What the Association Can Collect, and What It Cannot

The lien and collection process is the key enforcement mechanism of an association, so the first question is always: what does the lien cover? It covers an assessment, and, except as the declaration provides otherwise, the fees, charges, and costs of collecting an unpaid assessment, including court costs and reasonable attorney fees, late charges, interest, and any other amount the association is entitled to recover under the declaration, the chapter, or a court or administrative decision. 

A fine is not included in the lien when it is assessed. A fine enters the lien only once the time to appeal it has expired without an appeal, or once a court has issued a final order upholding it. Until one of those two things happens, an unpaid fine is a debt the association can sue on, but it is not part of the lien.

No separate lien filing is required. An assessment levied against a lot is a debt owed by the owner at the time the assessment is made and thereafter collectible as a debt. The recording of the declaration is itself record notice and perfection of the lien. Do not expect to find a recorded lien document; the absence of one proves nothing.

The Registration Condition Most Owners Have Never Heard Of

An association must register with the Department of Commerce within 90 days after the declaration is recorded, renew that registration annually, and update it within 90 days of a change to the registered information. 

During a period of noncompliance, a lien may not arise, and the association may not enforce an existing lien. That is a bar on collection, not a fine on the association.

The bar is not permanent. An association ends the period of noncompliance by registering or filing the update, and from that date, a lien may arise for events that occurred during the gap, which the association may enforce. 

One thing does not come back. If a residential lot is conveyed to an independent third party during a period of noncompliance, a lien that arose before the conveyance became final is extinguished when the conveyance becomes final, and any event during the gap cannot later give rise to a lien if the conveyance closed before the association cured. Note that this protection is written for residential lots.

Where the Lien Stands Against Everything Else

The assessment lien has priority over every other lien and encumbrance on the lot except three: an encumbrance recorded before the declaration was recorded; a first or second security interest secured by a mortgage or trust deed recorded before the association records a notice of lien; and a lien for real estate taxes or other governmental assessments. 

Two further rules matter in practice. 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 says otherwise. That last rule matters if your lot sits inside a master association as well as your own.

Ways an Association Can Come After an Unpaid Assessment

Losing Utilities or the Clubhouse: a Separate Track With Its Own Hearing

This is the collection tool that owners meet first, and it runs only if the declaration, bylaws, or rules authorize it. What can be cut off is limited to a utility service you pay for as a common expense, and access to and use of recreational facilities.

Before cutting anything off, the association must give notice stating what will be terminated, the amount due, including interest or a late fee, your right to request a hearing, and that the notice allows at least 14 days to pay.

You have 14 days from the date you receive that notice to request an informal hearing in writing, and if you do, the association may not terminate anything until the board holds the hearing and enters a final decision. If service is terminated and you then pay, the association must take immediate action to reinstate it. It may charge you the reinstatement cost, and may require the estimated cost up front if that estimate was in the notice. 

A related power sits nearby. If a power or gas utility is about to shut off service to your lot, the association may have arranged advance notice and a chance to pay the delinquent charges, and it may collect what it pays as an assessment. If it chooses not to pay, it may enter and winterize the lot after reasonable notice, if permitted by the governing documents, and charge you the cost.

If You Rent the Lot Out, the Association Can Take the Rent

If you fail to pay an assessment for more than 60 days after it is due, and the declaration, bylaws, or rules authorize it, the board may require your tenant to pay all future lease payments to the association until the amount owing is paid. 

You get 15 days of warning first. The association must notify you of the amount due, that collection costs and any later assessments may be added, and that it intends to demand payment of the rent if you do not pay within 15 days. Only after those 15 days may it notify the tenant. 

Once the tenant is notified, the tenant must pay the association, and those payments are not a default under your lease. You must credit each payment against what the tenant owes you as though it had been paid to you, and you may not sue the tenant for a payment made to the association. 

When the amount owing is paid, the association has five business days to tell the tenant in writing that the redirection has ended, and five business days to pay you any remaining balance. It may incur an administrative cost not to exceed $25. 

Send it to a Collections Agent

An association may hire an attorney or debt collector to collect an unpaid assessment. If it does, you may be on the hook not only for the late assessment and any fines, but also for any fees incurred by the collector in the process, including attorneys' fees. Additionally, if the entire sum isn’t paid off at once, any amount you pay may be applied first to collection costs before being applied to your outstanding balance. Your governing documents may contain a provision allowing the association to charge you for any of these fees, so check there first to see what applies to you.

Foreclosure 

The statute gives the association more than one route, and it does not have to pick just one.

• Nonjudicial foreclosure, selling the lot as though the lien were a deed of trust,
• Judicial foreclosure in the manner in which a mortgage is foreclosed. 
• A suit for a money judgment, without waiving the lien.

