Your Association Exists Because of the Declaration, Not the State

A condominium project is created by recording a declaration and a plat. Incorporation is separate and, in the condominium act, optional. If permitted, required, or acknowledged by the declaration, the management committee may organize the association of unit owners as a nonprofit corporation under Title 16, Chapter 6a, or as any other entity organized under other law.

Most Utah associations are nonprofit corporations, which is why the Revised Nonprofit Corporations Act supplies so many of the default rules on this site. But an association that never incorporated still exists, still has a declaration, and still has bylaws.

One historical note. Section 57-8-40 does not validate or invalidate an organization that occurred before May 5, 2008, whether or not it otherwise complied.

Filing One: Registration With the Office of the Homeowners’ Association Ombudsman

No later than 90 days after the recording of a declaration, an association of unit owners shall register with the Ombudsman Office. The registration must be renewed annually and updated within 90 days of any change in the information filed.

Subsection (3) requires the association's name and address; the name, telephone number, and any email address of the association's president; the name of each manager or management committee member; the contact details of the person who holds payoff information a closing agent needs; the registration fee; and a statement of whether the association imposes a reinvestment fee or transfer fee.

What a Lapsed Registration Costs the Association

This is the provision that boards should read twice.

During any period of noncompliance with either the initial registration duty or the update duty, a lien may not arise under Section 57-8-44, and the association may not enforce an existing lien that arose under that section. The period does not begin until the relevant 90 days have expired.

The damage is usually repairable. An association ends the period of noncompliance by registering or by filing the update it missed. From that date, a lien may arise for events that occurred during the gap, and the association may enforce it.

Except on a sale. If a unit is conveyed to an independent third party during the period of noncompliance, a lien that arose before the conveyance became final is extinguished when the conveyance becomes final, and an event that occurred before closing can never give rise to a lien if the sale closes before the association fixes its registration.

So a missed contact information update, which sounds clerical, can cost the association everything owed on a unit that changes hands during the gap. 

Filing Two: The Annual Report to the Division of Corporations

If your association is incorporated, it owes the Division of Corporations and Commercial Code an annual report. This is not the Department of Commerce registration; it goes to a different office on a different clock, and filing one does not satisfy the other.

As of October 1, 2026, the annual report requirement is set forth in Section 16-1a-212. Governance rules for nonprofit corporations remain in Chapter 6a; entity administration moves to Chapter 1a.

The report is due each calendar year on the last day of the anniversary month, the month in which the entity's formation became effective, and it may be delivered up to 60 days early. Its contents include the entity's name, the jurisdiction under which it is organized, the street address of its principal office, and the name and address of each director and principal officer.

That last item is the second public list of who runs your association, and it is a useful cross-check against the Ombudsman Office registration.

If the Entity Was Dissolved

Administrative dissolution for missed filings is common and is usually reversible. Beginning October 1, 2026, reinstatement is governed by Section 16-1a-604. An administratively dissolved entity may apply for reinstatement under its same name at any time after the effective date of dissolution if the name is available and the application includes the required items, including payment of fees and penalties, and confirmation that the grounds for dissolution no longer exist.

Two points matter to an association. The entity retains its name for five years after the dissolution becomes effective. And when reinstatement takes effect, it relates back to the dissolution's effective date, so the association may resume its affairs as if the dissolution had not occurred.

The condominium act only takes over where reinstatement is off the table. Section 57-8-40 applies to the reorganization of a previously organized association if the entity's status is terminated or dissolved and cannot be reinstated. Because Section 16-1a-604 makes reinstatement broadly available, that is a narrower trigger than it first appears.

Where the Articles Rank

Section 57-8-40(5) orders the documents in a conflict: the condominium act; then Title 16, Chapter 6a or the organizing law; then the plat and the declaration, which control equally; then an organizational document filed with the state, such as the articles; then the bylaws; then committee rules and policies.

So the articles outrank the bylaws but sit below the declaration, which runs counter to ordinary corporate intuition. Subsection (3) points in the same direction: to the extent possible, organizational documents may not conflict with the rights and obligations set forth in the declaration or in the bylaws recorded at the time the entity was formed.

There is one express exception. Notwithstanding any conflict with the declaration or recorded bylaws, organizational documents may add an indemnification and liability limitation provision for committee members, officers, or similar persons in a position of control.

On mechanics, the committee may modify a form articles document attached to the declaration for filing or re-filing if the result is consistent with the section; an attached organizational document may be amended under its own terms or applicable law, whether or not it is recorded; and a properly filed organizational document need not be recorded, except amended bylaws.

Checking Your Association's Filings

Look at both records, because they show different things. The Ombudsman Office registration should name the president and every management committee member and should have been renewed within the last year. The Division of Corporations record should show an annual report filed in the anniversary month and the entity in good standing, rather than administratively dissolved.

A gap in the first one has consequences for the association's liens. A gap in the second one puts the entity's status at risk. Neither is fixed by fixing the other.

For the documents themselves, read bylaws and amending governing documents. For who sits on the committee and how it must act, read management committees. For assessments and the lien this page refers to, read assessments along with liens and collection; for getting copies of any of it, see records and record requests.

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

Sections 16-1a-212 and 16-1a-604 take effect October 1, 2026. Before that date, those links resolve to a section that is not yet in force.