Utah HOA EV Charging

Quick-Reference EV Charging Table

Chapter 8, § 57-8-8.2, governs condominiums, and Chapter 8a, §§ 57-8a-801, 57-8a-802, governs planned communities. The two provisions are parallel but distinct, with different section numbers, so EV values must be drawn from the correct chapter for each column. The sections were enacted in 2022 with a 2023 amendment. Text pulled from le.utah.gov/xcode and cited by subsection.

Section 1: Overview — How EV charging is regulated for HOAs in Utah

Utah bars a community association from prohibiting an owner's electric vehicle charging system in the owner's assigned or exclusive-use parking, and it does so through two separate statutes, one for condominiums and one for planned communities.¹ A condominium association is bound by Utah Code § 57-8-8.2 within the Condominium Ownership Act, Title 57, Chapter 8, while a planned-community association is bound by Utah Code §§ 57-8a-801 and 57-8a-802 within the Community Association Act, Title 57, Chapter 8a, and in each setting the recorded declaration operates alongside the statute.² The association keeps meaningful control: it may require an application for approval before installation, require the owner to hire a licensed general or residential electrical contractor, apply reasonable design criteria and building codes, and place the cost of installation, metering, electricity, damage, and any insurance-premium increase on the owner.³ This places Utah among the owner-protective EV states, alongside California and Colorado, but Utah reaches that result with its own mechanics: there's no fixed liability-insurance figure and no statutory deemed-approval clock.⁴ The sections that follow set out the statutory framework, the specific actions an association may and may not take, and the recent legislative record.

Section 2: The statutory and regulatory framework

2A. Utah's EV-charging statutes

Utah addresses EV charging in two parallel provisions. For condominiums, Utah Code § 57-8-8.2 states that, notwithstanding any provision in the governing documents to the contrary, an association may not prohibit a unit owner from installing or using a charging system in a parking space assigned to the unit and used for parking or storage, or in a limited common area parking space designated for the owner's exclusive use.¹ For planned communities, Utah Code § 57-8a-802 states the same rule for a lot owner, tied to a parking space on the owner's lot or a limited common area parking space designated for the owner's exclusive use.⁵ Both chapters define "charging system" as a device used to provide electricity to an electric or hybrid electric vehicle and designed to ensure a safe connection between the electric grid and the vehicle; the condominium definition sits at § 57-8-8.2(1) and the planned-community definition sits at § 57-8a-801.⁶ Each section also permits a reasonable restriction that doesn't significantly increase the cost of the system or significantly decrease its efficiency or performance.³ The sections were enacted in 2022 and amended in 2023, and this page reflects the current text cited by subsection.⁷ The two provisions are parallel but separate: a condominium claim rests on Chapter 8, § 57-8-8.2, and a planned-community claim rests on Chapter 8a, §§ 57-8a-801, 57-8a-802. Citing the condominium section for a planned community, or the reverse, is a drafting error because the section numbers and chapters differ even though the substantive rules match.

2B. Conditions, costs, and the absence of a statutory clock

Both sections leave the association a defined set of conditions it may impose. An association may require the owner to submit an application for approval, require the owner to agree in writing to hire a licensed general or residential electrical contractor, require compliance with reasonable design criteria governing dimensions, placement, or external appearance, require compliance with applicable building codes, and impose a reasonable charge to cover the costs of review and permitting.³ The owner bears the costs associated with installation, metering, and use, including the cost of electricity and the cost of damage to a general common area, a limited common area, or an area subject to another owner's exclusive use that results from installation, use, maintenance, repair, removal, or replacement.⁸ On insurance, Utah uses a premium-reimbursement mechanism rather than a fixed policy amount: where a charging system is installed in a common area, the association may require the owner to agree in writing to reimburse the actual cost of the increase in the association's insurance premium attributable to the system.⁹ That mechanism differs from the California model, where Civil Code § 4745(f)(3) requires the owner to maintain a liability coverage policy and furnish a certificate of insurance, a fixed-figure approach traced to a $1 million umbrella-liability requirement.¹⁰ Neither Utah section states an approval deadline, and neither contains a deemed-approval provision, so an application doesn't become automatically approved after any set period; owners and associations must resolve timing through the governing documents and general association-law duties rather than a statutory clock.¹¹ The charging system is the owner's personal property unless the owner and the association or declarant agree otherwise, the owner must disclose the system to a prospective buyer, and, before transferring ownership, the owner must remove the system and restore the premises unless the buyer accepts ownership and all related responsibilities.¹²

