Utah Condo Board Roles & Responsibilities
What each board position actually does, how many people you need, and how to keep a volunteer board functioning as members rotate out year after year — including where board composition is actually set by state law versus your own bylaws.
Utah at a Glance
Most HOA boards have three to five members, elected by the membership for terms set in the bylaws — often one to two years, frequently staggered so the entire board doesn't turn over at once. Your specific bylaws define much of the exact structure, but in some states, part of that structure — minimum board size, owner-eligibility, or officer requirements — is actually set by statute, not left to the association to decide.
⚠ Common mistake: Assuming your bylaws alone decide how big the board is. In Utah, the minimum board size is set by a law written specifically for condominium associations.
The Dillo-DownIn everyday terms…
Utah's condo law covers any association whose declaration or plats say it's a condominium, no matter when it was created, and it overrides nonprofit law where the two conflict.
President
Runs board meetings, is usually the primary point of contact with homeowners and outside parties (attorneys, vendors, the county), and typically has authority to sign on the association's behalf for routine matters. The president does not unilaterally make board decisions — actions still require a board vote — but does set the agenda and keep meetings moving.
Secretary
Keeps official records: meeting minutes, the membership roll, and official correspondence. In a self-managed HOA, the secretary is often the person who ends up being the institutional memory of the association — the one who can answer "wait, when did we actually vote on that?" This role matters more than it sounds like it should, because undocumented decisions are one of the most common sources of later disputes.
Treasurer
Handles dues collection, financial reporting, and the annual budget process. Many associations require some form of annual budget, and increasingly a reserve study projecting future major expenses. The treasurer role is also the one most commonly outsourced even in an otherwise self-managed association — hiring an accountant or bookkeeper for the mechanics while the treasurer sets policy and reviews the numbers is common and often worth the cost.
Utah — Officer RequirementsHOA/condo statute
Once the developer's administrative control ends, the board elects the officers unless the declaration lets the lot owners elect them. If the association is incorporated as a nonprofit, officers must be natural persons 18 or older, and one person may hold more than one office.
Minimum board size and who can serve
Whether your association has a statutory floor on board size, and whether some or all of the directors must be owners, depends on your state. Where a rule exists, it usually comes from one of two places: a law written specifically for homeowners or condominium associations, or general nonprofit corporation law, which applies only because the association is incorporated as a nonprofit. The badge on each rule below shows which one applies in Utah.
Utah — Minimum Board SizeHOA/condo statute
Once the developer's administrative control ends, the lot owners must elect a board with an odd number of members, at least 3.
Utah — Owner/Member RequirementHOA/condo statute
Management committee members do not have to be unit owners or Utah residents unless the bylaws require it.
Utah — Other Eligibility Rules
Management committee members must be natural persons 18 or older. The bylaws may add qualifications, and the association may disqualify anyone convicted of a felony or who is a sex offender.
The Dillo-DownPsst… here's what this actually means…
Board members must be at least 18, and your association can bar anyone convicted of a felony or who is a sex offender. They don't have to be owners unless the bylaws say so.
Term limits
Some states cap how long a single director term can run. A cap on one term is different from a limit on how many terms in a row someone can serve: a term cap alone doesn't stop a director from being re-elected. That takes a separate consecutive-term limit. Check both rows in the reference below for Utah.
Utah — Term LimitsBylaws/documents
The Condominium Ownership Act does not set a maximum term. If the association is incorporated as a nonprofit and the bylaws set no term, a director's term is one year.
Conflict-of-interest disclosure
If a board member stands to personally benefit from a contract or decision the board is voting on, several states require a specific disclosure process before that vote can happen — not just a general "act in good faith" expectation. Some states wrote this rule directly into their HOA or condominium statute; others expressly import the state's general nonprofit corporation conflict-of-interest rules instead of creating a separate one.
Utah — Conflict-of-Interest RuleGeneral corporate law
The Condominium Ownership Act has no separate director conflict rule. If the association is incorporated as a nonprofit, a transaction with a director, a related party, or an entity in which a director has an interest is protected if the material facts are disclosed to or known by the board and a majority of the disinterested directors approve it in good faith (even if fewer than a quorum), if the voting members approve it after disclosure, or if it is fair to the association. The association may not lend money to a director, an officer, or a related person or entity.
In Plain DilloIn everyday terms…
If your association is incorporated, it can't lend money to a director or officer, and a deal in which a director has a personal stake should be approved by the directors who don't have one.
⚠ Common mistake: Treating a conflict of interest casually because "everyone already knows" a board member has a stake in a vendor contract. In states with a statutory disclosure requirement, informal awareness isn't the same as a documented disclosure — skipping the formal step can make the contract itself challengeable later, regardless of whether the board's decision was actually reasonable.
Additional roles on larger boards
Associations with five or more board members sometimes add a vice president (covers for the president, sometimes chairs a specific committee like ARC) and an at-large member with no fixed portfolio, available to take on whatever the board needs — chairing a violations committee, leading a specific project, or simply providing another vote and perspective.
Can one person hold two roles?
It depends mostly on your bylaws, and in some states on the statute itself. Very small associations sometimes explicitly allow combining roles out of necessity. Others prohibit certain combinations — most commonly, keeping treasurer separate from any role with check-signing authority, as a basic financial control. Check your specific bylaws, and the state reference below, before assuming either way.
