Frequently Asked Questions

Put the request in writing, and the association has 10 business days to comply. Section 57-8-17 for condominiums, Section 57-8a-227 for community associations. 

Your request must include the association's name, your name, your property address, your email address, and a description of what you want. You choose the format: inspect, hard copies, electronic scans, a third-party duplicating service, bringing your own imaging equipment, or delivery to an email address you provide. Note that an agent may also make the request on your behalf. In other words, if you are selling your home, your real estate agent or broker could make the request to the association on your behalf.

The association must keep and make available its governing documents, most recent approved minutes, most recent annual budget and financial statement, most recent reserve analysis, a certificate of insurance for each policy it holds, board or management committee minutes for the previous three calendar years, and profit and loss statements and balance sheets for the previous three fiscal years. It may redact only three things: Social Security numbers, bank account numbers, and attorney-client privileged communications.

Costs are capped. If the association makes paper copies, it may charge no more than what a third-party service actually charged it, or 10 cents per page and $20 per hour of staff time. It may not charge you anything for emailing electronic copies of documents to you.

There is a penalty for ignoring you. If the association fails to comply with the governing documents, minutes, or budget and financial statement, it owes you $25 per day starting the eleventh business day, plus your reasonable costs and attorney fees. If it still will not comply, you may sue for injunctive relief and $1,000 or actual damages, whichever is greater, but you must first deliver a written notice giving it at least 10 days to fix the problem. A court must hear your motion to compel within 30 days. Your agent may make the request and assert these rights on your behalf. And if a provision of your governing documents conflicts with the records statute, the statute governs.

A common area is shared among all owners. A limited common area is still common area, but is reserved for the exclusive use of one owner or a few owners. The practical question is usually who repairs it and who pays for it.

The default rule is the same in both sections, and it is short. Unless the declaration or the insurance provisions say otherwise, the association maintains, repairs, and replaces the common areas, and you maintain, repair, and replace your own unit or lot. Limited common areas are not addressed by that default, so the declaration controls them.

Where the sections differ is how you find out what is what. In a condominium, the statute itself draws the boundary. Section 57-8-7.2 provides that where the declaration makes a wall, floor, or ceiling a unit boundary, the finished surfaces are part of your unit, including paint, wallpaper, tile, paneling, and finished flooring, while anything behind those finishes is common area. A pipe, duct, wire, or bearing wall serving only your unit is limited common area; the same item serving more than one unit is common area. And a shutter, awning, window box, doorstep, stoop, porch, balcony, patio, exterior door, or exterior window serving a single unit is, by statute, a limited common area allocated exclusively to that unit.

In a community association, there is no such statutory map. Section 57-8a-102(5) defines common areas as property the association owns, maintains, repairs, or administers, and Section 57-8a-102(16) defines limited common areas as common areas described in the declaration and allocated for the exclusive use of one or more lot owners. So, on the community track, the declaration is the only place the answer is written.

Two more points. In a condominium, your undivided interest in the common areas is permanent, cannot be separated from your unit, and no owner may bring an action to partition the common areas. And under either section, the association may enter your unit or lot for common area work or emergency repairs after reasonable notice, meaning written notice hand-delivered at least 24 hours in advance, or whatever is reasonable in an emergency.

It is the period when the developer, called the declarant, still runs the association and appoints the board. This is the single largest difference between Chapter 57-8 and 57-8a, so read the one that applies to you.

Condominiums. Section 57-8-16.5(1)(d) ends declarant control on whichever comes first of three events: the time limit in the declaration expires, which may not exceed six years for an expandable condominium, four years for a project containing convertible land, or three years for any other project; units carrying three-fourths of the undivided interest in the common areas have been conveyed; or all additional land has been added and all convertible land converted. The section says it "shall be strictly construed to protect the rights of the unit owners."

Community associations. Section 57-8a-502 works differently. Unless the declaration provides otherwise, control ends 60 days after 80% of the lots that may be created have been conveyed to owners other than the declarant. It ends no later than the earlier of the day the declarant owns no lot and holds no development right, or seven years after the declarant stopped offering lots for sale in the ordinary course of business. For a large master-planned development, the date can be extended by 300 days to complete turnover if the association first forms a turnover committee, including lot owners, or sends owners a notice of board nominations.

