Mandatory Email List
Washington State Laws Regarding Sharing of a Membership list with Addresses and Email Addresses.
10/2024
HOAs are required by RCW 64.90.495 to share the membership list including the member emails for free, one time per year and in electronic or written copy when requested by the member.
RCW 64.90.495
(1) An association must retain the following:
(c) The names of current unit owners, addresses used by the association to communicate with them, and the number of votes allocated to each unit;
Clearly, the law is specifying that the HOA must maintain the addresses used by the association to communicate with the unit owners. If the HOA is using email to communicate then clearly the law considers an email address to be an address.
(2)(a) Subject to subsections (3) through (5) of this section, and except as provided in (b) of this subsection, all records required to be retained by an association must be made available for examination and copying by all unit owners, holders of mortgages on the units, and their respective authorized agents as follows, unless agreed otherwise:
(b) The list of unit owners required to be retained by an association under subsection (1)(c) of this section is not required to:
(ii) Contain the electronic addresses of unit owners who have elected to keep such addresses confidentialpursuant to RCW 64.90.515(3)(a).
Clearly 2 (a) in combination with (b) (ii) states that the only electronic that should not be shared with the unit owners are those of the unit owners that have elected to keep such addresses confidential.
(5)(a) Except as provided in (b) of this subsection, an association may charge a reasonable fee for producing and providing copies of any records under this section and for supervising the unit owner's inspection.
(b) A unit owner is entitled to receive a free annual electronic or written copy of the list retained under subsection (1)(c) of this section from the association.
Clearly (5) (a) in combination with (b) requires the HOA to share the membership list with emails for free, one time per year and in electronic or written copy when requested by the member.
Below is the email sent to a fellow Washingtonian from Representative Joel McEntire agreeing with what I have stated above.
On Sun, Nov 12, 2023 at 8:00 AM, McEntire, Rep. Joel wrote:
Michael, Your interpretation of the law is correct and in line with what we intended in the legislature. The HOA must keep and be able to distribute a directory with the addresses in the HOA and either a phone number or email address for contacting, unless the member wishes to have a number or email address kept classified. In that case, the HOA has no right to distribute info that a person would like to be kept secret. If members are voluntarily giving their info, it is assumed that these are not unlisted addresses or numbers.
Your Humble Servant,
Representative Joel McEntire
(360) 786-7870