Condo Architectural Review

From Vision to Reality

Dreaming of a new kitchen or fresh floors is part of the joy of owning a home. Personalizing your space makes it feel truly yours. When you live in a condominium, however, you share walls and common areas with your neighbors. Because of this, the Utah Condominium Ownership Act provides a clear path for owners to improve their units while protecting the whole building. 

Understanding the Unit Plan Approval Process

Before you pick up a hammer, you must understand two key terms. “Unit plans” are the drawings or descriptions of the work you want to do. “Plan fees” are the costs an association may charge to review those drawings.

Under Section 57-8-6.7, your association has the legal right to review your plans for construction or improvements before you start. The law mandates strict rules for how they handle this process:

• The association cannot charge a plan fee that exceeds the actual cost of the review.
• The review must be based on rules found in the governing documents.
• The association cannot use the review process to make extra money.

This law is important for fairness and keeps the costs honest for every owner.

Why a Simple No is Not Legal

The Utah Condominium Ownership Act mandates transparency, which means an architectural review committee or a board cannot deny a project just because they do not like it. Under Section 57-8-6.7(3), the architectural review committee must provide a specific written explanation for any denial. The denial must be in writing and must point to the specific part of the governing documents that your plan violates. This protects owners from arbitrary decisions and ensures that every neighbor is treated the same way.

Section 57-8-8.1(1) requires that rules - including design guidelines - must treat “similarly situated owners similarly”. When an architectural review committee is exercising its discretion in applying the design guidelines and reviewing proposed plans, it must ensure that it is doing so consistently and equally across all owners. This also means that, while consideration of the neighbors can be taken into account, the neighbors do not have a veto right over a plan that otherwise conforms with the guidelines. Otherwise, it would be impossible for an architectural review committee to comply with Section 57-8-8.1(1) if every decision were subject to the whims of whoever lived next door. For more information on this topic, see Advisory Opinion 2026-09.

Safety First: The Limits of Your Hammer

While you have rights to change your space, Section 57-8-9 is very strict and states that no owner can do work that would jeopardize the building or its safety. It also prohibits work that would reduce the value of the building or impair any easements. An owner cannot do these things unless they get the unanimous written consent of all the other unit owners first. This means every single neighbor in the association must agree in writing.

If you want to combine two units next to each other, Section 57-8-4.5 gives you that right. However, any such change cannot do any of the following:

• Impair the structural integrity of the building;
• Reduce the support of any common areas or another unit; or
• Violate a local land use ordinance or building code.

The management committee can set certain conditions to ensure these requirements are met:

• They can require you to submit a professional engineer or architect opinion at your own expense.
• The expert must state that the change will not hurt the structural integrity or mechanical systems of the building.
• The management committee can require you to pay for all legal and other expenses the association incurs because of your project.

In a condominium, the structural integrity is the red line. Because units share foundations, columns, girders, beams, supports, and main walls, a change in one unit is never truly private. A mistake in one unit can affect the safety and investment of the entire building.

Items the Association Generally Cannot Ban

The law recognizes that some changes are necessary for modern health, technology, and the environment. Sections 57-8-8.1 and 57-8-8.2 list items that associations generally cannot stop you from installing. These items have special legal protections:

• Electric vehicle charging systems in your assigned parking or exclusive common areas.
• Personal security cameras placed right next to your entryway or windows.
• Water-wise landscaping and the conversion of a grass park strip of less than 8 feet wide.
• Radon mitigation systems that meet industry standards.

The association may establish design criteria for these items. This means they can make rules about how they look or where they are placed. But they generally cannot prohibit them entirely. These laws reflect modern needs, such as saving water during a drought and protecting public health from radon gas.

The Final Thought: A Partnership in Property Value

The architectural review process is a tool to protect the value of every unit in the community. When owners and boards follow the requirements in the Condominium Ownership Act, the process is predictable and fair. It ensures that every project is safe and follows the shared rules of the neighborhood.