Where To Take a Problem
Start With Your Association, Because the Statute Requires It
Put the problem in writing to the board or the manager, and use whatever dispute resolution procedure your governing documents provide. This is not just good practice. This Office may not issue an advisory opinion unless you have exhausted the existing dispute resolution procedures in your governing documents, and your request has to describe how you did it.
One limit on that requirement is worth knowing: your association may not require you to go through binding arbitration before you ask this Office for an opinion.
If your association has a hearing process, use it and keep the record. A fine can be disputed at an informal hearing requested within 30 days, and a termination of your rights for delinquency has its own 14-day hearing request. Those and the other clocks are in Deadlines and Thresholds.
What an Advisory Opinion Is
An owner or an association may ask this Office for a written opinion on whether Title 57, Chapter 8, Chapter 8a, or another state statute was complied with. The request must be made before a court action or binding arbitration begins.
To file, you pay a nonrefundable filing fee of $150, file no later than one year after the day you knew or should have known about the act, and describe both the act and its impact on you.
The Office notifies the other parties, asks whether anyone else is a necessary party, and issues a written opinion with the facts and the law behind its conclusions.
What an Advisory Opinion Is Not
It is not an order, and it does not decide your case. An advisory opinion is neither binding on any party nor admissible as evidence in a dispute, with one exception described below.
Three further limits are set forth in the Office's own statute. It may issue an opinion only on a violation of a state statute. It may not interpret your governing documents outside of that limit. And nothing an attorney of the Office does creates an attorney-client relationship with you or with your association.
The Office must decline a request when the issues are not ripe, when the internal procedures have not been exhausted, or when the issues are beyond its statutory review. It must also decline if the request concerns only a contractual dispute.
Two consequences attach to misusing the process. A person who knowingly files a false or fraudulent request is barred from filing for two years and may face a civil penalty of up to $1,000. And a person who files three or more requests, each unexhausted, declined, or purely contractual, may be designated a vexatious filer, after which a request may proceed only if the Commissioner of the Department of Commerce authorizes it.
Where an Advisory Opinion Does Carry Weight
There is one exception to the rule that the opinion is not binding, and it is worth understanding before you decide whether to file.
If the Office issues an opinion, the same issue is later litigated, and the court rules the same way the opinion did, the court may award the substantially prevailing party reasonable attorney fees and court costs running from the date the Office delivered the opinion to the date the court resolves the case. If the court also finds the opposing party knowingly and intentionally violated the law, it may add a civil penalty of up to $5,000.
In practice, that means an opinion in your favor, ignored by the other side, can become expensive for them later. It also means the reverse: an opinion against you is a signal worth reading closely before you choose to ignore the advisory opinion or spend money on litigation.
Where Else To Take It
Many complaints that feel like HOA problems belong to another agency. Sending them here first costs you the filing fee and the wait. You can always call the Office ahead of time to see whether your issue is ripe for an advisory opinion.
The Problem | Where it Goes | Section |
|---|---|---|
| An association or an owner violated Chapter 8, Chapter 8a, or another state statute | This Office, by advisory opinion, after you exhaust the association's procedures. | 13-79-103(4)(a); 13-79-104 |
| Housing discrimination | The Division of Antidiscrimination and Labor at the Labor Commission, and separately, the federal route through HUD. The two have different filing deadlines, and they are short, so check them before anything else. | 57-21-9 |
| A real estate licensee or property manager acted improperly | The Division of Real Estate, which handles licensee discipline. | 61-2f-401 |
| Corporate filings, the registered agent, the annual report, or administrative dissolution | The Division of Corporations and Commercial Code. Organizing and Dismantling an Association explains what has to be filed and when. | 13-1a-1 |
| Contractor licensing or workmanship on a common area job | The Division of Professional Licensing, which oversees licensees. | 58-55-301 |
| A building or fire code violation | Your local compliance agency, with an appeal route to the Construction Services Commission. | 15A-1-207 |
| A deceptive sales or service practice by a vendor | The Division of Consumer Protection. Whether that act applies to an association charging its own members is an open question; do not assume it covers an assessment dispute. | 13-2-102 |
| A third-party debt collector's conduct | The federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, plus Utah's conditions on when a collection fee may be added. | 12-1-11 |
| A dispute with a city or county over zoning, subdivision, permitting, or a taking | The Office of the Property Rights Ombudsman, which is a different office. It issues its own advisory opinions and can mediate. | 13-43-201; 13-43-205 |
| A district's billing, service, or board conduct | The district itself, through its board of trustees. A district is a governmental entity, not an association. See Is This an HOA? | Title 17D chs. 1, 4 |
| A mobile home park tenancy problem | The park chapter's own remedies may include a meeting to attempt resolution before suit, and a private action with attorney fees. | 57-16-4.1; 57-16-19 |
| Threats, assault, harassment, theft, or trespass | Law enforcement. No association process substitutes for it, and this Office has no role. | NA |
Two Offices Are Called the Ombudsman, and They Are Not the Same
Both sit in the Department of Commerce and issue documents called advisory opinions, which is why callers so often reach the wrong one.
- This Office, the Office of the Homeowners' Association Ombudsman, oversees compliance with the two association acts and other state statutes governing relationships between homeowners and their associations.
- The Office of the Property Rights Ombudsman handles disputes with the government over land use, eminent domain, and takings, and issues its own advisory opinions.
If your dispute is with a city or a county rather than with your association, that is the office you want.
If You Still Need a Decision
An advisory opinion does not end a dispute that the other side refuses to settle. What comes next depends on your chapter and your documents.
Arbitration is a condominium-side option only. In a condominium, the declaration, bylaws, or rules may provide for the arbitration of disputes. Chapter 8a has no parallel arbitration section, so under the Community Association Act, arbitration comes from your documents or an agreement, not from the act.
Beyond that are the courts. Small claims handles smaller money disputes without a lawyer, and the jurisdictional limit is set by statute and changes over time, so confirm the current figure with the court before you file. District court is the general forum, and in assessment lien actions, the fee-shifting provisions can turn a modest dispute into an expensive one for whoever loses.
For what this Office can and cannot do in more detail, read What This Office Can and Cannot Do. For the underlying rights in the acts, start at Condominiums or Community Associations.
Reviewed against the Utah Code, current as of September 8, 2026.