Rep. Norm Thurston — Voting Record

Bill

Number

H.B. 255 First Substitute (2016GS)

Sponsor

Rep. Schultz, M.

Final action

Governor Signed 3/23/2016

Outcome

Became law — signed by Gov. Gary R. Herbert

Summary

What it does

• This bill:
• defines terms; and
• provides that an unconstructed unit is allocated:
• the unconstructed unit's share of undivided interest in common areas and facilities; and
• voting rights.

Every vote on this bill

Bill text

This document includes House Committee Amendments incorporated into the bill on Fri, Feb 12, 2016 at 11:58 AM by cynthiahopkin.
CONDOMINIUM OWNERSHIP ACT AMENDMENTS
GENERAL SESSION
STATE OF UTAH
Chief Sponsor: Mike Schultz
Senate Sponsor: 
 J. Stuart Adams
LONG TITLE
General Description:
This bill amends provisions related to condominium common expenses.
Highlighted Provisions:
This bill:
▸ defines terms; and
▸ provides that an unconstructed unit is allocated:
• the unconstructed unit's share of undivided interest in common areas and
facilities; and
• voting rights.
Money Appropriated in this Bill:
None
Other Special Clauses:
None
Utah Code Sections Affected:
AMENDS:
57-8-3
, as last amended by Laws of Utah 2015, Chapters 22, 34, 213, 325, and 387
57-8-24
, as last amended by Laws of Utah 1975, Chapter 173
Be it enacted by the Legislature of the state of Utah:
Section 1. Section 
57-8-3
 is amended to read:
57-8-3.
Definitions.
As used in this chapter:
(1) "Assessment" means any charge imposed by the association, including:
(a) common expenses on or against a unit owner pursuant to the provisions of the
declaration, bylaws, or this chapter; and
(b) an amount that an association of unit owners assesses to a unit owner under
Subsection 
57-8-43
(9)(g).
(2) "Association of unit owners" 
or "association"
 means all of the unit owners:
(a) acting as a group in accordance with the declaration and bylaws; or
(b) organized as a legal entity in accordance with the declaration.
(3) "Building" means a building, containing units, and comprising a part of the
property.
(4) "Commercial condominium project" means a condominium project that has no
residential units within the project.
(5) "Common areas and facilities" unless otherwise provided in the declaration or
lawful amendments to the declaration means:
(a) the land included within the condominium project, whether leasehold or in fee
simple;
(b) the foundations, columns, girders, beams, supports, main walls, roofs, halls,
corridors, lobbies, stairs, stairways, fire escapes, entrances, and exits of the building;
(c) the basements, yards, gardens, parking areas, and storage spaces;
(d) the premises for lodging of janitors or persons in charge of the property;
(e) installations of central services such as power, light, gas, hot and cold water,
heating, refrigeration, air conditioning, and incinerating;
(f) the elevators, tanks, pumps, motors, fans, compressors, ducts, and in general all
apparatus and installations existing for common use;
(g) such community and commercial facilities as may be provided for in the
declaration; and
(h) all other parts of the property necessary or convenient to its existence, maintenance,
and safety, or normally in common use.
(6) "Common expenses" means:
(a) all sums lawfully assessed against the unit owners;
(b) expenses of administration, maintenance, repair, or replacement of the common
areas and facilities;
(c) expenses agreed upon as common expenses by the association of unit owners; and
(d) expenses declared common expenses by this chapter, or by the declaration or the
bylaws.
(7) "Common profits," unless otherwise provided in the declaration or lawful
amendments to the declaration, means the balance of all income, rents, profits, and revenues
from the common areas and facilities remaining after the deduction of the common expenses.
(8) "Condominium" means the ownership of a single unit in a multiunit project
together with an undivided interest in common in the common areas and facilities of the
property.
(9) "Condominium plat" means a plat or plats of survey of land and units prepared in
accordance with Section 
57-8-13
.
(10) "Condominium project" means a real estate condominium project; a plan or
project whereby two or more units, whether contained in existing or proposed apartments,
commercial or industrial buildings or structures, or otherwise, are separately offered or
proposed to be offered for sale. Condominium project also means the property when the
context so requires.
(11) "Condominium unit" means a unit together with the undivided interest in the
common areas and facilities appertaining to that unit. Any reference in this chapter to a
condominium unit includes both a physical unit together with its appurtenant undivided interest
in the common areas and facilities and a time period unit together with its appurtenant
undivided interest, unless the reference is specifically limited to a time period unit.
(12) "Contractible condominium" means a condominium project from which one or
more portions of the land within the project may be withdrawn in accordance with provisions
of the declaration and of this chapter. If the withdrawal can occur only by the expiration or
termination of one or more leases, then the condominium project is not a contractible
