Emergency Repairs and What Makes an Emergency

"Emergency repair" means a repair that, if not made in a timely manner, will likely result in immediate and substantial damage to a common area or to another lot. 

That definition is narrow, and it matters because it is what relaxes the notice you are owed. Work that is merely overdue, inconvenient to schedule, or expensive to delay does not meet it. Two things must be true: the damage must be immediate and substantial.

For an emergency repair, the board may enter a lot on notice that is reasonable under the circumstances. For any other repair, the notice is written and hand-delivered to the lot at least 24 hours before entry.

Either way, entry must be preceded by reasonable notice to the occupant and may occur during reasonable hours as necessary for maintenance, repair, or replacement of the common areas, or to make an emergency repair. Full treatment of who repairs what is on Maintenance and Repair.

If the association damages your lot while reaching the common areas, it must repair the damage within a time reasonable under the circumstances.

The above information does not apply during the period of administrative control. While the declarant still controls the association, the entry notice and the association's duty to repair damage it caused are switched off, and the declaration governs.

However, declarants are subject to Section 57-8a-502(5)(a), which requires a declarant to use reasonable care and prudence in managing and maintaining the common areas. So even though the declarant is not subject to Section 224, that does not mean they have no obligation to care for the common areas during the period of administrative control.

Construction Defects Are Not in the Community Association Act

The Community Association Act contains nothing regarding construction defects. The governing provision is Section 78B-4-513, in the civil procedure title. Three things about it are worth understanding:

1. The claim is a contract claim, not a tort claim. An action for defective design or construction is limited to breach of the contract, written or otherwise, including express and implied warranties. It may also include damage to other property or physical personal injury caused by the defect.
2. Property damage does not include the failure of the construction to function as designed, or the diminution in value of the property because of the defect. A home worth less because it was built badly is not, by itself, property damage under this section.
3. Only a person in privity of contract with the original contractor, architect, engineer, or real estate developer may bring the action, subject to two exceptions. A later buyer who never contracted with the builder generally cannot sue on that basis.

But a contract right can be handed over, and this is the provision most useful to a community association. Nothing in the section precludes a person from assigning a right under a contract to another person, including to a subsequent owner or a homeowners' association. Ask whether the declarant assigned any construction contract rights to the association at turnover, because that assignment may be the only route to standing.

The Clock That Ends the Claim Regardless

Section 78B-2-225 imposes limitation and repose periods on any action arising out of the design, construction, or installation of an improvement to real property. These are the deadlines that quietly end defect claims.

• Contract or warranty claims: six years after completion or abandonment of the improvement. If a contract expressly sets a different limitations period, that one governs.
• All other claims: two years from discovery, or from when the claim should have been discovered with reasonable diligence.
• An outer wall of nine years after completion or abandonment for those other claims, with a two-year window from discovery if the claim surfaces in year eight or nine.

"Completion" is defined, and it is earlier than people assume. It is the earliest of a Certificate of Substantial Completion, a Certificate of Occupancy issued by a governing agency, or the date of first use or possession. The clock may have started before you bought it.

The nine-year limit does not apply against a provider who fraudulently concealed the act or the resulting damage, or who committed a willful or intentional act, error, omission, or breach of duty.

And note the limit of the section: it does not create or modify any claim or cause of action. It only sets when a claim must be filed.

Before the Association Sues, There Is a Separate Owner Vote

If the potential defendant is the declarant, a different statute controls the association's side. After the period of administrative control, an association may not sue a declarant or a former board over that period unless a demanding set of conditions is met, including an owner vote, a written attorney assessment provided to every owner, and a funded litigation trust. It does not apply where the amount in controversy is under $75,000.

Reserve funds may not pay for that litigation. See Reserves and Reserve Analysis. And a lender-approval provision in your declaration cannot prevent the association from commencing, intervening in, or settling litigation. See Buying, Selling, and Financing.

Three Things To Do:

1. Find the completion date. Substantial completion, certificate of occupancy, or first use, whichever came first.
2. Ask whether any contract rights were assigned to you or to the association at purchase or at turnover. 
3. Read the construction contract and any written warranty for a notice-and-cure step. The statutory nine-month gate names condominium owners, but your own documents may require notice anyway

This Office cannot give you legal advice or represent you, and a defect claim is a contract action with hard deadlines. Read Advisory Opinions and Where To Take a Problem to see what this Office can and cannot do, and consider consulting an attorney well before the six-year or nine-year mark. Every deadline on this page also appears in Deadlines and Thresholds.

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