What a Seller Must Give a Buyer Before Closing

Before selling a unit under an association's jurisdiction to an independent third party, the statute requires the grantor to provide the buyer with two things.

• A copy of the association's recorded governing documents
• A link or other access point to the educational materials described in Section 13-79-103(4)

Both must be provided before closing.

The educational materials in that second item are the ones on this website. Section 13-79-103(4) directs this Office to prepare them, and the sale statute makes pointing a buyer to them a seller's duty. If you are buying, you are entitled to be sent here before you close.

The seller can make the association do the work. On the grantor's request, the association shall provide the grantor with the governing documents and the access point. A seller who cannot locate the recorded documents should ask the association in writing rather than closing without them.

This section applies to every association regardless of when it was formed.

Note what the section does not do. It sets no penalty and no remedy. It states the duty and the timing, and stops. If you closed without receiving either item, the statute gives you no damages figure to point to, which is a different situation from the payoff rule below.

Note that, while this is only the information the statute itself requires to be provided, other documents may be required as part of the real estate purchase contract. In that case, those seller disclosure requirements are contractual requirements that can be negotiated by the seller and buyer. The rights and remedies available for those documents are also therefore contractual, not statutory. 

Payoff Information at Closing, and the Five-Day Rule That Kills a Lien

A closing needs a payoff figure from the association: what the seller owes in assessments and charges. Section 57-8-6.3 governs both what the association may charge for it and what happens if the association is slow.

The default is no fee at all. Unless specifically authorized in the declaration, bylaws, or rules, an association may not charge a fee for providing payoff information needed in connection with the closing of an owner's financing, refinancing, or sale.

Where a fee is authorized, two limits apply. The association may not require it to be paid before closing, and may not charge more than $50.

An association that fails to provide the payoff information within five business days after the closing agent requests it may not enforce a lien against that unit for money due to the association at closing. A slow association forfeits its lien for the closing money.

But the request has to be done correctly, and this is where it usually fails. A request is not effective unless it meets all three requirements.

• It is conveyed in writing to the primary contact person designated under Section 57-8-13.1(3)(d), the person named in the association's registration.
• It contains the name, telephone number, and address of the person requesting, and a facsimile number or email address for delivery.
• It is accompanied by a written consent for release that identifies the requester as a person to whom the information may be released, and is signed and dated by an owner of the unit.

A phone call to a board member does not start the five business days. Neither does an email to the wrong person, or a request without the owner's signed consent. If the five-day protection matters to your closing, confirm the request went to the registered contact in writing with the consent attached.

This section also applies regardless of when the association was formed.

When Your Lender Gets a Vote, and the 60-Day Silence Rule

Many declarations condition an amendment or a major association action on the approval of mortgage holders. That creates a practical problem: lenders often do not respond, and a project can be frozen by silence. Section 57-8-41 solves it by presuming consent.

Where a security holder's consent is a condition for amending a declaration or bylaw, or for an association or committee action, consent is presumed if all three of the following happen.

• Written notice of the proposed amendment or action is sent by certified or registered mail to the address the security holder listed for notice in the recorded trust deed or other recorded document.
• 60 days have passed since the notice was mailed.
• The person designated to receive the response has received no written response, either consenting or refusing.

Silence for 60 days counts as approval. That is the point of the section, and it applies to associations formed before and after May 12, 2009 and to documents recorded before and after that date.

If the recorded documents give no notice address, the association shall use reasonable efforts to find a mailing address and may send notice to any address it obtains.

One response defeats the presumption without being a refusal. If the security holder writes back within 60 days saying the interest has been assigned to someone else, with no recorded document showing it, the association may not presume consent and must send a fresh notice to the assignee. The 60 days start over for that new recipient.

What This Chapter Does Not Limit

Section 57-8-41 tells you how lender consent is presumed. It does not say what a declaration may condition on lender approval in the first place. There is no provision in this chapter limiting the scope of a lender-approval requirement.

What that means for a condominium owner is narrow but real: the scope of any lender-approval condition in your declaration is a matter of that document and general law, not of a statutory ceiling in this chapter. Read the declaration provision itself.

Three Things To Do

• Buying: ask for the recorded governing documents and the education link before closing. The seller owes you both, in addition to whatever seller disclosures are listed in the purchase contract.
• Selling: if you cannot find the recorded documents, request them from the association in writing. It must provide them, and may not charge you for electronic copies.
• At closing: confirm the payoff request went in writing to the association's registered contact person, with the owner's signed consent attached. That is what starts the five business days.

Every deadline on this page also appears in Deadlines and Thresholds. For what the association can still collect after closing, see Collections, Liens, and Foreclosure and Assessments. If the association will not produce payoff information or governing documents, read Advisory Opinions and Where To Take a Problem.

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