What a Seller Must Give a Buyer Before Closing

Before selling a lot under an association's jurisdiction to an independent third party, the grantor shall provide the buyer with two things:

• A copy of the association's recorded governing documents
• A link or other access point to the educational materials described in Section 13-79-103(4)

Both must be provided before closing.

The educational materials in that second item are the ones on this website. Section 13-79-103(4) directs this Office to prepare them, and the sale statute makes it a seller's duty to point a buyer to them. If you are buying, you are entitled to be sent here before you close.

The seller can make the association do the work. On the grantor's request, the association shall provide the grantor with the governing documents and the access point. A seller who cannot locate the recorded documents should ask the association in writing rather than closing without them.

This section applies to every association regardless of when it was formed.

Note what the section does not do. It sets no penalty and no remedy. It states the duty and the timing, and stops. If you closed without receiving either item, the statute gives you no damages figure to point to, unlike the payoff rule below.

Payoff Information at Closing, and the Five-Day Rule That Kills a Lien

A closing needs a payoff figure from the association: what the seller owes in assessments and charges. Section 57-8a-106 governs both what the association may charge for it and what happens if the association is slow.

The default is no fee at all. Unless specifically authorized in the declaration, the bylaws, or the rules, an association may not charge a fee for providing payoff information needed in connection with the financing, refinancing, or closing of an owner's sale.

Where a fee is authorized, two limits apply. The association may not require payment before closing and may not charge more than $50.

Now the provision worth knowing. An association that fails to provide the payoff information within five business days after the closing agent requests it may not enforce a lien for money due to the association at closing. A slow association forfeits its lien for the closing money.

But the request has to be done correctly, and this is where it usually fails. A request is not effective unless it meets all three requirements:

• It is conveyed in writing to the primary contact person designated under Section 57-8a-105(3)(d), the person named in the association's registration
• It contains the name, telephone number, and address of the person requesting, and a facsimile number or email address for delivery
• It is accompanied by a written consent for release that identifies the requester as a person to whom the information may be released, and is signed and dated by an owner of the lot

A phone call to a board member does not start the 5-business-day period. Neither does an email to the wrong person, nor a request without the owner's signed consent. If the five-day protection matters to your closing, confirm in writing that the request went to the registered contact, with the consent attached.

This section applies regardless of when the association was formed.

When Your Lender Gets a Vote, and the 60-Day Silence Rule

Many declarations condition an amendment or a major association action on the approval of mortgage holders, and lenders often do not respond. Section 57-8a-210 solves the resulting deadlock by presuming consent.

Where a security holder's consent is a condition for amending a declaration or bylaw, or for an association action, consent is presumed if all three of the following happen:

• Written notice is sent by certified or registered mail to the address the security holder listed for notice in the recorded trust deed or other recorded document
• 60 days have passed since the notice was mailed
• The person designated to receive the response has received no written response, either consenting or refusing

Silence for 60 days counts as approval. It applies to associations formed before and after May 12, 2009, and to documents recorded before and after that date. Where the recorded documents give no notice address, the association shall use reasonable efforts to find one.

One response defeats the presumption without being a refusal. If the security holder writes back within 60 days stating that the interest was assigned to someone else, with no record showing it, the association may not presume consent and must send a fresh notice to the assignee.

The Limits on Lender Control

This chapter has a second lender section, which protects owners. Section 57-8a-220 addresses not how consent is presumed but what a declaration may condition on lender approval in the first place.

A declaration may condition specified owner actions on approval by a set number or percentage of lenders holding security interests in lots, and specified association actions on approval by lenders that extended credit to the association.

But three things such a condition may not do:

• Deny or delegate the owners' or board's control over the association's general administrative affairs. A lender cannot be given the run of the association
• Prevent the association or board from commencing, intervening in, or settling any litigation or proceeding. A lender cannot veto the association's ability to go to court, including against a declarant
• Prevent an insurance trustee or the association from receiving or distributing insurance proceeds under Section 57-8a-405(11). A lender cannot intercept the money that rebuilds the project

Two things a lender condition may still require, without violating those limits: that the association deposit pre-default assessments with the lender assigned the income, and that the association raise an assessment at the lender's direction by an amount reasonably necessary to pay the loan on its terms. So a lender can cause your assessment to go up, within that limit.

These provisions apply to associations formed and documents recorded before, on, or after May 10, 2011. And a lender that extended credit secured by an assignment of income or an encumbrance of the common areas may enforce its security agreement as written, subject to this chapter and applicable law.

Three Things To Do

• Buying: ask for the recorded governing documents and the education link before closing. The seller owes you both
• Selling: if you cannot find the recorded documents, request them from the association in writing. It must provide them
• At closing: confirm that the payoff request was submitted in writing to the association's registered contact person, with the owner's signed consent attached. That is what starts the five business days

Every deadline on this page also appears in Deadlines and Thresholds. For what the association can still collect after closing, see Collections, Liens, and Foreclosure, and Assessments. If the association will not produce payoff information or governing documents, read Advisory Opinions and Where To Take a Problem.

Reviewed against the Utah Code, current as of September 9, 2026.