What did cross over

Most of the rest. H.B. 406 would have required the ombudsman's office to make advisory opinions public and publish educational materials; barred an association from requiring binding arbitration before a person obtains an advisory opinion; required unit-owner associations to adopt an annual budget; removed the requirement that a board member or president give a physical home address for registration; declared certain association documents to be the association's property; and allowed a declarant to sell part of the common areas during administrative control.

Every one of those is now law, carried by S.B. 122 and effective May 6, 2026.² The arbitration bar sits at § 13-79-104(4)(b): “An association of unit owners or an association of lot owners may not require that a person engage in binding arbitration before requesting an advisory opinion from the office.” The condominium budget requirement is the new § 57-8-7.6.

Why the vehicle mattered

S.B. 122 was sponsored by Sen. Wayne A. Harper with Rep. A. Cory Maloy as floor sponsor, was signed on March 17, 2026, and passed 25-0 with 4 absent in the Senate and 67-0 with 8 absent in the House. A bill with no recorded opposition in either chamber is a bill whose contested provisions were removed before the vote.

The $200 cap was the contested provision. Reinvestment fees got a cap in the same session — House Bill 306 set 0.5% of property value, or 0.25% for an association of detached single-family homes with no capital-intensive infrastructure, and required at least half of collections to go to reserves.³ The setup fee did not.

A provision that died inside a bill that passed

Senate Bill 196 of the same session shows the other way a proposal disappears. As introduced it reportedly barred an association from filing a lien until it had registered with the Department of Commerce; that provision was removed before passage, and the enacted text reaches only transfer-fee and reinvestment-fee covenant notices, which it writes into the Wrongful Lien Act's definition.⁴

It made little practical difference: § 57-8a-105(6) already provides that during noncompliance with registration “a lien may not arise under Section 57-8a-301” and the association “may not enforce an existing lien.” Our Utah collections and liens page covers that machinery.

Two other 2026 bills that died

House Bill 184, “Small Lots and Starter Homes Amendments,” would have created a fast-track approval route for smaller lots, starter homes and ADUs, with a request becoming a permitted use if a local government did not deny it within 45 days. A committee motion to recommend failed on February 18, 2026 and the enacting clause was struck on March 6. It was a zoning bill, not a covenant bill, but it is the closest the 2026 session came to a further ADU measure. Our Utah ADUs and modifications page sets out what the covenant rules actually are.

What to watch next

The $200 administrative setup fee cap is the obvious candidate for a 2027 bill: it was drafted, it was filed, and it did not pass on its merits so much as run out of session. The ombudsman's working group has fee structures on its list.