What Counts as an Assessment

An assessment is a charge imposed or levied by the association, on or against a lot or a lot owner, and in accordance with a governing document recorded with the county recorder. It includes a common expense and an amount assessed against an owner under Section 57-8a-405(7) after an insurance loss.

The recorded-document requirement is doing real work in that definition. A charge that traces to no recorded governing document is not an assessment within the meaning of this chapter, whatever the association calls it on your statement.

What You Owe, and When

You owe your proportionate share of the common expenses and of any other assessment the association levies, in the amount and at the time the board determines under the declaration or the bylaws.

An assessment levied against a lot is a debt owed by the owner at the time it is levied and is collectible as a debt. The obligation attaches when the assessment is made, not when the association gets around to billing it.

For the cap on late fees and interest, and the fee schedule the board must adopt and deliver before charging anything, see Late Fees, Interest, and Fee Schedules. For how the association sets the annual number and how owners can disapprove it, see Budgets.

The Lien Arises From the Recorded Declaration, Not From a Filing

An association has a lien on a lot for an assessment, for the fees, charges, and costs of collecting an unpaid assessment, and for a fine in the circumstances described below.

The recording of the declaration is itself record notice and perfection of that lien. The association does not have to record anything further for the lien to exist, which surprises owners who expect to see a filing first.

Collection costs are recoverable except as the declaration provides otherwise, and they include court costs and reasonable attorney fees, late charges, interest, and any other amount the association may recover under the declaration, this chapter, or an administrative or judicial decision.

One limit that runs in your favor. If the association has not complied with the registration requirement in Section 57-8a-105, no lien arises, and an existing lien may not be enforced during that period. Section 57-8a-301(1)(a) opens "Except as provided in Section 57-8a-105," and the enforcement section does the same.

A Fine Becomes Part of the Lien Only After the Appeal Window Closes

A fine is included in the lien only if the time to appeal under Section 57-8a-208(5) has expired without an appeal, or the owner appealed on time, and a court issued a final order upholding the fine.

So a fine you have timely appealed is not yet lienable. That matters for the foreclosure limits below, where a lien that includes a fine cannot be enforced by the faster route.

Installments and the Trap in the Timing

If an assessment is payable in installments, the lien is for the full amount of the assessment from the time the first installment is due, unless the association provides otherwise in a notice of assessment.

Read that carefully if you are on a payment plan: missing one installment can expose the entire annual amount rather than just the missed installment.

Interest on What Is Unpaid

An unpaid assessment or fine accrues interest at the rate provided in Section 15-1-1(2), or at a different rate if the declaration provides one. Check your declaration before assuming the statutory default applies to you.

Where the Lien Sits Against Other Claims

An assessment lien has priority over all other liens and encumbrances on the lot, except for three things.

• A lien or encumbrance recorded before the declaration was recorded
• A first or second security interest secured by a mortgage or trust deed recorded before a recorded notice of lien by the association
• A lien for real estate taxes or other governmental assessments or charges

Two further points. The lien is not subject to the Utah Exemptions Act, Title 78B, Chapter 5, Part 5. And if two or more associations hold assessment liens on the same lot, those liens have equal priority regardless of when they were created, unless the declaration provides otherwise. That last rule matters in a development with both a sub-association and a master association.

How the Association Can Collect

To enforce the lien, the association may sell the lot through nonjudicial foreclosure as if the lien were a deed of trust, or foreclose judicially as a mortgage would be. In either route, the association is treated as the beneficiary under a trust deed and the owner as the trustor.

A power of sale may not be exercised unless the association appoints a qualified trustee who meets the requirements in Section 57-1-21, and that trustee carries all the duties the trust deed statutes impose.

Foreclosure is not the only option, nor is it required. An association need not foreclose at all: it may file an action for a money judgment on the unpaid assessment without waiving the lien.

Two Limits on the Faster Route

Nonjudicial foreclosure is unavailable if the lien includes a fine, and it is unavailable unless the lien includes an assessment more than 180 days delinquent. Both are limits on the association.

You can also force the slower route. Mail the association a written demand for judicial foreclosure, certified with return receipt requested, within 30 days after the return receipt shows its notice was delivered.

Getting a Payoff Statement and the Two Different Fee Caps

There are two statements in this chapter, and they are easy to confuse.

• An owner's request. The manager or board must issue a written statement of any unpaid assessment on your lot on written request and payment of a reasonable fee not to exceed $25. That statement is conclusive in favor of a person who relies on it in good faith.
• The Part 2 statement. Upon written request and payment of a reasonable fee not to exceed $10, the manager or board must issue a statement of unpaid assessments, binding on anyone who relies on it in good faith. If the association does not comply within 10 days, any unpaid assessment that came due before the request is subordinate to the requester's lien.

That 10-day consequence is the sharpest tool on this page for anyone closing a sale or a refinance.

Deadlines and dollar figures from this page also appear in Deadlines and Thresholds. If you are behind and the association is moving to collect, read Advisory Opinions and Where To Take a Problem.

Reviewed against the Utah Code, current as of September 8, 2026.