Utah HOA Board Elections

Section 1: Overview — How board elections are governed in Utah

In Utah, the rules for a board election depend on what kind of community is voting. The state runs board elections through two separate statutes. Condominiums follow the Utah Condominium Ownership Act;¹ community associations — the non-condominium planned communities — follow the Utah Community Association Act.² Each statute covers the same ground — association governance, the board, meetings, and voting — but it does so on its own track, in a separate chapter of Title 57.

The Condominium Ownership Act (Utah Code § 57-8-1 et seq.) governs condominiums, and it calls the board the "management committee."³ The Community Association Act (Utah Code § 57-8a-101 et seq.) governs community associations, and it calls the board the "board of directors."⁴ Because these are two distinct statutes, you have to cite the right one for the community in front of you — and the Community Association Act spells this out, expressly leaving condominiums out of its definition of "association."²

On top of that, every Utah association has to register with the Utah Department of Commerce and renew that registration every year.⁵ But that registration is a disclosure duty, not a set of election rules. Utah has never adopted the Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act, or UCIOA; the two Title 57 statutes are Utah's own, so UCIOA's section numbers and model features simply don't apply here. The short version: Utah is a two-statute, non-UCIOA state, and the election rulebook splits first on one question — is the community a condominium or a planned community? The sections that follow lay out the framework, the working mechanics, and the recent activity.

Section 2: The election framework

2A. The Utah Condominium Ownership Act (Section 57-8) and condominium board elections

The Utah Condominium Ownership Act (Utah Code § 57-8-1 et seq.) governs how a condominium handles management, its board, and voting.¹ Here the board is the "management committee," and the Act says that — except where the declaration, bylaws, articles, or the chapter itself limit it — the management committee acts in all instances on behalf of the association of unit owners (§ 57-8-59).³ Section 57-8-59 also sets the only qualifications the statute imposes: a committee member has to be a natural person, 18 or older. The bylaws can add more, and they can disqualify felons or sex offenders.³

The handoff from declarant — the developer — to a board the unit owners actually elect is fixed by § 57-8-7(7). The period of developer control can't run past the first of two triggers to occur: a time limit (six years in an expandable condominium, four years in a project with convertible land, or three years in any other project) or a conveyance threshold (once units holding three-fourths of the undivided interest in the common areas have been conveyed, with any additional land added and convertible land converted).⁶ Once that period ends, the unit owners elect the board.

So the Act sets the floor on qualifications, the ceiling on developer control, the open-meeting rules for the committee (§ 57-8-57),⁷ and the order of authority among the governing documents (§ 57-8-40).⁸ What it leaves alone is just as telling: board size, term length, how candidates are nominated, how ballots are cast, and how the election itself is run all fall to the declaration and bylaws (§ 57-8-16 lists what the bylaws may govern).⁹ Section 57-8 is a self-contained condominium statute. It is not the Community Association Act, and it is not UCIOA — so neither the community-association provisions nor the UCIOA defaults step in to fill its gaps.

2B. The Utah Community Association Act (Section 57-8a) and planned-community board elections

The Utah Community Association Act (Utah Code § 57-8a-101 et seq.) governs the non-condominium planned communities and their boards.² Section 57-8a-501 sets director qualifications that track the condominium statute almost word for word: a director must be a natural person 18 or older, need not live in Utah or own a lot unless the bylaws require it, and may be disqualified for a felony conviction or sex-offender status. Except where the governing documents or the chapter limit it, the board acts in all instances on behalf of the association.¹⁰ Section 57-8a-502 governs the period of administrative control, and when that control ends, it requires the lot owners to elect a board with an odd number of at least three members — a majority of them lot owners.¹¹

The HOA registration requirement lives in § 57-8a-105: within 90 days of recording the declaration, an association must register with the Department of Commerce, and — since 2025 — it must renew that registration every year.¹² This is a disclosure duty. Its bite is collateral, not electoral: while an association is out of compliance, it cannot create or enforce an assessment lien.¹²

Like the condominium statute, § 57-8a nails down director qualifications, the administrative-control transition, and the board's composition after turnover, but it leaves term length, term limits, nomination, balloting, quorum, and vote thresholds to the declaration and bylaws (§ 57-8a-216 governs what the bylaws contain).¹³ Section 57-8a governs community associations only. It is a separate statute from § 57-8, and it does not reach condominiums.

