What the Board Should Do and Should Not Do

The board runs the association. It sets the budget, hires the vendors, enforces the rules, and spends your assessments. Utah law says surprisingly little about who those people have to be, and a great deal about how they have to behave once they are in the room.

Who Can Serve, and What the Board Can Do

Section 57-8a-501 sets a short list of specifications. A director must be a natural person (a human) and at least 18 years old. That is the whole statutory requirement.

Your bylaws may add qualifications, and an association may disqualify someone who has been convicted of a felony or who is a sex offender. A director does not have to live in Utah or even own a lot in the community unless the bylaws require it, which surprises people who assume board seats are reserved for neighbors.

Except as the declaration, the bylaws, or the Act limit it, the board acts on behalf of the association in all instances.

The Board Can Only Act at a Meeting

This is the rule most often broken. Under Section 57-8a-226, a board may take action only at a board meeting. The single exception is action taken without a meeting under Section 16-6a-813, the nonprofit corporation provision on written consent.

Notice, and Your Right to Attend

A board meeting is open to every lot owner, or to a representative the owner designates in writing.

Notice is not automatic, and this is worth knowing: the association must give at least 48 hours' written notice by email to each lot owner who requests notice. If you have never asked, you may never be told. Ask in writing, and give the association the email address you want used.

Two exceptions to the 48 hours. No separate notice is needed if the meeting was already on a meeting schedule the association gave you, and none is needed for an emergency meeting where the board members themselves got less than 48 hours' notice. A notice must state the time, the date, the location, and, if any board member may participate electronically, the information you need to join electronically.

When the Board Can Close the Door

Section 57-8a-226(3) lets a board close a meeting for six purposes and no others:

• to consult an attorney for legal advice;
• to discuss ongoing or potential litigation, mediation, arbitration, or an administrative proceeding;
• to discuss a personnel matter;
• to discuss contract negotiations, including a bid or proposal;
• to discuss a matter involving an individual where the discussion is likely to cause undue embarrassment or violate a reasonable expectation of privacy; or
• to discuss a delinquent assessment or fine.

A closed session is for discussing those subjects. Anything outside the list belongs in the open meeting, and a board member may not avoid or obstruct these requirements.

Your Right to Speak

Under Section 57-8a-226(4), at each board meeting, the board must give every lot owner a reasonable opportunity to offer comments. The board may confine that to one specific time period during the meeting, which is why most agendas carry an owner comment slot, but it may not skip it.

While the Developer Still Controls the Board

During the period of administrative control, most open meeting rules are suspended. Section 57-8a-226(7) does not switch them off entirely. The association must still hold a meeting that complies with the notice, openness, and comment requirements at least once each year, and again every time it increases a fee or raises an assessment.

So, even before turnover, a fee increase cannot be adopted without a meeting that owners can attend and speak at.

When the Board Decides Not to Enforce

Owners often assume a board must chase every violation. Section 57-8a-213 says otherwise. The board uses its reasonable judgment about whether to impose sanctions or pursue legal action, and it is not required to act if, after fair review, in good faith, and without a conflict of interest, it concludes that the association's legal position does not justify it, that the provision is likely to be read as inconsistent with current law, that the violation is technical and not material, or that enforcement is not in the association's best interests given hardship or expense.

There is a floor. The board may not be arbitrary, capricious, or against public policy in taking or refusing to take enforcement action. And declining once does not stop the association from acting later.

If the Board Will Not Comply

Section 57-8a-226(9) gives owners a route. Deliver written notice to the association stating who you are, which requirements were missed, a demand to comply, and a compliance date at least 90 days out. If the association has still not remedied it after that period, you may file an action for an injunction and for $500 or actual damages, whichever is greater. The court may award costs and reasonable attorney fees to the prevailing party, and may order immediate compliance on motion after a hearing.

Where to Go Next

If the board is meeting in secret, refusing to give notice you requested, or shutting owners out of comment, that is a statutory question, and the Office of the Homeowners' Association Ombudsman can issue an advisory opinion on it. Note that the 90-day notice step above comes before any court action. 

Reviewed against the Utah Code, current as of August 10, 2026.