Utah HOA Rental Bans Are Legal, With Five Mandatory Exemptions and a $200 Fee Cap

Section 57-8a-209 was last amended by Laws of Utah 2026, chapter 62, and it is unusually long because Utah chose to preserve the association's power and then regulate how it is used. Subsection (1)(a) is the grant: subject to Subsections (1)(b), (5), (6) and (10), an association may create restrictions on the number and term of rentals, or prohibit rentals in the association. There is no statutory cap percentage in Utah. An association may set the number at 20%, at 10%, or at zero.

The instrument matters. Subsection (1)(b) requires the restriction or prohibition to be created in a recorded declaration of covenants, conditions and restrictions, or by amending that recorded declaration. A board resolution or a rule cannot do it. The single exception is Subsection (1)(c), which lets an association establish by rule a minimum lease term of six months or less, the provision most Utah associations use against short-term rentals. Because the restriction has to be an amendment, § 57-8a-104 supplies the vote arithmetic: after the period of administrative control the governing documents may not require the approval of more than 67% of the voting interests, may not require any specific owner's approval, and under § 57-8a-104(1)(a)(ii) an amendment may be adopted by a majority vote at a meeting where at least 51% of the voting interests are present unless the declaration demands more. Section 57-8a-104(1)(a)(iv) states flatly that the board may not amend the declaration.

Subsection (2)(a) lists the five exemptions that must be carved out of any prohibition, restriction, or rental fee. They are a lot owner in the military for the period of deployment; a lot occupied by the owner's parent, child, or sibling; an owner whose employer has relocated the owner for two years or less; a lot owned by an entity and occupied by an individual who both holds voting rights under the entity's organizing documents and has a 25% or greater share of ownership, control, and right to profits and losses; and a lot owned by a trust or other estate planning entity created for the estate of a current resident of the lot or for that resident's parent, child, or sibling.

Grandfathering is in Subsection (2)(b). An owner who has a rental in the association before the restriction becomes effective may continue renting, and without the fee described in Subsection (9)(c), until one of three things happens: the owner occupies the lot, an officer, owner, member, trustee, beneficiary, director or similar controlling person of an entity or trust holding the lot occupies it, or the lot is transferred. Subsection (3) defines transfer precisely, and the third branch is the one investors miss: a conveyance by deed, the granting of a life estate, or, if a business entity owns the lot, the sale or transfer of more than 75% of the entity's shares, stock, membership interests or partnership interests within a 12-month period. Restructuring an LLC past that threshold ends the grandfathered status.

Three escape hatches favor associations. Subsection (5) permits a declaration or amendment recorded before the first lot transfers from the initial declarant to prohibit or restrict rentals without any of the Subsection (2) exemptions or procedures, which is why a brand new Utah subdivision can be built rental-free. Subsection (6)(a) exempts timeshare associations and any association formed before May 12, 2009, unless on or after May 12, 2015 that association adopts a rental restriction or amends an existing one, and Subsection (6)(b) relieves an association that acted before May 9, 2017 of the entity-owner exemption in (2)(a)(iv). Subsection (7) allows a restriction or prohibition with no exceptions at all if it receives unanimous approval by all lot owners and the association meets every other amendment requirement in its governing documents.

Subsection (8) is where a Utah landlord's rights are strongest, and Subsection (11) makes Subsections (8) through (10) apply regardless of when the association was created. Except as Subsection (9) provides, an association may not require a rental lot owner to obtain approval of a prospective renter, to hand over a rental application, a credit report or credit information, a background check, or age verification documents, to pay an additional assessment, fine or fee because the lot is a rental, to use the association's lease form, or to get the association's approval of a lease. Subsection (9) narrows those protections in two places: the documents must be produced under a court order or in discovery under the Utah Rules of Civil Procedure, and an association whose declaration lawfully restricts occupancy by a class of individuals may demand them to verify compliance. Subsection (9)(d) does let the association require the owner and the tenant to sign an association-provided addendum to the lease, which is different from requiring the association's lease.

The rental fee is capped and conditioned. Under Subsection (9)(c), an association that permits at least 35% of its lots to be rental lots may charge a rental lot owner up to $200 once every 12 months to defray administrative expenses directly related to the rental. Before charging it the board must give every lot owner 15 days notice of a board meeting, hold that meeting to discuss and take public comment on the new expenses and the circumstances requiring the fee, and approve it by majority vote. Within 30 days after imposing the fee the association must send each affected owner a notice describing both. Subsection (10) then removes one category of housing from the association's reach entirely: an association may not restrict or prohibit the rental of an internal accessory dwelling unit as defined in Utah Code § 10-21-101 or § 17-80-101 that complies with applicable land use ordinances, building codes, health codes and fire codes. Section 57-8a-209(4) preserves age requirements for associations complying with the federal Housing for Older Persons Act, 42 U.S.C. § 3607. Condominium owners are governed by the parallel section at Utah Code § 57-8-10.1.

The clearest remedy Utah wrote into this section is a fee waiver. Under Subsection (13), an owner may contest a Subsection (9)(c) rental fee by giving the association a written request to waive it if the association failed to send the Subsection (12) notice within 30 days of imposing the fee, or if the notice it sent lacked the required description of the new administrative expenses and the circumstances requiring the fee. If either defect is present the association shall waive the fee. That is mandatory language, not discretionary.

Everything else runs through general enforcement. Section 57-8a-212.5 permits an aggrieved lot owner to bring an action for damages, injunctive relief, or both when the association fails to comply reasonably with the governing documents and applicable law, and § 57-8a-103(1) confirms remedies at law and in equity stack. A restriction adopted by rule rather than by recorded declaration is defective on the face of Subsection (1)(b), and a restriction that omits the five Subsection (2)(a) exemptions is defective on the face of that subsection.

If the association fines an owner for renting, § 57-8a-208 controls the process: a written warning identifying the violated provision, at least 48 hours to cure a continuing violation, an informal hearing before the board on request within 30 days, no interest or late fees while that request is pending, and 180 days to file a civil action. Note also § 57-8a-105(6), which suspends an association's assessment lien rights during any period it is out of compliance with its Department of Commerce registration.

Before litigating, an owner may request a written advisory opinion from the Office of the Homeowners' Association Ombudsman under Utah Code § 13-79-104 for a $150 filing fee, within one year of when the owner knew or should have known of the act, after exhausting the dispute procedures in the governing documents. The opinion is not binding, but if the same issue is later litigated and the court agrees with it, § 13-79-104(10) allows an award of attorney fees and costs from the date of the opinion plus a civil penalty of up to $5,000 for a knowing and intentional violation.