What do Utah's 2026 HOA law changes mean for volunteer boards?

By OurHOA · General information · Revised October 26, 2026

Utah's 2026 HOA laws for boards: the 10 business day records deadline, budget rules, declaration limits, reinvestment fee caps and ombudsman changes.

Part of the HOA board handbook: new state laws for boards.

The short answer

Four bills from the 2026 General Session change how Utah associations operate, and all four took effect May 6, 2026. SB 122, HOA Amendments, is the big one: it rewrites parts of the Community Association Act (Utah Code Title 57, Chapter 8a) and the Condominium Ownership Act (Chapter 8), and changes the Homeowners' Association Ombudsman program. HB 306 caps and redirects reinvestment fees. HB 215 stops associations from blocking wildfire vegetation clearing. SB 196 treats some transfer fee notices as wrongful liens. The governor signed all four in March. For a volunteer board, the jobs that land first are a shorter records deadline, a new rule for what happens when no budget is adopted, a list of things your declaration can no longer require, and new conditions on any fee charged when a home sells. Section numbers below are from the Community Association Act; SB 122 makes matching condominium changes. Your declaration and bylaws still matter, and the statute controls where they conflict, so treat this as education and ask your attorney before relying on it for a dispute.

Check which act governs your community

SB 122 adds a test to Utah Code 57-8a-103. The Community Association Act applies if your declaration says so. If the declaration is silent about whether Chapter 8a or the Condominium Ownership Act applies, Chapter 8a applies as long as the plats in the association are not designated condominium plats. The test applies no matter when the association was formed. The bill also repeals the old language in 57-8a-105 that tied the act's reach to registering with the Department of Commerce, and it requires every new declaration to state that the project is governed by Chapter 8a. Pull the recorded plat and declaration, confirm which act applies, and note it in the board's records.

Records requests: 10 business days and a later penalty start

Under amended 57-8a-227, an association has 10 business days to answer an owner's written request to inspect or copy records. The old deadline was two weeks. The $25 a day penalty for failing to produce the governing documents, the most recent approved minutes, or the most recent budget and financial statement now starts on the eleventh business day after the request, not the sixth day. Copy charges stay capped at the actual cost of an outside copy service, or 10 cents a page and $20 an hour for staff time, and the association still may not charge for sending documents electronically. The new part boards should use is subsection (1)(c) and (d). The required records, and the funds in the accounts that 57-8a-230 covers, are association property. Anyone else who holds those records, such as a former manager or a treasurer who left with the files, must hand them over on the association's request without charge. When you change managers, put that request in writing on day one and cite the section. Our guide on how a board should respond to a records request walks through logging and answering requests.

Budgets and the declaration limits

Section 57-8a-215 now says the board shall prepare and adopt a budget at least once a year. If owners disapprove a budget, or the board never adopts one, the budget the board last adopted stays in force until the board adopts a new one. The repealed text tied the carryover to a budget owners had not disapproved and barred owners from disapproving budgets while the developer was in control. The statute now plainly expects a vote every year. New subsection 57-8a-212(4) lists provisions a declaration or an amendment may not contain. Several mirror limits that 57-8a-218 already placed on board rules. A declaration may not ban for-sale signs, political signs or flags in a window, or regulate the content of political signs and flags except to restrict obscene, profane or commercial material. It may not stop owners from hiring a contractor only because the contractor is not on a preferred vendor list or lacks a license the law does not require. It may not ban a personal security camera next to an entry point, regulate the interior of a home except for the safety of neighbors, require association consent to sell a lot, or bar a maintained basketball standard on a private driveway that abuts a public street. Subsection 212(5) confirms a declaration may still require garage parking first, set a lower speed limit on private roads, and reasonably regulate the size, time, place and manner of signs and flags.