Under both sections, the declarant owes duties during the period: 

1. Manage the common areas with reasonable care and prudence, 
2. Establish a sound fiscal basis by imposing assessments and establishing reserves, 
3. Disclose any subsidy it provides for services the association will owe, 
4. Enforce the declaration, including assessments, and 
5. Disclose all material facts about the condition of the property and the association's finances, including the declarant's own interest in any contract or lease the association entered into. 
6. The Community Association Act imposes a duty to maintain records and to account for the association's finances from its inception.

Two things worth knowing: A contract or lease designed to benefit the declarant, signed during the period, is not binding thereafter unless the owners holding a majority of the votes renew and ratify it. And under the Community Association Act, when the period ends, owners elect a board of at least three members, a majority of whom must be lot owners.

Be aware that several owner protections are switched off during the period. For example, under the Community Association Act, the maintenance default, the notice-before-entry rule, and the association's duty to repair damage it causes do not apply during administrative control.

There is too much to fit here, and it varies by chapter, so check out the separate overviews for each and read the one for your community: either Rights and Responsibilities in a Condominium or Rights and Responsibilities in a Community Association.

The short version: Your core responsibility is to pay your share of common expenses and reasonably comply with the governing documents. Note that both sections condition your duty on reasonable compliance by the board or manager, and both allow an aggrieved owner, in a proper case, to bring the enforcement action.

Your rights include getting records within 10 business days, contesting a fine at an informal hearing requested within 30 days of receiving notice, and disapproving a proposed budget. Chapter 8a adds a set of rights that the Condominium Ownership Act does not contain, most importantly, advance notice and an open forum before the board adopts a rule.

This has its own page because the mechanics are detailed, and the two things people mean by "dissolving the HOA" differ. For more information, see: Organizing and Dismantling an Association.

The essential point, and the most common misunderstanding this Office hears: an association is two things at once. There is the project created by the recorded declaration, and there is the entity, usually a nonprofit corporation, on file with the Division of Corporations. Dissolving the corporation does not remove your property from the association act and does not cancel the CC&Rs, because the covenants are recorded against the land and run with it. Section 16-6a-1405 is explicit that dissolution does not transfer title to the corporation's property.

Formation is three steps: record the declaration, adopt and record bylaws, and register with the Department of Commerce within 90 days of recording, renewing annually.

Deconversion, meaning taking the property back out of the act, is where the chapters diverge most. Condominiums have a procedure, and community associations do not. Under Section 57-8-22, all unit owners may remove the property from the act by recorded instrument, but only if the holders of all liens against any unit consent by recorded instrument to transfer their liens to that owner's percentage interest. The property is then owned in common at the prior percentages, and Section 57-8-23 allows later resubmission. The Community Association Act contains no equivalent section; it refers to termination at Section 57-8a-407(1)(b) and leaves the procedure to "applicable law and the governing documents." For a community association, the declaration sets forth the termination procedure.

Associations must carry insurance, and the answer to the deductible question surprises most owners.

Beginning no later than the day the first unit or lot is conveyed, the association must maintain, to the extent reasonably available, blanket property insurance or guaranteed replacement cost insurance and liability insurance for the common areas. "Reasonably available" means available using typical carriers and markets, regardless of the association's ability to pay. If insurance is not reasonably available, the association must notify all owners within seven calendar days of learning of that fact.

Coverage may not be less than 100% of full replacement cost at purchase and at each renewal, and it must cover fixtures, improvements, and betterments installed at any time, including flooring, cabinets, light and plumbing fixtures, paint, wall coverings, and windows, whether original or added in a later remodel. Every owner is an insured person under the association's policy. In a condominium, the insurer also waives subrogation against you and against anyone residing with you. 

One limit worth knowing: unless the declaration says otherwise, the association is not required to insure a unit not physically attached to another unit or to a common area structure, or in a community association, a dwelling not physically attached to another dwelling or a common area structure. 

