Utah HOA Short-Term Rentals

Quick-Reference Table

Last verified: July 17, 2026

Section 1: Overview — Can an HOA restrict short-term rentals in Utah?

A Utah condominium or community association may restrict or prohibit short-term rentals through its recorded declaration, but that authority operates within a specific state statute that requires the association to exempt several categories of owners and to grandfather owners who were already renting before the restriction took effect. Condominiums are governed by the Utah Condominium Ownership Act, Utah Code § 57-8-1 et seq., and planned communities are governed by the Utah Community Association Act, Utah Code § 57-8a-101 et seq.;¹³ both are Utah-specific statutes, and neither is based on the Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act. The controlling rental provisions, § 57-8-10.1 for condominiums and § 57-8a-209 for community associations, authorize an association to restrict the number and term of rentals or to prohibit rentals, while requiring mandatory exemptions (military deployment, close-family occupancy, certain employer relocations, and specified entity and estate-planning ownership) and grandfathering of pre-restriction rentals.¹² A separate and narrow state law limits local governments, not associations: § 10-8-85.4 and § 17-50-338 bar a city or county from punishing an owner based solely on advertising a short-term rental on a rental website, a rule that does not touch an association's authority under its declaration.³ Disputes proceed through the District Courts, with appeals to the Utah Court of Appeals and discretionary review by the Utah Supreme Court,¹² and the stakes are large in Utah's ski and national-park markets, where short-term rentals account for 23.3% of the housing stock in Summit County (Park City) and 19.3% in Grand County (Moab), and St. George ranked fourth-highest in the state with roughly 1,277 listed short-term rentals in 2023.¹⁴ The sections below detail the statutes, the grandfathering mechanics, the advertising limit, the tax layer, and enforcement.

Section 2: The legal framework for HOA short-term rental restrictions

2A. The two bespoke statutes

Utah governs its two common-interest community types under separate, home-grown statutes. Condominiums fall under the Utah Condominium Ownership Act, Utah Code § 57-8-1 et seq., which addresses unit ownership, common areas, management committees, assessments, fines, and rentals. Planned communities fall under the Utah Community Association Act, Utah Code § 57-8a-101 et seq., which addresses assessments, records, board governance, fining, liens, and rentals.¹³ Neither act is based on the Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act, and the two should not be conflated: the condominium provisions sit in Chapter 8 and the community-association provisions sit in Chapter 8a, often as near-parallel sections (for example, fines at § 57-8-37 and § 57-8a-208, and rentals at § 57-8-10.1 and § 57-8a-209).¹² Because each act supplies a detailed statutory framework, Utah is not a CC&R-primary state; the recorded declaration remains the central operative document, but it functions inside statutory guardrails that the declaration cannot override where the statute is mandatory. Utah also maintains an HOA registry administered by the Department of Commerce, under § 57-8-13.1 for condominiums and § 57-8a-105 for community associations.⁷ The registry is a registration and database requirement, not a substantive regulator: it collects association contact and governing-document information, and an association that lapses on registration cannot create or enforce an assessment lien until it cures the lapse.⁷ The source of an association's rental authority is its declaration, but that authority is exercised within the rental-restriction provisions described next.

2B. The statutory rental-restriction provisions, amendments, and grandfathering

The heart of Utah's approach is § 57-8a-209 (community associations) and § 57-8-10.1 (condominiums). Both provisions authorize an association to create restrictions on the "number and term" of rentals, or to prohibit rentals outright, and both require that any such restriction or prohibition be placed in the recorded declaration or adopted by amending the recorded declaration. A narrow rulemaking exception exists: an association may establish, by rule rather than by declaration amendment, a minimum lease term of six months or less.¹² The statutory definition of "rental" is broad and counts a unit or lot as a rental whenever it is occupied while no owner uses it as a primary residence, or whenever it is owned by an entity or trust.²

When an association restricts or prohibits rentals, the statute compels two owner protections. First, it must exempt several categories: an owner deployed in the military, a unit or lot occupied by the owner's parent, child, or sibling, an owner whose employer relocated the owner for two years or less, a unit or lot owned by an entity with an occupant holding voting rights and a 25% or greater ownership share, and a unit or lot held by an estate-planning trust for a current resident or that resident's close family. Second, the statute grandfathers any owner who had a rental before the restriction was recorded, allowing that owner to continue renting until the owner occupies the unit or lot or until the unit or lot transfers.¹² These protections are Utah's own; they are not a Florida-style or California-style shield.