Parking and wildfire clearing

The driveway parking rule in 57-8a-218(20) got wider for associations. A rule may still not stop someone from parking an operable vehicle in a driveway where it has a legal right to park, but the list of vehicles a rule may restrict now includes trailers, off-highway vehicles, special mobile equipment and motorboats, on top of commercial vehicles, motor homes and recreational vehicle trailers. A board can now write a rule about the boat that never leaves a driveway. The same list sits in 57-8a-212(4)(f) for declarations. HB 215 goes the other way. Under 57-8a-218(15)(b)(iii), a rule may not prohibit, or have the effect of prohibiting, an owner from removing vegetation from a lot that is within a designated wildland-urban interface area. Architectural standards that require approval before cutting trees, or that require replacing every removed shrub, need a fresh look in those areas. Ask the county or fire district whether you are inside a designated area.

Fees charged when a home sells

Three changes hit the money collected at closing. First, Utah Code 57-1-46 renames the association transfer fee as an administrative setup fee. It is still void unless the association uses it only for expenses related to the transfer. If a manager collects it, the manager must give the association an annual accounting of every such fee by December 31. Second, HB 306 changes reinvestment fees, the larger fees that some declarations charge buyers. A reinvestment fee covenant recorded on or after May 6, 2026 may not charge more than 0.5 percent of the home's value, or 0.25 percent in a low-amenity association. That term means a community made up only of detached single-family homes that does not maintain capital-intensive infrastructure: facilities with a useful life over five years that need reserve or special assessment funding, not routine upkeep, landscaping, signs or perimeter fencing. Large master planned developments are outside the cap. An association imposing a reinvestment fee also needs authority in the declaration or a reinvestment fee covenant, approval by a majority of voting interests, and, unless it is a large master planned development, must deposit at least 50 percent of each fee into reserve funds. Third, the annual registration with the Department of Commerce must now state whether the association charges a reinvestment fee or a transfer fee, and board contacts no longer have to give a physical address. SB 196 adds that a recorded notice of transfer fee covenant is a wrongful lien, and invalid, if the covenant was already unenforceable when the notice was recorded, for example after a senior trust deed was foreclosed or a release was recorded.

Ombudsman, rentals and developer turnover

The Office of the Homeowners' Association Ombudsman is set up in Utah Code Title 13, Chapter 79. Under amended 13-79-103 and 13-79-104, it must publish every advisory opinion it issues, post a list of statutes and common questions, and take over the educational materials the department used to publish. An owner requesting an opinion pays a $150 filing fee, now nonrefundable, and must describe the act complained of and its effect on the owner. The old rule that split the fee when the requester won is gone. The owner must first use the dispute resolution procedures in the association's governing documents, but the association may not require binding arbitration before an owner asks for an opinion. If the same issue reaches court and the court agrees with the opinion, the judge may award the winning side attorney fees from the date of the opinion and, for a knowing and intentional violation, a civil penalty of up to $5,000. That replaces a $250 a day penalty. On rentals, 57-8a-209 now grandfathers owners who were renting before a rental restriction becomes effective, rather than before it was recorded. For large master planned developments, 57-8a-502(6) lets the period of developer control run up to 300 more days if, before it ends, the association forms a board committee that includes owners or sends owners a call for board nominations.

What the board should do this year

Update the records procedure to a 10 business day clock and calendar the eleventh business day on every request. Send any former manager or treasurer a written demand for association records and account access under 57-8a-227(1)(d). Adopt the 2027 budget by vote and record it in the minutes, even if you expect no changes. Have counsel compare the declaration and rules against 57-8a-212(4) and 57-8a-218 and list the provisions the board will stop enforcing. If you charge a fee at resale, ask the manager or title company for the year-end accounting and confirm reinvestment fees post at least half to reserves. Check the Department of Commerce registration renewal for the new fee statement. A motion the board can adopt: "Moved that the board direct the secretary to answer owner records requests within 10 business days under Utah Code 57-8a-227, deposit at least 50 percent of each reinvestment fee collected into the reserve fund, and ask counsel to identify any declaration or rule provision that conflicts with Utah Code 57-8a-212(4) or 57-8a-218 as amended in 2026."

Sources

These guides are general education for HOA boards and residents, not legal, tax, or financial advice. Rules vary by state and by your community's governing documents - check with a professional for your situation.

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