What the Association Must Keep

Your association must keep these records and make them available to you, whether or not it is incorporated as a nonprofit corporation. That last point matters: an unincorporated association is not exempt from this section.

• The association's governing documents
• The most recent approved minutes
• The most recent annual budget and financial statement
• The most recent reserve analysis
• A certificate of insurance for each policy the association holds
• Board meeting minutes from the previous three calendar years
• Profit and loss statements for the previous three fiscal years
• Balance sheets for the previous three fiscal years

The association must also keep and make available the corporate records listed in Subsections 16-6a-1601(1) through (5) of the Utah Revised Nonprofit Corporation Act. The Condominium Ownership Act applies those records to every association, incorporated or not, and requires the association to make them available in the manner the Nonprofit Act describes. The corporate records are listed below, and the rules for requesting them are in Requesting Corporate Records Under the Nonprofit Act.

The first three items on the list above have a separate publication duty. If the association has an active website, it must post the governing documents, the most recent approved minutes, and the most recent annual budget and financial statement there, free of charge. If it has no active website, it must keep physical copies available during regular business hours at the address it registered with the Department of Commerce.

These records belong to the association. If a manager, former board member, or anyone else holds one of them, that person must return it to the association on request, without charge.

If your governing documents conflict with this section, this section wins. The same is true of any conflicting provision in the nonprofit corporation act.

Corporate Records the Nonprofit Act Adds

Permanent records. The association must keep, permanently:

• Minutes of all meetings of the members and of the board
• A record of every action the members or the board took without a meeting
• A record of every action a board committee took in place of the board
• A record of every waiver of notice of a members', board, or committee meeting

Accounting and membership records. The association must also keep:

• Appropriate accounting records
• A record of its members that can produce a list of each member's name and address, in alphabetical order by class, showing the number of votes each member may cast

Records must be in writing or in a form that can be converted to writing within a reasonable time.

Records kept at the principal office. The association must keep a copy of each of the following at its principal office:

• Its articles of incorporation and bylaws
• Board resolutions on the qualifications, rights, limitations, and obligations of members or any class of members
• Minutes of members' meetings for the past three years
• Records of actions members took without a meeting for the past three years
• All written communications to members generally for the past three years
• A list of the names and business or home addresses of the current directors and officers
• Its most recent annual report filed with the Division of Corporations and Commercial Code
• All financial statements for periods ending in the last three years that a member could have requested

What May Be Withheld

The association may redact three items from any document it produces: a Social Security number, a bank account number, and any communication subject to the attorney-client privilege.

That is the whole list. Nothing else in this section authorizes withholding a record that the section requires the association to keep.

How To Make a Request That Starts the Clock

A request must be in writing and must include all of the following. An incomplete request may not start the deadline, so include every item.

• The association's name
• Your name
• Your property address
• Your email address
• A description of the documents you want
• Your election of how you want them, from the choices below

You choose the method, not the association. You may elect to inspect the documents or copy them; if copying, you may request hard copies or electronic scans. You may then request that the association make the copies, that a recognized third-party duplicating service make them, that you bring your own imaging equipment to the inspection, or that the association email the documents to an address you provide.

You do not have to do this yourself. Your agent, including an attorney or a real estate agent, may exercise any right you have under this section on your behalf.

Requesting Corporate Records Under the Nonprofit Act

If you are asking for any of the corporate records listed above, the Nonprofit Act adds requirements of its own. Because both statutes govern these records, the safest request satisfies both: include the six items above and the additional items below in the same written request.

State your purpose. The association must produce corporate records only if your request:

• Is made in good faith and for a proper purpose
• Describes with reasonable particularity your purpose and the records you want to see
• Asks for records directly connected with the purpose you describe

A proper purpose is one reasonably related to your interest as a member. Checking how assessments were spent, reviewing a board decision, or preparing for a vote are examples of purposes connected to membership. State yours in a sentence or two, and ask only for records that relate to it.