2C. How the rest of the two chapters, plus corporate law, bear on EV charging

The EV sections don't operate in isolation. The general provisions of Chapter 8 and Chapter 8a give an association authority over common elements and common areas, architectural and design review, and rulemaking, and those provisions continue to apply to the mechanics of a charging installation.¹³ On the specific question of prohibiting a charging system in the protected locations, however, the EV section controls, because each opens with "notwithstanding any provision in an association's governing documents to the contrary."¹ The order of precedence runs from non-variable statutory provisions, including the EV sections, to statutory defaults as modified by the declaration, then the declaration, then the bylaws, then the rules; the Community Association Act states expressly that it governs over the Utah Revised Nonprofit Corporation Act where the two conflict.¹⁴ For associations organized as nonprofit corporations, which is the common structure in Utah, the Utah Revised Nonprofit Corporation Act, Title 16, Chapter 6a, supplies corporate-formality scaffolding such as board action, meeting, and notice requirements; it doesn't add EV-specific authority.¹⁵ Where statute and declaration are silent, ordinary contract and property doctrine fills the gap.

Section 3: What HOAs can and cannot do regarding EV charging

A. Installation rights and prohibitions

An association may not prohibit an owner from installing or using a charging system in the protected locations, condominiums, § 57-8-8.2(2); planned communities, § 57-8a-802(1); applies to both.¹ For condominiums, the protected locations are a parking space assigned to the unit and used for parking or storage, or a limited common area parking space designated for the owner's exclusive use; for planned communities, they're a parking space on the owner's lot or a limited common area parking space designated for the owner's exclusive use.⁵ The right doesn't reach a general common area that isn't assigned or designated for the owner's exclusive use; there, the chapter's general provisions and the declaration control.¹³ A reasonable restriction is permitted, but a measure that operates as a ban in a protected location isn't, and the line is set by whether the restriction significantly increases cost or decreases efficiency or performance, condominiums, § 57-8-8.2(3)(e); planned communities, § 57-8a-802(2)(e).³

B. Conditions an association may impose

An association may require an approval application, a licensed general or residential electrical contractor, and compliance with applicable building codes, condominiums, § 57-8-8.2(3)(a)-(c); planned communities, § 57-8a-802(2)(a)-(c).³ It may apply reasonable design criteria governing dimensions, placement, or external appearance and may impose a reasonable review-and-permitting charge.³ On insurance, it may require the owner to reimburse the actual cost of any increase in the association's insurance premium attributable to a system installed in a common area, and it may allocate cost and liability to the owner through the written agreement the statute authorizes, condominiums, § 57-8-8.2(3)(b)(ii); planned communities, § 57-8a-802(2)(b)(ii).⁹ A reasonable restriction that doesn't significantly increase cost or decrease efficiency or performance is permitted.³ Neither section states an approval deadline, so an association's review isn't subject to a statutory time limit or deemed approval.¹¹

C. Cost, metering, and maintenance allocation

The owner bears the cost of installation, metering, electricity, and damage to common or adjacent areas resulting from the system, condominiums, § 57-8-8.2(3)(f); planned communities, § 57-8a-802(2)(f).⁸ The system is the owner's personal property unless otherwise agreed, disclosure to a prospective buyer is required, and on transfer the owner must remove the system and restore the premises unless the buyer accepts it, condominiums, § 57-8-8.2(4)-(5); planned communities, § 57-8a-802(3)-(4).¹² On the utility side, an owner charging a personal vehicle on a private meter generally isn't reselling utility service, and Utah law doesn't treat an entity that provides EV charging service as a public utility unless it independently triggers Public Service Commission jurisdiction; this is generally not material for owner-side residential charging.¹⁶

D. Where the station may be installed

For condominiums, the station may go in the unit's assigned parking or a limited common area parking space designated for the owner's exclusive use, and the association generally controls alterations to common elements not so designated under Chapter 8.¹ For planned communities, the station may go in the owner's lot parking space or a limited common area parking space designated for the owner's exclusive use under Chapter 8a.⁵ In condominium terms, a limited common element assigned as the owner's parking is protected, while a general common element isn't, absent an exclusive-use designation.¹³

Section 4: Recent legislative and judicial activity

A. Recent bills

B. Recent appellate rulings

No published decision of the Utah Court of Appeals or the Utah Supreme Court in the past 36 months addresses § 57-8-8.2 or § 57-8a-802 or an EV-charging dispute. Trial-level disputes proceed through the Utah District Courts, appeals go to the Utah Court of Appeals as the intermediate appellate court, and the Utah Supreme Court is the court of last resort; because the Supreme Court may retain a civil appeal or assign it to the Court of Appeals, either court may decide a given HOA civil appeal.²⁰