Now the deductible. When a loss is covered by both the association's policy and yours, the association's policy is primary, but you are responsible for the association's deductible to the extent the damage was to your own unit or lot. The statute allocates it as a percentage: your share is the percentage of the total damage attributable to your unit or lot and its appurtenant limited common areas, multiplied by the association's deductible. If you do not pay within 30 days after substantial completion of repairs, the association may assess it against you. Coverage A of your own policy applies to that portion.

Two protections come with that. The association must set aside an amount equal to its deductible, or at least $10,000 if the deductible exceeds $10,000. And it must notify you of your deductible obligation and of any change in the deductible amount; if it fails to give that notice, the association bears the portion it could have assessed to you, to the extent you have no insurance covering it. Neither your governing documents nor the association's policy may prevent you from insuring your own unit.

One more rule that catches owners by surprise is on smaller losses. If the board decides, in the exercise of the business judgment rule, that a loss is likely not to exceed the association's deductible, then until it becomes apparent the loss exceeds it, your own policy is treated as the primary coverage for damage to your unit or lot, the association remains responsible for common area damage, and the association need not tender the claim to its insurer. If you have no policy covering that damage, you are responsible for it.

One community association exception to check first. The Chapter 8a insurance part does not apply to a project whose initial declaration was recorded before January 1, 2012, that includes attached dwellings, and whose declaration requires each lot owner to insure the owner's own dwelling. Such an association may amend its declaration to opt in, which, during administrative control, requires the declarant's consent. There is no comparable carve-out in the condominium chapter.

Generally, the statute, but the honest answer is that it depends on the provision, because many sections of both acts expressly defer to or include the declaration.

Both acts set an order of authority. Section 57-8-40(5) and Section 57-8a-228(5) rank them from the top: the association act itself; then the law the entity is organized under (often the Revised Nonprofit Corporation Act); then the plat and the declaration, which control equally; then organizational documents filed with the state, such as articles of incorporation; then the bylaws; and last, rules and policies adopted by the board, which yield to everything above them. On the condominium side, Section 57-8-35(1) adds that where this chapter conflicts with other provisions of law, the chapter prevails.

So a board rule that contradicts your declaration is invalid, and a declaration provision that contradicts the act is generally unenforceable. Some sections say so directly: the records section provides that, where governing documents conflict, the statute governs, and the condominium insurance section provides that a contrary provision of a declaration, bylaw, or rule "has no effect."

But watch for the phrase "unless otherwise provided in the declaration." It appears throughout both chapters, and where it does, the declaration is permitted to override the statutory default. That is why the answers on this page repeatedly send you back to your recorded documents.

Yes to both, with meaningful limits. 

The lien covers assessments and, unless the declaration says otherwise, the costs of collecting them, including court costs, reasonable attorney fees, late charges, and interest. A fine can be included only after the appeal window has closed with no appeal, or a court has upheld the fine. No separate recording is required: recording the declaration is itself record notice and perfection of the lien. If assessments are payable in installments, the lien is for the full amount from the time the first installment is due.

On priority, the association's lien takes precedence over other liens, except for liens recorded before the declaration, a first or second mortgage or trust deed recorded before the association records a notice of lien, and liens for property taxes and other governmental charges. The lien is not subject to the Utah Exemptions Act, so a homestead exemption does not defeat it.

The registration point matters here. Both lien sections open with an exception pointing to the registration statutes. While the association is out of compliance with its Department of Commerce registration, no lien may arise or be enforced, and if your home is conveyed to an independent third party during that gap, the lien is extinguished.

In the event of foreclosure, you have the right to bring it to court. At least 30 calendar days before recording a notice of default, the association must deliver you a notice, in substantially the form the statute prescribes, telling you it intends to foreclose without a lawsuit and that you may demand judicial foreclosure instead. To exercise that right, you must mail the demand by certified U.S. mail with return receipt requested, to the address in the association's notice, within 30 days after the return receipt shows the notice was delivered.