Give at least five business days' notice. The Nonprofit Act entitles you to inspect and copy corporate records during regular business hours if you give written demand at least five business days before the date you want to inspect. Records kept at the principal office are inspected there. Other corporate records, such as older minutes, accounting records, and the membership record, are inspected at a reasonable location the association chooses. The Condominium Ownership Act's 10-business-day deadline, described below, also applies to a request that meets its requirements.

The bylaws cannot take this right away. The articles of incorporation and bylaws may not abolish or limit this inspection right.

Your agent has the same rights. An agent or attorney acting for you has the same inspection and copying rights you have. Your right to copy includes, if reasonable, receiving copies made electronically or by other means.

Copy charges. The Nonprofit Act allows a reasonable charge for the labor and material of copies, no more than the estimated cost of producing them. Where the Condominium Ownership Act's limits on copy charges apply, including its rule that electronic delivery is free, those limits control.

Voting members. The Nonprofit Act's inspection rights belong to voting members unless the bylaws provide otherwise. Check your bylaws if your association has more than one class of members.

Limits on how you use what you receive. Information from the accounting records, older minutes, and other records outside the principal-office list may be used only for the purpose stated in your request. The association may answer a request for the membership record by giving you a list of names, addresses, and votes compiled on or after the date of your request. Without board consent, you may not obtain or use the membership list for a purpose unrelated to your interest as a member, use it for any commercial purpose, sell or buy it, or use it to solicit money or property. The one exception is money or property used solely to solicit members' votes in an association election.

Financial statements by mail. You may also make a separate written request for financial statements. Within 15 days after receiving it, the association must mail you its most recent annual financial statements and its most recently published financial statements, if it has them, showing in reasonable detail its assets, liabilities, and results of operations. This deadline counts calendar days, not business days.

The Deadline, and What It Actually Says

The association must comply with your request within 10 business days of receiving it.

Ten business days is not two weeks. Weekends do not count, and a state holiday within the window pushes the date further out. Count business days from the day the association received the request, and keep proof of when that was.

What You Can Be Charged

If the association makes paper copies, you pay the reasonable cost of the copies and of time spent meeting with you, and that cost may not exceed either what the association actually paid a recognized third-party duplicating service, or 10 cents per page and $20 per hour of the employee's, manager's, or agent's time.

Electronic delivery is free. The association may not charge you anything for the costs of fulfilling a request for electronic transmission of documents.

If you ask a third-party duplicating service to handle the copying, the association has to arrange the delivery and pickup of the originals, and you pay the service directly. If you bring your own imaging equipment, the association must provide space, light, and power.

The association may satisfy a request by posting the documents to its website or online owner portal.

What the Association Owes if It Does Not Comply

If the association fails to comply with any provision of this section in response to your request, it must pay all of the following:

• The reasonable costs of inspecting and copying the documents you requested
• $25 per day to you, beginning the eleventh business day after you made the request, for as long as it remains unfulfilled. This applies to the first three categories only: the governing documents, the most recent approved minutes, and the most recent annual budget and financial statement
• Your reasonable attorney fees and costs in obtaining the records

One limit worth knowing: the association is not liable for identifying or providing the wrong document if it did so in good faith. An honest mistake is not a violation.

The Nonprofit Act's court petition does not apply. The Nonprofit Act has its own procedure for asking a court to order inspection, but the Condominium Ownership Act says that procedure does not apply to an association. Your remedies for corporate records, like all records on this page, are the ones described here and in the next section.

Going to Court, and the Notice You Must Send First

You may file an action if the association failed to make documents available and then failed to comply with a written notice you sent first. Both conditions are required, so the notice is not optional.

Deliver that notice at least 10 days before filing. It must state your name, address, telephone number, and email address; each requirement the association failed to meet; a demand that it comply; and a remedy date at least 10 days out.

In the action, you may ask for an injunction requiring compliance, $1,000 or your actual damages, whichever is greater, or any other relief the law allows, and the court may award costs and reasonable attorney fees to the prevailing party, including fees you incurred before filing that relate to the request.

There is also a fast track. On your motion, after notice and a hearing where the court finds a likelihood that the association failed to comply, the court shall order immediate compliance, and that hearing happens within 30 days of your motion.

Reviewed against the Utah Code, current as of September 25, 2026.