C. Active legislative debates

The Utah Department of Commerce launched its Office of the Homeowners' Association Ombudsman on September 8, 2025, created by H.B. 217, 2025, sponsored by Rep. Neil Walter, together with a new HOA registry, and the office has since convened a working group on HOA regulatory reform aimed at the 2027 General Session and beyond, so association procedure remains an active area even though no current bill targets the EV sections.²¹

Section 5: National positioning and related coverage

Utah sits in the group of states that bar associations from prohibiting owner EV charging, the same category as California, whose Civil Code § 4745(a) makes void and unenforceable any governing-document provision that "either effectively prohibits or unreasonably restricts the installation or use of an electric vehicle charging station" within an owner's unit or designated parking space, and Colorado, whose C.R.S. § 38-33.3-106.8 limits association bans.¹⁰ A second group of states addresses charging more narrowly inside a condominium or HOA act, and a third group has no EV-specific statute, leaving the declaration to control. Utah belongs in the first group as an owner-protective state that bars associations from prohibiting charging in an owner's assigned or exclusive-use parking, while using its own mechanics: no fixed insurance figure and no statutory deemed-approval clock, delivered through a two-statute structure.⁴ For a multi-state operator entering Utah, the practical point is that owners hold a statutory installation right, but the conditions an association may impose and the location limits differ from the California and Colorado models. This is a fast-moving area, and Utah's sections should be re-checked each quarter.

HOA Weekly updates its Utah EV Charging coverage quarterly as the legislature and courts act, § 57-8-8.2 and the § 57-8a-8 part are re-verified against current text each cycle, and federal incentives may affect installation economics even though no federal law mandates HOA EV charging access.

Footnotes

1. Utah Code § 57-8-8.2(2), Condominium Ownership Act ↩ ↩ ↩ ↩ ↩
2. Utah Code Title 57, Chapter 8a, Community Association Act (chapter index) ↩
3. Utah Code § 57-8-8.2(3); Utah Code § 57-8a-802(2) ↩ ↩ ↩ ↩ ↩ ↩ ↩
4. Utah Code § 57-8a-802; § 57-8-8.2 (no fixed insurance figure, no deemed-approval clock) ↩ ↩
5. Utah Code § 57-8a-802(1), Community Association Act ↩ ↩ ↩
6. Utah Code § 57-8a-801 (definitions); Utah Code § 57-8-8.2(1) ↩
7. S.B. 152 (2022), Community Association Regulation Amendments, Chapter 439 ↩ ↩
8. Utah Code § 57-8-8.2(3)(f); Utah Code § 57-8a-802(2)(f) ↩ ↩
9. Utah Code § 57-8-8.2(3)(b)(ii); Utah Code § 57-8a-802(2)(b)(ii) ↩ ↩
10. Utah Code § 57-8-8.2 (compare California Civil Code § 4745, including subsections (a) and (f)(3); Colorado C.R.S. § 38-33.3-106.8) ↩ ↩
11. Utah Code § 57-8a-802; § 57-8-8.2 (no stated approval deadline or deemed approval) ↩ ↩
12. Utah Code § 57-8-8.2(4)-(5); Utah Code § 57-8a-802(3)-(4) ↩ ↩
13. Utah Code Title 57, Chapter 8 (Condominium Ownership Act, general provisions) ↩ ↩ ↩
14. Utah Code § 57-8a-228 (governing document hierarchy; Community Association Act governs over Nonprofit Act) ↩
15. Utah Revised Nonprofit Corporation Act, Title 16, Chapter 6a ↩
16. Alternative Fuels Data Center, Utah Electricity Laws and Incentives (EV charging service provider not a public utility unless otherwise subject to PSC jurisdiction) ↩
17. H.B. 189 (2022), Electric Vehicle Charging Modifications (did not pass; last location "House file for bills not passed") ↩
18. S.B. 191 (2023), Condominium and Community Association Amendments, Chapter 503 ↩
19. Utah Code § 57-8a-802 (current version amended by Chapter 503, 2023 General Session) ↩
20. Utah State Courts (District Courts, Court of Appeals, Supreme Court structure) ↩
21. Utah Department of Commerce, Office of the Homeowners' Association Ombudsman launch (Sept. 8, 2025; created by H.B. 217, 2025) ↩