Almost Everything on This Page Comes From One Section

Nearly every limit on what a condominium association may regulate about the outside of your unit is in a single section, Section 57-8-8.1, "Equal treatment by rules required -- Limits on rules." It works by listing things a rule may not do, and things a rule may do anyway.

Two provisions frame the whole section. A rule shall be reasonable. And a rule shall treat similarly situated unit owners similarly, with narrow exceptions for service levels, residential versus nonresidential use, and short-term rental guest limits.

The section applies to your association, no matter how old it is. It applies to an association of unit owners, regardless of when it was created. An association cannot escape it by pointing to an older declaration.

Signs, Flags, and Political Content

A rule may not prohibit a unit owner from displaying, in a window of the owner's unit, a for-sale sign, a political sign, or a flag.

Read the location language carefully, because it is the condominium limit. The protection in Subsection (7) is written for a display in a window of the unit. It is not written as a right to display on an exterior wall, a balcony rail, or the grounds the association maintains.

Within that protected window display, the content is largely off limits to the association. A rule may not regulate the content or establish specific design criteria for the content of a political sign or flag. Two qualifications: a rule may restrict a political sign or flag containing obscene, profane, or commercial content, and a rule may reasonably regulate size, time, place, and manner of posting.

So the practical line is content versus size and placement. A rule capping sign dimensions or requiring removal within a set period after an election is the kind of regulation Subsection (7)(c) permits. A rule allowing some candidates' signs and not others is content regulation, which Subsection (7)(a)(ii) forbids.

Religious and Holiday Displays

A rule may not abridge a unit owner's right to display a religious or holiday sign, symbol, or decoration inside the owner's unit. For a display visible from the exterior of a unit, the association may adopt a reasonable time, place, and manner restriction.

Note what the protection is anchored to. The condominium provision protects the display inside the unit and then allows reasonable regulation once it is visible from outside.

Landscaping, and the One Place the Act Requires Rules

Most of Subsection (8) is a duty imposed on the association, not a restriction on it. It applies to any area for which one or more unit owners, but not the association, are responsible for landscape maintenance. For those areas, the association shall adopt rules supporting water-wise landscaping, including low-water-use requirements for lawns during drought conditions, design criteria for water-wise landscaping, and a limit on permissible plant material to specific water-wise species.

Two things the association then may not do. It may not prohibit low water use on lawns during drought conditions. Except where reasonably necessary for erosion control, it may not prohibit or restrict the conversion of a grass park strip of less than 8 feet wide to water-efficient landscaping.

Where the association itself maintains the landscaping, Subsection (8) does not reach it. The subsection is expressly limited to areas that an owner, not the association, maintains. In most condominium projects, that is a narrow slice of ground.

Animals: Neither Act Addresses Them

The Condominium Ownership Act contains no provision regarding pets, animals, livestock, or poultry.

This means a pet restriction, a breed or weight limit, a cap on the number of animals, and a prohibition on chickens are all questions of governing documents in Utah, governed by the declaration and rules rather than by a statute that overrides them. The statutory tests that still apply are the general ones: the rule must be reasonable, and it must treat similarly situated unit owners similarly.

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 page covers.

Two Rules About Property You Already Have

A rule may not restrict an individual from installing, displaying, or storing an item the individual has a legal right to store, if the item is not visible to an individual standing outside the unit. Visibility is the test.

Radon Mitigation and Security Cameras

Two further limits fall within the same section and arise in yard and exterior disputes.

A rule may not prohibit a unit owner from making modifications, consistent with industry standards, for radon mitigation, unless the modifications would violate a local land use ordinance, building code, health code, or fire code. A rule about placement or external appearance may apply unless it would unreasonably interfere with functionality or add more than 40% of the modifications' original cost. The association may require proof of contamination and that the work will be done by a licensed person.

A rule may not prohibit a personal security camera immediately adjacent to the entryway, window, or other exterior entry point of the owner's unit, but may prohibit one in a common area that is not physically connected to the unit.

If You Think a Rule Exceeds the Statute

Every limit above is a limit on the rule. Start by identifying which document your restriction actually lives in, because that determines the analysis: a rule adopted by the management committee, a provision of the recorded declaration, or a design criterion.

Note also that fines enforce rules. If you are being fined for a display or a yard, the fine procedure has its own requirements and its own 30-day clock, as covered in Fines and Hearings.

Three Things To Do

• Find out whether the restriction is a rule or a declaration provision. Section 57-8-8.1 limits rules, and the answer changes depending on which one you are dealing with
• For a sign or flag dispute, separate content from size and placement. Content and design criteria are protected under Subsection (7)(a)(ii); size, time, place, and manner are not
• For a pet, garden, or fence dispute, read the declaration first. No Utah statute addresses those subjects for either kind of association, so the governing documents control, subject to the reasonableness requirement

Read Advisory Opinions and Where To Take a Problem to see what this Office can and cannot do if you encounter a problem. 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.