The real challenge: surviving turnover
The hardest part of running a self-managed board usually isn't any single role — it's what happens when the person who understood how everything worked rotates off the board and nobody wrote it down. A self-managed HOA has no institutional memory beyond what the current board happens to remember or document. The associations that handle this well share one habit: they write things down as they happen, not from memory afterward — meeting minutes the same day, a violation logged when it's observed, a decision recorded the moment it's made.
State-by-State Quick Reference
Select your state below for its actual board-composition rules. Every field is tagged with where the rule comes from — a statute written for HOAs or condominiums, general nonprofit corporate law that happens to apply, or your own governing documents — because those aren't the same thing, even when the resulting number looks identical.
| Scope / governing statute | Utah's Condominium Ownership Act (Utah Code Title 57, Chapter 8) applies to an association whose declaration says it applies or, if the declaration is silent, whose plats are designated as condominium plats, regardless of when the association was created. It sets eligibility rules for the management committee (the board) and lets the bylaws set its size and how members are selected. The association may be organized as a nonprofit corporation under the Utah Revised Nonprofit Corporation Act; where the two conflict, the Condominium Ownership Act controls. |
| Minimum board size HOA/condo statute | Once the developer's administrative control ends, the lot owners must elect a board with an odd number of members, at least 3. |
| Owner/member requirement HOA/condo statute | Management committee members do not have to be unit owners or Utah residents unless the bylaws require it. |
| Other eligibility rules | Management committee members must be natural persons 18 or older. The bylaws may add qualifications, and the association may disqualify anyone convicted of a felony or who is a sex offender. |
| Officer requirements HOA/condo statute | Once the developer's administrative control ends, the board elects the officers unless the declaration lets the lot owners elect them. If the association is incorporated as a nonprofit, officers must be natural persons 18 or older, and one person may hold more than one office. |
| Max individual term Bylaws/documents | The Condominium Ownership Act does not set a maximum term. If the association is incorporated as a nonprofit and the bylaws set no term, a director's term is one year. |
| Consecutive-term limit | If the association is incorporated as a nonprofit, directors may be elected for successive terms unless the bylaws say otherwise. |
| Conflict-of-interest disclosure General corporate law | The Condominium Ownership Act has no separate director conflict rule. If the association is incorporated as a nonprofit, a transaction with a director, a related party, or an entity in which a director has an interest is protected if the material facts are disclosed to or known by the board and a majority of the disinterested directors approve it in good faith (even if fewer than a quorum), if the voting members approve it after disclosure, or if it is fair to the association. The association may not lend money to a director, an officer, or a related person or entity. |
| Citation | Utah Code §§ 57-8-2; 57-8-16; 57-8-40; 57-8-59; Title 16, Chapter 6a |
Read the law
What Utah's law actually says about board composition, in its own words, with links to the full text where available:
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Utah Code § 57-8-2
- Governing Statute / Scope: “if the association's declaration does not state whether this chapter applies, the plats of the association are designated as condominium plats.”
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Utah Code § 57-8-16
- Governing Statute / Scope: “the establishment of a management committee, the number of persons constituting the committee and the method of selecting the members of the committee”
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Utah Code § 57-8-40(5)(a)
- Governing Statute / Scope: “this chapter controls over a conflicting provision found in any of the sources listed in Subsections (5)(b) through (f)”
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Utah Code § 57-8a-502(4)(a)
- Minimum Board Size: “the lot owners shall elect a board consisting of an odd number of at least three members, a majority of whom shall be lot owners.”
- Required Officer Positions: “Unless the declaration provides for the election of officers by the lot owners, the board shall elect officers of the association.”
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Utah Code § 57-8-59(4)
- Owner/Member Eligibility Requirement: “A member of the management committee need not be a resident of this state or a lot owner in the association unless required by the association's bylaws.”
- Additional Eligibility Rules: “A member of the management committee shall be: (a) a natural person; and (b) 18 years old or older.”
- Additional Eligibility Rules: “disqualify an individual from serving as a member of the management committee because the individual: (a) has been convicted of a felony; or (b) is a sex offender.”
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Utah Code § 16-6a-818
- Required Officer Positions: “An officer shall be: (i) a natural person; and (ii) 18 years of age or older.”
- Required Officer Positions: “The same individual may simultaneously hold more than one office in a nonprofit corporation.”
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Utah Code § 16-6a-805
- Maximum Individual Term: “In the absence of any term specified in the bylaws, the term of each director shall be one year.”
- Consecutive Term Limit: “Unless otherwise provided in the bylaws, directors may be elected for successive terms.”
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Utah Code § 16-6a-825(4)(b)(i)
- Conflict of Interest Rule: “the board of directors or committee in good faith authorizes, approves, or ratifies the conflicting interest transaction by the affirmative vote of a majority of the disinterested directors, even though the disinterested directors are less than a quorum”
- Conflict of Interest Rule: “the conflicting interest transaction is fair as to the nonprofit corporation.”
- Conflict of Interest Rule: “A loan may not be made directly or indirectly by a nonprofit corporation to: (i) a director or officer of the nonprofit corporation”
Making the transition easier
Formtabulous keeps your association's records — elections, violations, ARC requests, homeowner communication — in one place that survives board turnover, instead of scattered across whoever's personal inbox happened to handle it.
See how it works →Utah — Common Questions
This article is general information about how HOA boards typically operate and is not legal advice. The specific roles, terms, and requirements for your association are set by your bylaws and, in some states, statute — consult the governing documents and, where needed, a qualified attorney for your specific situation.