2C. Corporate law, the bylaws, and order of precedence

Most Utah associations incorporate as nonprofit corporations, so the Utah Revised Nonprofit Corporation Act (Utah Code § 16-6a-101 et seq.) supplies the gap-fillers — for electing directors, and for their number, term, removal, and vacancies — whenever the Title 57 statute and the governing documents say nothing.¹⁴ Its director provisions sit in Part 8 and its member-voting provisions in Part 7. They give you a three-director minimum (§ 16-6a-803),¹⁵ election of directors by the voting members at each annual meeting unless a bylaw says otherwise (§ 16-6a-804, 805),¹⁶ plurality election unless the bylaws require something else (§ 16-6a-717),¹⁷ and member removal of directors (§ 16-6a-808).¹⁸

The order of precedence is set by statute. For condominiums, § 57-8-40 ranks the Condominium Ownership Act first, then the Revised Nonprofit Corporation Act, then the declaration and plat, then the articles, then the bylaws, with board-adopted rules last.⁸ Community associations follow the same logic: the applicable Title 57 statute, then the declaration, then the bylaws, then the corporate gap-fillers, then the rules. The practical takeaway is this — the controlling election rule depends first on whether you're dealing with a condominium (§ 57-8) or a community association (§ 57-8a), and the Revised Nonprofit Corporation Act is corporate scaffolding that fills the gaps, not the source of the governance rules themselves.

Section 3: Election mechanics

A. Eligibility and nominations

Director eligibility is one of the few mechanics the Title 57 statutes pin down directly. Both § 57-8-59 (condominiums) and § 57-8a-501 (community associations) require a board member to be a natural person 18 or older, don't require residency or ownership unless the bylaws say so, and let the association disqualify felons and sex offenders.^3,10 These are mandatory floors — the bylaws can raise them, but not lower them. Candidate nomination is a different story: neither statute addresses it, so the bylaws set it.^9,13

B. Notice, annual meeting, and quorum

Neither Title 57 statute fixes the annual meeting or its quorum; both come from the corporate act and the bylaws. Section 16-6a-701 requires a nonprofit corporation with voting members to hold an annual meeting unless the bylaws do away with it.²⁰ For condominiums, § 57-8-57 sets a 48-hour notice floor for management-committee (board) meetings — and that's a different thing from the notice for the membership meeting where directors are elected. That election-meeting notice is bylaw-set, with § 16-6a-704 as the corporate backstop.^7,21 Quorum to hold the election is bylaw-set too, with § 16-6a-714 as the default.²³

C. Voting methods, proxies, and ballots

The Title 57 statutes don't prescribe how members vote in the election; the Revised Nonprofit Corporation Act supplies the menu. Members may vote in person, by proxy (§ 16-6a-712), by written ballot (§ 16-6a-709), or by written consent (§ 16-6a-707), to the extent the governing documents allow.²² Cumulative voting is on the table only if the bylaws authorize it and notice is given at or before the meeting (§ 16-6a-717(1)-(2)).¹⁷ The default threshold is a plurality: absent a contrary bylaw, the candidates with the highest vote totals win the seats (§ 16-6a-717(3)).¹⁷ Every one of these is a corporate default that the declaration and bylaws can change.

D. Terms, vacancies, removal, and recall

Term length, term limits, and staggering are bylaw-set, with corporate defaults of a one-year term (§ 16-6a-805) and optional staggered terms (§ 16-6a-806).^16,19 Removal and recall run through the corporate act, not Title 57: the voting members may remove a director with or without cause (unless the bylaws require cause) by a majority vote at a meeting called and noticed for that purpose (§ 16-6a-808), and a court may remove a director for fraud, dishonesty, or gross abuse of authority in an action brought by the association or by members holding at least 10 percent of the votes (§ 16-6a-809).^18,24 Mid-term vacancies can be filled by the members or by the remaining directors under § 16-6a-810, subject to the governing documents.²⁵

Section 4: Recent legislative and judicial activity

A. Recent bills

B. Recent appellate rulings

C. Active legislative debates

Utah's Legislature meets in a general session each January through March, and HOA governance keeps drawing bills. As of this update, no board-election-specific amendment to the Condominium Ownership Act or the Community Association Act has been confirmed as enacted in the 2026 session, and the registration framework still stands as HB 217 left it.

