Emergency Repairs and What Makes One an Emergency

"Emergency repairs" means any repairs that, if not made in a timely manner, will likely result in immediate and substantial damage to the common areas and facilities or to another unit or units.

That definition is narrow, and it matters because it is what relaxes the notice you are owed. Work that is merely overdue, inconvenient to schedule, or expensive to delay does not meet it. Two things must be true: the damage must be immediate and substantial.

For an emergency repair, the manager or management committee may enter a unit on notice that is reasonable under the circumstances. For any other repair, the notice is written and hand-delivered to the unit at least 24 hours before entry. 

Either way, entry must be preceded by reasonable notice to the occupant and may occur during reasonable hours as necessary for maintenance, repair, or replacement of the common areas, or to make emergency repairs. Full treatment of who repairs what is on Maintenance and Repair.

If the association damages your unit while accessing the common areas, it must repair the damage. An association is liable to repair damage it causes to the common areas or to a unit it uses for access, within a time reasonable under the circumstances. 

Construction Defects Are Not in the Condominium Act

Title 57, Chapter 8, does not contain any construction defect provision. If your board tells you the condominium act governs a defect claim, it does not. The governing provision is Section 78B-4-513, in the civil procedure title. Understanding three things about it will save an owner a great deal of wasted effort.

1. The claim is a contract claim, not a tort claim. An action for defective design or construction is limited to breach of the contract, written or otherwise, including express and implied warranties. It may also include damage to other property or physical personal injury caused by the defect.
2. Two things are expressly not property damage. For that purpose, property damage does not include the failure of the construction to function as designed, or the diminution in value of the property because of the defect. A unit worth less because it was built badly is not, by itself, property damage under this section.
3. Privity is the gate. Only a person in privity of contract with the original contractor, architect, engineer, or real estate developer may bring the action, subject to two exceptions. A later buyer who never contracted with the builder generally cannot sue on that basis.

But a contract right can be handed over. Nothing in the section precludes a person from assigning a right under a contract to another person, including to a subsequent owner or a homeowners' association. That assignment is often how an association acquires standing at all, so it is worth asking whether the declarant assigned anything at turnover.

The Nine-Month Notice Gate, Which Applies to Condominium Owners

Before bringing an action against a condominium developer for defective design or construction, a condominium owner shall provide written notice that describes the defective design or construction and requests that the developer make all necessary repairs. 

Upon receiving that notice, the developer shall make all reasonable requested repairs. 

If the developer does not complete those repairs within 9 months of the date the owner gave notice, the owner may bring an action. An owner may not bring the action before giving that notice, and the developer failing to comply. 

Two practical points. The nine months run from the date of your notice, so date it and keep proof of delivery. And the notice is a precondition, not a formality: an action filed without it is barred by Subsection (9).

The section defines the parties it reaches. A "condominium" is a single unit in a multiunit project together with an undivided interest in the common areas and facilities. A "condominium developer" is a person who acquires the land, obtains construction financing, oversees construction, and sells the condominium to a consumer.

The Clock That Ends the Claim Regardless

Separate from the notice gate, Section 78B-2-225 imposes limitation and repose periods on any action arising out of the design, construction, or installation of an improvement to real property. These are the deadlines that quietly end defect claims.

• Contract or warranty claims: six years after completion or abandonment of the improvement. If a contract expressly sets a different limitations period, that one governs.
• All other claims: two years from discovery, or from when the claim should have been discovered with reasonable diligence. 
• An outer wall of nine years after completion or abandonment for those other claims, with a two-year window from discovery if the claim surfaces in year eight or nine.

"Completion" is defined, and it is earlier than people assume. It is the earliest of a Certificate of Substantial Completion, a Certificate of Occupancy issued by a governing agency, or the date of first use or possession. The clock may have started before you bought it.

Two carve-outs. The nine-year repose does not apply against a provider who fraudulently concealed the act or the resulting damage, or who committed a willful or intentional act, error, omission, or breach of duty. 

And note the limit of the section: it does not create or modify any claim or cause of action. It only sets when a claim must be filed.

Before the Association Sues, There Is a Separate Owner Vote

If the potential defendant is the declarant, a different statute governs the association's side. After the period of declarant control, an association may not sue a declarant or a former management committee over that period unless a demanding set of conditions is met, including an owner vote, a written attorney assessment provided to every owner, and a funded litigation trust. It does not apply where the amount in controversy is under $75,000. 

Reserve funds may not pay for that litigation. See Reserves and Reserve Analysis.

Three Things To Do

• Find the completion date. Substantial completion, certificate of occupancy, or first use, whichever came first. Every deadline runs from it
• If you are suing a condominium developer, send the written notice first, describe the defect, request all necessary repairs, date it, and keep proof. Nine months run from that date, and an action without it is barred
• Ask whether any contract rights were assigned to you or to the association at purchase or at turnover. Privity is the gate, and an assignment is how it is passed

This Office cannot give you legal advice or represent you, and a defect claim is a contract action with hard deadlines. Read Advisory Opinions and Where To Take a Problem to see what this Office can and cannot do, and consider consulting an attorney well before the six-year or nine-year mark. Every deadline on this page also appears in Deadlines and Thresholds.

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