The Act Sets the Thresholds. The Nonprofit Act and Your Declaration Supply Everything Else.

Voting is where owners actually exercise power, and it is also where the Community Association Act sends you somewhere else. The Act repeatedly conditions rights on a percentage of the "allocated voting interests" without ever saying how those interests are allocated. The mechanics are set forth in the Utah Revised Nonprofit Corporation Act and in your own declaration.

Who Gets How Many Votes

The Act uses the phrase allocated voting interests a dozen times across budgets, reserves, rules, insurance, and consolidation. It never defines it, and it contains no provision allocating votes among lots.

That is not an oversight you can appeal. It means the allocation comes from your declaration. One vote per lot is common; so is weighting by lot size, by square footage, or by assessment share. Before you count anything, find the allocation clause in the declaration, because every percentage threshold on every other page depends on it.

Quorum: The Default Is Whoever Shows Up

This surprises nearly everyone. Under Section 16-6a-714, unless the chapter or the bylaws provide otherwise, the members represented at a meeting constitute a quorum. There is no statutory percentage floor.

So if your association has a quorum problem, the requirement almost certainly comes from your own bylaws, not from the state. That matters because a bylaw quorum can be unreachable: lowering it usually requires a vote, and holding that vote requires the quorum you cannot reach.

Two related points. Once a member is represented for any purpose, including just establishing quorum, that member counts as present for the rest of the meeting and for any adjournment, unless the bylaws say otherwise or a new record date is set. And for anything other than electing directors, a matter passes if a quorum exists and the votes cast in favor exceed the votes cast against, unless the chapter or the bylaws demand a larger number. It is votes cast, not a majority of all owners.

Proxies

Under Section 16-6a-712, a member may appoint a proxy by signing an appointment form, personally or through an attorney-in-fact, or by electronic transmission accompanied by evidence that the member authorized it. The appointment takes effect when the association receives it.

The deadline to watch: an appointment is valid for 11 months unless the form expressly states a different period. A proxy signed at last year's annual meeting has very likely expired.

Written Ballots

Unless the bylaws say otherwise, Section 16-6a-709 lets the association take any action that could be taken at a meeting by delivering a written ballot to every member entitled to vote. The ballot must set out each proposed action and give an opportunity to vote for or against it.

The solicitation itself has to carry four things, and a ballot package missing any of them is worth questioning:

• the number of responses needed to meet quorum;
• the percentage of approvals needed to approve each matter other than electing directors;
• the time by which a ballot must be received to be counted; and
• written information sufficient to let each voter reach an informed decision.

Two mechanics follow from that. The ballots actually cast are what establish a quorum for the matter. And unless the bylaws provide otherwise, a written ballot may not be revoked once cast.

Two Traps in Action Without a Meeting

Section 16-6a-707 allows members to act by written consent instead of meeting if consents signed by enough voting power are received within a 60-day window. Two limits catch associations out.

Directors cannot be elected this way except by unanimous vote. Subsection (5) is categorical: directors may not be elected by written consent except by unanimous written consent of all members entitled to vote for directors. In any association larger than a handful of lots, board elections are held at a meeting or by written ballot, not by circulating consents.

Older associations may not use it at all yet. Under Section 16-6a-1704(3), an association that existed before April 30, 2001, cannot act by the written consent of fewer than all members until the members first adopt an enabling resolution, either by unanimous written consent or by the same percentage that would be needed to amend the articles. Many Utah associations predate that date and have never adopted the resolution.

Some Votes Run on Their Own Clocks

Three owner votes elsewhere in the Act have their own deadlines and do not follow the general rules above: disapproving a rule or design criterion within 60 days under Section 57-8a-217, disapproving the annual budget within 45 days of the presentation meeting under Section 57-8a-215, and vetoing the reserve fund line item within 45 days of adoption under Section 57-8a-211. Each requires 51% of all allocated voting interests, not a majority of votes cast.

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