Section 5: National positioning and related coverage

Utah is a two-statute, non-UCIOA state. Nine states have enacted the Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act — by the Community Associations Institute's count, Alaska, Colorado, Minnesota, Nevada, and West Virginia under the 1982 version, and Connecticut, Delaware, Vermont, and Washington under the 2008 version — and other states leave most governance to recorded covenants. Utah does neither. It divides its statutory governance between the Condominium Ownership Act (§ 57-8) for condominiums and the Community Association Act (§ 57-8a) for planned communities, with the Revised Nonprofit Corporation Act filling the director gaps. That split is the defining feature here: two parallel statutes, each handling board elections for its own kind of community, layered over a mandatory, annually renewed HOA registration. For a multi-state operator, the first compliance question in Utah is classification — decide whether a community is a condominium under § 57-8 or a community association under § 57-8a, then apply the right statute and resist the urge to cross-apply provisions.

Federal frameworks reach Utah associations too, no matter what the state framework says — the Fair Housing Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, and the FCC's OTARD rule all apply here regardless of which Utah statute governs.

1. Utah Code Title 57, Chapter 8, Condominium Ownership Act (§ 57-8-1 et seq.) ↩
2. Utah Code Title 57, Chapter 8a, Community Association Act (§ 57-8a-101 et seq.) ↩
3. Utah Code § 57-8-59, Management committee ↩
4. Utah Code § 57-8a-102, Definitions (board of directors) ↩
5. Utah Code § 57-8a-105 and § 57-8-13.1, Registration with Department of Commerce ↩
6. Utah Code § 57-8-7(7), period of developer control ↩
7. Utah Code § 57-8-57, Management committee meetings -- Open meetings ↩
8. Utah Code § 57-8-40, Organization under other law -- Priority ↩
9. Utah Code § 57-8-16, Contents of bylaws ↩
10. Utah Code § 57-8a-501, Board ↩
11. Utah Code § 57-8a-502, Period of administrative control ↩
12. Utah Code § 57-8a-105, Registration with Department of Commerce (annual renewal and fee added by HB 217, 2025) ↩
13. Utah Code § 57-8a-216, Association bylaws -- Recording required -- Bylaw requirements ↩
14. Utah Code Title 16, Chapter 6a, Utah Revised Nonprofit Corporation Act (§ 16-6a-101 et seq.); § 16-6a-801 ↩
15. Utah Code § 16-6a-803, Number of directors ↩
16. Utah Code § 16-6a-804 and § 16-6a-805, Election and terms of directors ↩
17. Utah Code § 16-6a-717, Voting for directors -- Cumulative voting ↩
18. Utah Code § 16-6a-808, Removal of directors ↩
19. Utah Code § 16-6a-806, Staggered terms for directors ↩
20. Utah Code § 16-6a-701, Annual and regular meetings ↩
21. Utah Code § 16-6a-704, Notice of meeting ↩
22. Utah Code §§ 16-6a-707, 16-6a-709, 16-6a-712 (action without meeting, written ballot, proxies) ↩
23. Utah Code § 16-6a-714, Quorum and voting requirements for voting groups ↩
24. Utah Code § 16-6a-809, Removal of directors by judicial proceeding ↩
25. Utah Code § 16-6a-810, Vacancy on board ↩
26. H.B. 217, Homeowners' Association Amendments, 2025 General Session (status and votes) ↩
27. H.B. 217, 3rd Substitute, Section 17 (Title 13, Chapter 75 Ombudsman office repealed July 1, 2030) ↩
28. Behar v. Johnson, 2024 UT App 129 (Docket No. 20230455-CA, decided Sept. 12, 2024) ↩