Several exceptions narrow the mandatory-exemption regime. A declaration (or amendment) recorded before the first unit or lot transfers from the declarant may restrict rentals without the exemptions. The provisions do not apply to timeshare or time-period projects, and they do not apply to associations formed before May 12, 2009 unless, on or after May 12, 2015, the association adopts or amends a rental restriction. And an association may impose a restriction or prohibition without the exemptions if it obtains unanimous approval of all owners.¹² Adopting or strengthening a restriction is therefore an amendment exercise: the association follows the amendment threshold in its declaration, and Utah caps that threshold by barring an association from requiring more than a 67% vote to amend its governing documents (§ 57-8a-104 for community associations, § 57-8-39 for condominiums).⁴⁵ Where an association permits at least 35% of units or lots to be rented, it may charge a rental owner a fee of up to $200 once every 12 months for administrative expenses.²

2C. The advertising-based-enforcement limit, tax, and the local layer

Separate from association authority, Utah restricts local governments through § 10-8-85.4 (municipalities) and § 17-50-338 (counties), a pair of provisions commonly called the "Knotwell" rule after Representative John Knotwell, R-Herriman, chief sponsor of H.B. 253 in the 2017 General Session.³¹⁵ Those sections bar a city or county from enacting or enforcing an ordinance that prohibits an individual from listing a short-term rental on a rental website, and from using a rental-prohibition ordinance to fine, charge, prosecute, or otherwise punish an owner solely for the act of listing or offering a short-term rental online. The statutes define a short-term rental as a residential unit offered for occupancy for fewer than 30 consecutive days.³ The limit is narrow: it constrains only advertising-based enforcement by local governments. It does not bar local governments from regulating short-term rentals through zoning, licensing, and operational rules, and it has no effect whatsoever on a community association's authority under its declaration and the rental-restriction provisions.

The critical layering point follows from that distinction. Local regulation is heavy in Utah's resort markets. Park City requires a Nightly Rental License, limits nightly rentals to designated zones, and conditions the license on a building-department inspection and a responsible local party available 24 hours a day.⁶ That regime governs the owner-to-government relationship only. It neither grants nor removes association authority. An owner can satisfy every local rule, obtain a nightly rental license, and pay the applicable transient room tax, yet still violate a declaration that prohibits rentals shorter than the declared minimum; conversely, an association that permits short-term rentals does not exempt an owner from local licensing or tax duties.

On tax, Utah treats lodging of fewer than 30 consecutive days as taxable. The charge is subject to the state and local sales tax (the state base rate is 4.85%) plus transient room taxes under Title 59, Chapter 12: a county transient room tax (raised to a maximum of 4.5% by 2025 legislation), a municipal transient room tax of up to 1%, an additional municipal transient room tax of up to 0.5% for qualifying cities, and resort-community levies where applicable. Stays of 30 consecutive days or longer are exempt.⁸¹⁶ The Utah State Tax Commission administers these taxes; operators register with the Commission and remit, even where a platform collects on their behalf.⁸

Section 3: Operational mechanics and enforcement

A. Adopting a valid restriction (the tools)

The most common and most defensible tool is a minimum-lease-term restriction, which is expressly contemplated by the rental provisions. An association may adopt a minimum lease term of six months or less by rule, but a longer minimum (for example, a 6-month or 12-month floor designed to bar nightly rentals) must be placed in the recorded declaration or an amendment under § 57-8-10.1 (condominiums) or § 57-8a-209 (community associations).¹² A rental cap, which limits the number or percentage of units or lots that may be rented, is likewise permitted as a restriction on the "number" of rentals, but it must run through the declaration and must honor the mandatory exemptions and the grandfathering of owners renting before the cap.¹² Utah also limits the internal paperwork an association may demand: an association generally may not require an owner to obtain approval of a prospective renter, hand over a rental application, credit report, background check, or age verification, or use an association lease form, though it may require a lease addendum, may require a rental owner to designate a primary contact, and may collect the up-to-$200 annual administrative fee where at least 35% of units or lots may be rented.² Neither act permits an association to prohibit the rental of a qualifying internal accessory dwelling unit.¹²

B. Enforcement and the appellate path

Before fining for a rental violation, an association must follow the statutory fining process. Under § 57-8a-208 (community associations) and § 57-8-37 (condominiums), the board must first give the owner a written warning that identifies the violation and the governing-document provision breached and, for a continuing violation, allows at least 48 hours to cure. After a fine is assessed, the owner may request an informal hearing before the board or management committee within 30 days, and no interest or late fees accrue while a timely-requested hearing is pending.⁹¹⁰ An owner may then appeal by filing a civil action within 180 days of the final decision (or of the expiration of the time to request a hearing). These procedures apply regardless of when the association was created and cannot be circumvented by the declaration. For condominiums, fines are capped at $500 per month for the same violation; for community associations, the amount is set by the governing documents.⁹¹⁰

The remedies are fines where authorized, injunctive relief to stop a prohibited rental, and the assessment lien. A properly imposed and unappealed fine (or one upheld on appeal) becomes a lien on the unit or lot under § 57-8-44 (condominiums) and § 57-8a-301 (community associations), collectible like an unpaid assessment.¹¹ A contested rental-restriction dispute is a civil action filed in the District Court, with appeal to the Utah Court of Appeals and discretionary review by the Utah Supreme Court.¹² Association enforcement runs on a separate track from local-government enforcement: a city or county pursues its own zoning and licensing violations subject to the advertising-based-enforcement limit, while an association enforces its declaration, and an owner can face both at once.

