HOA Homeowner General Information

What You Owe

You owe your proportionate share of the common expenses and any other assessment the association levies, in the amount and at the time the board sets under the declaration or bylaws. An assessment is a debt owed by the owner when it is made and is collectible as such. 

You also owe reasonable compliance with the governing documents as they are lawfully amended, and failure to comply is grounds for an action for damages or an injunction. Disagreeing with a rule is not a defense to breaking it. Challenge it through the association's process, not by ignoring it.

If you pay late, the association may charge a late fee of no more than the greater of 10% of the assessment or $50, plus interest of up to 1.5% per month. That is a ceiling. Under the Community Association Act, the board must adopt a fee schedule by rule and provide you with a copy before charging you.

What You Can Require of the Association

• Records, in 10 business days. If the association misses that deadline on the categories the statute names, it owes you $25 per day starting the eleventh business day.
• Open board meetings, and notice if you ask for it. Unless they take action without a meeting, the board may act only at a meeting, must give 48 hours' written notice by email to owners who request it, must open the meeting to owners, and must give you a reasonable opportunity to comment. It may close a meeting only for the specific reasons listed in the statute.
• Disapproval of the budget. Owners do not have the right to vote to approve a budget, but they may disapprove the adopted budget within 45 days of the meeting where it was presented, by at least 51% of all allocated voting interests, and may separately veto the reserve fund line item by a 51% vote at a special meeting.
• Association money is kept separately. Funds must be held in an account in the association's name and may not be commingled with anyone else's.

What the Rules May Not Do

Both chapters limit what an association may impose by rule, and a rule must treat owners equally. The display protections are the clearest point at which the two acts diverge, and the Community Association Act is broader.

• Condominium. A rule may not prohibit you from displaying a for-sale sign, a political sign, or a flag in a window of your unit, and generally may not regulate the content of a political sign or flag. The association may impose reasonable time, place, and manner restrictions on a display visible from outside the unit, and may reasonably regulate size and posting.
• Community association. A rule may not prohibit you from displaying a political sign or flag on your lot, on the exterior of the dwelling, or in the front yard, regardless of whether the association has an ownership interest in the exterior. Reasonable time, place, and manner restrictions still apply to displays visible from outside the lot.

Two more protections worth knowing:

• Water-wise landscaping, both acts. When owners, rather than the association, maintain the landscaping, the association must adopt rules that support water-wise landscaping, including low-water-use requirements for lawns during drought conditions.
• Solar, Community Association Act only. For a detached dwelling, or an attached dwelling meeting the section's conditions, no governing document other than the declaration may prohibit installing a solar energy system. The Condominium Ownership Act has no solar provision at all, so under that act, the answer comes from your declaration.

If You Are Fined, or Your Rights Are Suspended

You may request an informal hearing before the board to dispute a fine, and you have 30 days from the date you receive notice of it. If the association moves to terminate your rights for delinquency, the notice must allow at least 14 days, and you have 14 days from receiving it to request an informal hearing. Both clocks run from receipt, so keep the envelope or the email.

If You Fall Behind

An unpaid assessment can become a lien on your home, and the association can foreclose. There are real limits on the fastest route. Nonjudicial foreclosure is unavailable if the lien includes a fine, and it is unavailable unless the lien includes an assessment more than 180 days delinquent. You can also force the association into judicial foreclosure instead by mailing a written demand, certified with return receipt requested, within 30 days after the return receipt shows its notice was delivered. 

If You Disagree With the Association

Put it in writing and use the dispute procedure in your governing documents. You must exhaust that procedure before this Office can issue an advisory opinion, though your association may not require you to arbitrate first. Advisory Opinions and Where To Take a Problem sets out the order, the $150 fee, the one-year deadline, and which agency handles complaints that this Office cannot handle.

For the details behind any of this, read the overview for your chapter: Rights and Responsibilities in a Condominium or Rights and Responsibilities in a Community Association.

Reviewed against the Utah Code, current as of September 8, 2026.