The association may not use nonjudicial foreclosure at all if it failed to give that notice, if you made a timely demand for judicial foreclosure, if the lien includes a fine, or unless the lien includes an assessment delinquent for more than 180 days. Read the statutory notice carefully before demanding judicial foreclosure: it warns that in a lawsuit, the association may add a claim for delinquent fines, and that costs and attorney fees will likely be significantly higher and may fall on you if the association prevails.

Yes.

Except for action taken without a meeting under Section 16-6a-813, the board may act only at a meeting. The association must give written notice by email at least 48 hours in advance to each owner who requests it, unless the meeting is on a schedule already provided or is an emergency meeting called on less than 48 hours' notice to the board itself. The notice must state the time, date, and location; whether members may participate electronically; and the information they need to participate electronically. Note the middle part. Even if it’s best practice, by law, an association is not required to provide you with notice unless you have requested it. 

The meeting must be open to you or your designated representative in writing, and the board must give you a reasonable opportunity to comment, though it may limit comments to one period during the meeting. The board may close a meeting for six listed purposes only:

1. Legal advice from an attorney, 
2. Pending or potential litigation and similar proceedings, 
3. Personnel matters, 
4. Contract negotiations, including review of a bid or proposal, 
5. A matter involving an individual where discussion would likely cause undue embarrassment or violate a reasonable privacy expectation, and 
6. A delinquent assessment or fine. 

A board member "may not avoid or obstruct" these requirements.

If the association does not comply, you may sue for injunctive relief and $500 or actual damages, whichever is greater, but only after giving 90 days' written notice and a chance to fix it. Note that noncompliance does not invalidate the board's action.

Both sections switch off during administrative control, with one community association exception: during that period, a Chapter 8a association must still hold a complying meeting at least once a year, and every time it increases a fee or raises an assessment. The condominium section carries no such exception.

A reinvestment fee is a fee an association charges on the sale of a home, dedicated to benefiting the common areas. It is governed by Section 57-1-46, not by either association act, and that section was substantially rewritten effective May 6, 2026. If you were told how these fees work before 2026, check the current rules.

Start with the distinction the statute draws. A plain transfer fee covenant recorded on or after March 16, 2010, is void and unenforceable. A reinvestment fee covenant is different and can be valid, but only if the fee is dedicated to benefiting the burdened property.

There are now caps. Unless the property is part of a large master planned development, a reinvestment fee covenant recorded on or after May 6, 2026, may not exceed 0.5% of the property's value, or 0.25% if the association is a "low-amenity association," meaning one made up only of detached single-family homes that does not provide capital-intensive infrastructure maintenance.

Owners now have to approve the fee. On or after May 6, 2026, an association may not impose a reinvestment fee unless the declaration or a reinvestment fee covenant authorizes it, a majority of voting interests approves it (or more, if the documents require more), and, unless the association is a large master planned development, at least 50% of the fee goes into reserve funds.

And owners can remove it. Members may remove or amend a reinvestment fee at a special meeting called for that purpose, where at least 51% of the voting interests attend and vote, and a majority of those attending vote to do so. 

A reinvestment fee covenant is also void unless a separate notice of the covenant is recorded in each county where the property sits, stating the association's name and address, the covenant's duration and purpose, and that the fee must benefit the burdened property. 

Finally, the fee cannot be charged on several kinds of transfers: an involuntary transfer, a transfer by court order, a bona fide transfer to a family member within three degrees of consanguinity who proves the relationship beforehand, a transfer at death under a will, trust, or decree of distribution, and a transfer by a financial institution, except for costs directly related to the transfer not exceeding $250. A separate "administrative setup fee" is void unless the association uses it only for expenses related to the transfer.

One caution about disclosure. Associations are required to report whether they impose a reinvestment fee or transfer fee as part of registration with the Office. A person should not rely on that disclosure when creating a document associated with the purchase of the property, but it should serve as an indicator of whether one exists. Associations should also ensure they report this information accurately. If the registry is inaccurate, it may affect the fee's validity. Confirm the fee against the recorded notice and your closing documents. For more information, visit Reinvestment and Transfer Fees.