Section 4: Recent legislative and judicial activity

A. Recent bills

B. Recent rulings

No published decision of the Utah Court of Appeals or the Utah Supreme Court in the past 36 months squarely addresses an association's authority to adopt or enforce short-term rental restrictions under § 57-8-10.1 or § 57-8a-209. The most recent controlling Utah authority on restrictive-covenant enforceability remains the Utah Supreme Court's decision in WDIS, LLC v. Hi-Country Estates Homeowners Ass'n, Phase II, 2022 UT 33, 515 P.3d 432, which held that restrictive covenants recorded without the affected landowner's signature are "voidable, not absolutely void, and they are therefore ratifiable."²⁰ Because it falls outside the 36-month window and does not concern rentals specifically, it is noted here only as context.

C. Active legislative or local debates

Summit County (Park City area) and municipalities including Salt Lake City continued through 2025 to expand short-term rental enforcement tools, including monitoring software, within the limits of the advertising-based-enforcement statute as modified by H.B. 256; Kamas has weighed formalizing a short-term rental prohibition.¹⁷

Section 5: National positioning and related coverage

Utah sits apart from both the CC&R-primary states and the UCIOA states. It has two separate, home-grown statutes, the Condominium Ownership Act and the Community Association Act, and it is one of the states that addresses HOA rental restrictions directly by statute, including mandatory exemptions and grandfathering of pre-restriction owners. That statutory treatment of association rental authority places Utah closer to California and Arizona on the HOA-authority question than to states that leave the issue entirely to recorded covenants, even though Utah's own short-term rental state law focuses narrowly on advertising-based enforcement by local governments. The advertising limit, the local licensing regimes in markets like Park City, and the transient room tax all restrain local governments and owners, not associations, which retain their declaration-based authority within the statutory guardrails. For a multi-state operator entering Utah, the practical takeaways are a statutory rental-restriction framework with built-in grandfathering, a mandatory HOA registry whose lapse can defeat lien enforcement, and very large ski and national-park rental markets where local rules and association rules must both be cleared.

HOA Weekly updates its Utah Short-Term Rentals coverage quarterly as the Legislature, the Utah Court of Appeals and the Utah Supreme Court, and local governments act. Federal frameworks, including the FHA, ADA, FDCPA, SCRA, and the OTARD rule, also apply to Utah associations regardless of the state framework.

1. Utah Code § 57-8-10.1 (Rental restrictions), Utah Condominium Ownership Act ↩
2. Utah Code § 57-8a-209 (Rental restrictions), Utah Community Association Act ↩
3. Utah Code § 10-8-85.4 (Ordinances regarding short-term rentals) and § 17-50-338 ↩
4. Utah Code § 57-8-39 (Limitation on requirements for amending governing documents) ↩
5. Utah Code § 57-8a-104 (Limitation on requirements for amending governing documents) ↩
6. Park City Municipal Code § 4-5-3 (Regulation of Nightly Rentals) ↩
7. Utah Department of Commerce, HOA Registry (Utah Code § 57-8-13.1 and § 57-8a-105) ↩
8. Utah State Tax Commission, Transient Room Taxes (Utah Code Title 59, Chapter 12) ↩
9. Utah Code § 57-8-37 (Fines) and § 57-8-44 (Lien in favor of association of unit owners) ↩
10. Utah Code § 57-8a-208 (Fines) ↩
11. Utah Code § 57-8a-301 (Lien in favor of association for assessments and costs of collection) ↩
12. Utah Courts, Opinions of the Utah Supreme Court and Utah Court of Appeals ↩
13. Utah Code Title 57, Chapter 8 (Condominium Ownership Act) and Chapter 8a (Community Association Act) ↩
14. Utah Land Use Institute, Short-Term Rentals Topical Series (2023) (Summit County 23.3%; Grand County 19.3%); Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute estimate for St. George (2023) ↩
15. Utah Legislature, H.B. 253 (2017 General Session), Short-term Rental Amendments (Chief Sponsor Rep. John Knotwell) ↩
16. Utah State Tax Commission, Tax Bulletin 13-25, Transient Room Tax Rate Changes (Effective Oct. 1, 2025) ↩
17. Utah Legislature, H.B. 256 (2025 General Session), Municipal and County Zoning Amendments ↩
18. Utah Legislature, H.B. 217 (2025 General Session), Homeowners' Association Amendments ↩
19. Utah Legislature, H.B. 456 (2025 General Session), Transient Room Tax Amendments ↩
20. WDIS, LLC v. Hi-Country Estates Homeowners Ass'n, Phase II, 2022 UT 33, 515 P.3d 432 (Utah 2022) ↩