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State requirements · Utah

What Utah requires of an association reserve analysis.

This page describes two sections of the Utah Code and nothing else: Utah Code 57-8a-211 for community associations and Utah Code 57-8-7.5 for condominiums. Where the sections are silent, this page says they are silent rather than filling the gap.

A reserve analysis every 6 years, reviewed and updated every 3 years, with 5 required content elements, and no credential required of whoever prepares it.

Both sections took effect 2021-05-05. The cadence can be varied, but not by the same instrument in both statutes; see applicability below.

Source of record: Utah Code 57-8a-211 (Community Association Act) and 57-8-7.5 (Condominium Ownership Act), both effective 5/5/2021.

What the sections require

9 stated requirements.

Each row carries the subsection it comes from. The two statutes run in parallel, so a requirement below applies to community associations under Utah Code 57-8a-211 and to condominiums under Utah Code 57-8-7.5.

Reserve analysis cycle

Every 6 years

A reserve analysis must be conducted no less frequently than every six years, except as otherwise provided in the governing documents (community associations) or the declaration (condominiums).

UT-01 · Utah Code 57-8a-211(2)(a); 57-8-7.5(2)(a)

Reserve analysis review and update cycle

Every 3 years

A previously conducted reserve analysis must be reviewed and, if necessary, updated no less frequently than every three years, subject to the same variance as the analysis cycle.

UT-02 · Utah Code 57-8a-211(2)(b); 57-8-7.5(2)(b)

Reserve analysis preparer

The board (or management committee) may conduct the reserve analysis itself, or engage a reliable person or organization as determined by the board. Utah imposes no credential requirement on the preparer.

UT-03 · Utah Code 57-8a-211(3); 57-8-7.5(3)

Required content elements

5 required elements

A reserve fund analysis must include five elements: the component list, each component's probable remaining useful life, the cost to repair or replace each, the total annual contribution needed, and a funding plan.

UT-04 · Utah Code 57-8a-211(4), (1)(c); 57-8-7.5(4), (1)(c)

Owner disclosure

The association must annually provide owners a summary of the most recent reserve analysis or update, and provide a complete copy to any owner who requests one.

UT-05 · Utah Code 57-8a-211(5); 57-8-7.5(5)

Reserve fund line item in the budget

The annual budget must include a reserve fund line item, in an amount the board determines prudent based on the reserve analysis, or a higher amount if the governing documents (or, for condominiums, the declaration) require one.

UT-06 · Utah Code 57-8a-211(6); 57-8-7.5(6)

Owner veto of the reserve fund line item

51% within 45 days

Within 45 days after the association adopts its annual budget, owners may veto the reserve fund line item by a 51% vote of allocated voting interests at a special meeting called for that purpose.

UT-07 · Utah Code 57-8a-211(7); 57-8-7.5(7)

Owner enforcement action

90 days' notice · $500 or actual damages

Where an association fails to comply with the disclosure, budget or veto requirements and does not remedy it within the notice period, an owner may sue for injunctive relief, the greater of $500 or actual damages, other remedies at law, and costs and attorney fees. At least 90 days' written notice is a precondition.

UT-08 · Utah Code 57-8a-211(8); 57-8-7.5(8)

Reserve fund segregation

The board must maintain the reserve fund separate from other association funds.

UT-09 · Utah Code 57-8a-211(9)(c); 57-8-7.5(9)(c)

What the sections do not state

The gaps a board should not have filled for it.

These are absences within the two cited sections. They are not claims about Utah law as a whole, and they are not advice about what an association ought to do.

  • No credential, licence, or designation is required of whoever prepares the analysis.

    UT-03 records this directly: the sections impose no credential requirement on the preparer.

  • The board or management committee may conduct the reserve analysis itself.

    UT-03: the board may conduct it, or engage a reliable person or organization as the board determines.

  • Neither section states a site-visit or physical-inspection requirement.

    An absence. Nothing in the encoded content elements or component scope refers to one, and a gate fails if that changes.

  • Neither section sets the amount the association must contribute to reserves.

    UT-06: the amount is what the board determines is prudent based on the reserve analysis, or more where the governing documents or declaration require it.

  • Neither section requires that the association be fully funded, or grades a funding level.

    An absence. The sections require a funding plan and a budget line item; they state no funded-percentage target and no grade.

  • Neither section conditions the analysis on lender, agency, or financing approval.

    An absence. Financing criteria come from a separate ruleset and are not Utah law.

Applicability

Community associations and condominiums differ in one place.

Community Association Act

Utah Code 57-8a-211

The cadence may be varied by the governing documents.

Condominium Ownership Act

Utah Code 57-8-7.5

The cadence may be varied by the declaration.

Subsection (2) opens 'Except as otherwise provided in the...'. The two statutes differ on WHAT may vary it: 57-8a-211 says governing documents, 57-8-7.5 says the declaration only. A condominium cannot vary this by bylaw or rule.

Study contents

The 5 elements the analysis must contain.

  1. 01a list of the components identified in the reserve analysis that will reasonably require reserve funds
  2. 02a statement of the probable remaining useful life, as of the date of the reserve analysis, of each component identified in the reserve analysis
  3. 03an estimate of the cost to repair, replace, or restore each component identified in the reserve analysis
  4. 04an estimate of the total annual contribution to a reserve fund necessary (i) to meet the cost to repair, replace, or restore each component identified in the reserve analysis during the component's useful life and at the end of the component's useful life, and (ii) to prepare for a shortfall in the general budget that the association or board may use reserve funds to cover
  5. 05a reserve funding plan that recommends how the association may fund the annual contribution described in Subsection (4)(d)

Utah Code 57-8a-211(4), (1)(c); 57-8-7.5(4), (1)(c)

Which components count

The definition sets bounds on the components a reserve analysis funds, and conditions the whole definition on a qualifier that is easy to drop.

Useful life
3 years or more
Remaining useful life
Less than 30 years

Both bounds apply only ...if the cost cannot reasonably be funded from the general budget or other funds of the association. The bounds on their own are broader than the statute.

Reserve funds also cover A shortfall in the general budget, but only where a statewide state of emergency declared under Section 53-2a-206 is in effect AND more than 10% of non-board owners are delinquent in assessments as a result of the events giving rise to it.

Financing is a separate question

Lender and agency criteria are not Utah law.

An association can meet everything on this page and still fail a lender or agency test, and the reverse is also true. Those criteria come from a separate rule set with its own effective dates and its own thresholds, none of which appear on this page, because a number printed beside a Utah citation gets remembered as Utah law.

The complimentary Standing Check evaluates those financing criteria directly and shows the basis for each result. It is a separate assessment from the Utah requirements above.

Check the study you already have

This page is published information, not legal advice, and it does not state whether any particular association complies. Published state content and professional-service availability are separate questions: Ballast accepts professional reserve-study work nationwide except Nevada, and a state with no published page here is served exactly like a state with one; the state-law finding simply stays not determined. Availability is set out on the state requirements page.