A deed in lieu of foreclosure is also available by agreement, if it is taken before the lot is sold or foreclosed. 

Foreclosure requires a qualified trustee. The power of sale may not be exercised unless the association appoints one, and that trustee carries every duty the trust deed statutes impose. Section 57-8a-302(3). Nonjudicial foreclosure otherwise runs under Sections 57-1-19 through 57-1-34, and where Part 3 and those sections conflict, Part 3 controls. 

The Two Hard Limits on Nonjudicial Foreclosure

These are the most protective provisions on the page, and both are absolute limits on the association.

An association may not use nonjudicial foreclosure if the lien includes a fine. Your home cannot be sold outside of court over a rules violation.

And it may not use nonjudicial foreclosure unless the lien includes an assessment that is more than 180 days delinquent. A single missed payment is not a foundation for a nonjudicial sale. The one exception is a lien on a time share estate as defined in Section 57-19-2.

The 30-Day Notice, and Your Right To Force a Judge To Watch

At least 30 calendar days before filing a notice of default, the association must deliver notice to you. That notice must be sent by certified mail, return receipt requested, must tell you the association intends to foreclose nonjudicially, must tell you that you may demand judicial foreclosure instead, and must be in substantially the form the statute prints. 

Two failures cancel the nonjudicial route entirely. The association cannot use it if it fails to give that notice, and it cannot use it if you mail a written demand for judicial foreclosure by certified U.S. mail with return receipt requested, to the address stated in its notice, within 30 days after the return receipt shows its notice was delivered to you. 

The statute supplies the words: state in writing that "I demand a judicial foreclosure proceeding upon my lot," or words substantially to that effect. 

Understand the trade before you make the demand. The notice form itself says so: if you demand judicial foreclosure, the association may also include a claim for delinquent fines, and if it prevails, the costs and attorney fees will likely be significantly higher than without a lawsuit, and you may be responsible for paying them. You gain a judge; you take on cost exposure. That is a real decision, not a formality.

Costs and Attorney Fees Follow the Case

In a judicial action, the court shall award the prevailing party its costs and reasonable attorney fees, and if the association prevails, also what it spends collecting the judgment. The word is "shall," and it runs both ways: an owner who wins is entitled to fees, too.

In a nonjudicial foreclosure, there is no prevailing party, and the association may include in the amount due all costs and reasonable attorney fees incurred in collecting it, including the cost of preparing, recording, and foreclosing the lien.

Utah's one-action rule does not protect you here. Subsection 78B-6-901(1) does not apply to an association's judicial or nonjudicial foreclosure of a lot, and the association may abandon an incomplete foreclosure or sheriff's sale and initiate a different one. A stalled foreclosure is not the end of the matter.

A court may also appoint a receiver to collect and hold money owed to a lot owner, before or during the action, and order the receiver to pay the association up to the amount of the common expense assessment. 

Two Documents Worth More Than Anything Else Here

Ask for the payoff statement, and count five business days. An association that fails to provide payoff information within five business days after the closing agent's request may not enforce a lien against that unit for money due at closing. The request only counts if it is in writing to the registered primary contact, includes the requester's contact details, and is accompanied by the owner's signed written consent to release the information. Unless the declaration, bylaws, or rules specifically authorize a fee, the association may not charge for payoff information, require payment before closing, or charge more than $50. 

And on your own lot, ask for the unpaid assessment statement. The association's 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, and that statement is conclusive in favor of a person who relies on it in good faith. 

Separately, before a sale to an independent third party, the seller must provide the buyer with a copy of the recorded governing documents and a link to this Office's educational materials, and the association must supply that information to the seller upon request. 

What Is Not in This Chapter

Nothing in Chapter 8a requires the association to offer you a payment plan, nor does it set a maximum collection fee. The interest rate on an unpaid assessment or fine is the rate in Subsection 15-1-1(2), which is 10% per year, unless the declaration provides for a different rate. 

A separate state law once tied a debt collection fee to a collection agency's registration, and that registration no longer exists. Section 12-1-11(2) still lets a creditor pass a collection fee to a debtor, capped at the lesser of what the creditor owes the agency or attorney or 40% of the principal, but only on four conditions, including a written agreement creating the debt that provides for the fee, and registration of the agency "under this title." The Division of Corporations and Commercial Code no longer administers that registration, because the sections creating it were repealed effective May 3, 2023. If a collection fee appears on your ledger, ask what written agreement authorizes it and how the amount was calculated.

Every deadline and dollar figure on this page also appears in Deadlines and Thresholds. For what you owe and how the lien arises in the first place, read Assessments. If the association is collecting in a way this page says it may not, read Advisory Opinions and Where To Take a Problem.

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