One Long Section Does Most of the Work

Nearly every limit on what your association may regulate about your yard and the outside of your dwelling is in Section 57-8a-218, "Equal treatment by rules required -- Limits on association rules and design criteria." Note the title: it reaches design criteria too.

Two provisions frame everything else. A rule shall be reasonable, and a rule shall treat similarly situated lot owners similarly, with narrow exceptions.

The section applies regardless of when your association was created. And a rule may not be inconsistent with the association's declaration, bylaws, or articles of incorporation, or with existing law.

Political Signs and Flags, and the Places They Are Protected

A rule may not prohibit a lot owner from displaying a political sign or flag on the lot, on the exterior of the dwelling, or in the front yard of the dwelling.

Read the clause that follows each of the last two locations, because it is the strongest language in the section. The protection applies to the exterior and to the front yard, regardless of whether the association has an ownership interest in them. The association's ownership or maintenance role does not defeat the display right.

A rule may not regulate the content of a political sign or flag except to restrict obscene, profane, or commercial content, and may reasonably regulate time, place, and manner of posting. 

And a design provision cannot be used as a workaround. An association design provision may not establish design criteria for a political sign or flag. That closes the route of approving the sign under the rules and then rejecting it under the design guidelines.

A for-sale sign gets its own subsection on the same terms, protected in all three places regardless of the association's ownership interest, subject to reasonable time, place, and manner regulations.

The United States Flag Has Its Own Section

An association may not prohibit a lot owner from displaying a United States flag inside a dwelling or limited common area or on a lot, if the display complies with United States Code, Title 4, Chapter 1, The Flag.

The association may restrict the display of a flag in the common areas. 

Religious and Holiday Displays

A rule may not abridge the rights of a lot owner to display a religious or holiday sign, symbol, or decoration on the lot, on the exterior of the dwelling, or in the front yard. 

Here, the ownership qualifier runs in the opposite direction from the political sign provision, and the difference is easy to miss. For the exterior and the front yard, the religious and holiday display protection applies unless the association has an ownership interest in, or a maintenance, repair, or replacement obligation for, that exterior or yard.

So a political sign is protected on an association-maintained exterior, and a holiday decoration is not. The association may also reasonably restrict the time, place, and manner of a display outside the dwelling that is visible from outside the lot.

Vegetable Gardens

A rule may not prohibit a vegetable garden in the rear yard of a lot on which the association does not have an ownership interest or a maintenance responsibility.

The subsection broadly defines the term: a "vegetable garden" is a plot of ground or an elevated soil bed where vegetables, herbs, fruits, flowers, pollinator plants, leafy greens, or other edible plants are cultivated. Flowers and pollinator plants are inside the definition.

The association may still impose reasonable regulations that do not significantly increase the cost or significantly decrease the efficiency of cultivating the garden, including on plant height, water use, fertilizer use, and weed maintenance, and may prohibit invasive or unlawful species.

Two limits to notice. The protection applies only to the rear yard and only where the association has neither an ownership interest nor a maintenance responsibility.

Activity Within Your Own Lot, Including Backyard Landscaping

A rule may not interfere with a reasonable activity of a lot owner within the confines of a dwelling or lot, including backyard landscaping or amenities, to the extent the activity complies with local laws and ordinances, including nuisance ordinances. 

The exceptions in Subsection (7)(b) are specific and worth knowing because they are what an association will cite. A rule may prohibit the activity if it is not normally associated with a project restricted to residential use, or if it creates monetary costs for the association or other owners, a danger to health or safety of occupants of other lots, excessive noise or traffic, unsightly conditions visible from outside the dwelling, an unreasonable source of annoyance to persons outside the lot, or, where there are attached dwellings, the potential for smoke to enter another dwelling or the common areas.

Water Wise Landscaping, and a Right To Sue Over It

For any area where lot owners, rather than the association, are responsible for landscape maintenance, the association shall adopt rules that support water-wise landscaping, including low-water-use requirements during drought conditions, design criteria, and limits on water-wise plant material. 

A rule may not prohibit or restrict conversion of a grass park strip to water-wise landscaping, prohibit low water use on lawns during drought conditions, or prohibit removing vegetation within a designated wildland-urban interface area.

A separate section adds more. An association may not enact or enforce a governing document that prohibits, or has the effect of prohibiting, a lot owner of a detached dwelling from incorporating water-wise landscaping on the owner's lot. It may still require site plan review, healthy plant material, and compliance with its own water-wise design requirements. But except where reasonably necessary for erosion control, it may not require a lot owner to install or keep lawn or turf in an area less than eight feet wide.

This is one of the few places in the act where an owner has an express right to sue over an association's failure to act. If the association does not adopt the rules required by Subsection 57-8a-218(15) and fails to remedy that, a lot owner may file an action in state court for injunctive relief, $500 or actual damages, whichever is greater, any other remedy provided by law, and reasonable costs and attorney fees.

There is a mandatory notice period first, and it is long. No fewer than 90 days before filing, the owner must deliver written notice to the association identifying the requirements not complied with, demanding compliance, and setting a date at least 90 days out by which the association must remedy it.

Personal Property You Already Had

A rule may not require a lot owner to dispose of personal property that was in or on a lot before the rule or design criteria were adopted, if the property complied with all rules and other governing documents previously in force.

Two limits define it. The exemption applies during that owner's ownership and does not apply to a subsequent owner who takes title after the rule was adopted, so it does not survive a sale.

Separately, a rule may not restrict storing an item you have a legal right to store if it is not visible from outside the lot, or a properly maintained basketball standard on a privately owned driveway abutting a public street.

Animals: The Act Does Not Address Them

The Community Association Act contains no provision regarding pets, animals, livestock, or poultry. There is likewise no fence provision.

A pet restriction, a breed or weight limit, a cap on the number of animals, a prohibition on chickens, and a fence requirement are therefore governing documents questions in Utah. What still applies is the general framework: the rule must be reasonable, must treat similarly situated lot owners similarly, and must not be inconsistent with the declaration, bylaws, or articles. 

The provisions above may still reach the dispute even though no statute names animals. A backyard animal enclosure can be an activity within the confines of the lot, which the association may prohibit only on certain grounds. And a structure present before a rule was adopted may fall under the personal property exemption.

One important caution. Assistance and service animals are addressed by fair housing law, not by Title 57, and nothing on this page speaks to them. A request involving an assistance animal is a fair housing matter and is outside what this Office covers.

Three More Limits in the Same Section

A rule may not prohibit the owner of a residential lot from making modifications, consistent with industry standards, for radon mitigation, unless the work would violate a local land use, building, health, or fire code. A placement or appearance rule does not apply if it would unreasonably interfere with functionality or add more than 40% of the original cost.

A rule may not prohibit constructing an internal accessory dwelling unit within a residential lot, subject to the same code exceptions, or a personal security camera adjacent to an entry point of the dwelling.

Three Things To Do

1. Check whether the association owns or maintains the ground in question. It is the hinge for the religious and holiday display protection and for the vegetable garden protection, but expressly not for political signs or for-sale signs.
2. If the objection came from design review rather than the rules, check Subsection (4)(e). A design provision may not establish design criteria for a political sign or flag.
3. For a pet or fence dispute, read the declaration first, then consider whether Subsection (7)(a) or Subsection (10)(a) personal property exemption reaches your facts. No Utah statute addresses either subject directly.

For the full statement of what a rule may and may not do, read Owner Rights and Responsibilities.

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