condominium within the meaning of this chapter.
(13) "Convertible land" means a building site which is a portion of the common areas
and facilities, described by metes and bounds, within which additional units or limited common
areas and facilities may be created in accordance with this chapter.
(14) "Convertible space" means a portion of the structure within the condominium
project, which portion may be converted into one or more units or common areas and facilities,
including limited common areas and facilities in accordance with this chapter.
(15) "Declarant" means all persons who execute the declaration or on whose behalf the
declaration is executed. From the time of the recordation of any amendment to the declaration
expanding an expandable condominium, all persons who execute that amendment or on whose
behalf that amendment is executed shall also come within this definition. Any successors of
the persons referred to in this subsection who come to stand in the same relation to the
condominium project as their predecessors also come within this definition.
(16) "Declaration" means the instrument by which the property is submitted to the
provisions of this act, as it from time to time may be lawfully amended.
(17) "Electrical corporation" means the same as that term is defined in Section 
54-2-1
.
(18) "Expandable condominium" means a condominium project to which additional
land or an interest in it may be added in accordance with the declaration and this chapter.
(19) "Gas corporation" means the same as that term is defined in Section 
54-2-1
.
(20) "Governing documents":
(a) means a written instrument by which an association of unit owners may:
(i) exercise powers; or
(ii) manage, maintain, or otherwise affect the property under the jurisdiction of the
association of unit owners; and
(b) includes:
(i) articles of incorporation;
(ii) bylaws;
(iii) a plat;
(iv) a declaration of covenants, conditions, and restrictions; and
(v) rules of the association of unit owners.
(21) "Independent third party" means a person that:
(a) is not related to the unit owner;
(b) shares no pecuniary interests with the unit owner; and
(c) purchases the unit in good faith and without the intent to defraud a current or future
lienholder.
(22) "Leasehold condominium" means a condominium project in all or any portion of
which each unit owner owns an estate for years in his unit, or in the land upon which that unit
is situated, or both, with all those leasehold interests to expire naturally at the same time. A
condominium project including leased land, or an interest in the land, upon which no units are
situated or to be situated is not a leasehold condominium within the meaning of this chapter.
(23) "Limited common areas and facilities" means those common areas and facilities
designated in the declaration as reserved for use of a certain unit or units to the exclusion of the
other units.
(24) "Majority" or "majority of the unit owners," unless otherwise provided in the
declaration or lawful amendments to the declaration, means the owners of more than 50% in
the aggregate in interest of the undivided ownership of the common areas and facilities.
(25) "Management committee" means the committee as provided in the declaration
charged with and having the responsibility and authority to make and to enforce all of the
reasonable rules covering the operation and maintenance of the property.
(26) (a) "Means of electronic communication" means an electronic system that allows
individuals to communicate orally in real time.
(b) "Means of electronic communication" includes:
(i) web conferencing;
(ii) video conferencing; and
(iii) telephone conferencing.
(27) "Meeting" means a gathering of a management committee, whether in person or
by means of electronic communication, at which the management committee can take binding
action.
(28) "Mixed-use condominium project" means a condominium project that has both
residential and commercial units in the condominium project.
(29) "Par value" means a number of dollars or points assigned to each unit by the
declaration. Substantially identical units shall be assigned the same par value, but units located
at substantially different heights above the ground, or having substantially different views, or
having substantially different amenities or other characteristics that might result in differences
in market value, may be considered substantially identical within the meaning of this
subsection. If par value is stated in terms of dollars, that statement may not be considered to
reflect or control the sales price or fair market value of any unit, and no opinion, appraisal, or
fair market transaction at a different figure may affect the par value of any unit, or any
undivided interest in the common areas and facilities, voting rights in the unit owners'
association, liability for common expenses, or right to common profits, assigned on the basis
thereof.
(30) "Period of administrative control" means the period of control described in
Subsection 
57-8-16.5
(1).
(31) "Person" means an individual, corporation, partnership, association, trustee, or
other legal entity.
(32) "Property" means the land, whether leasehold or in fee simple, the building, if any,
all improvements and structures thereon, all easements, rights, and appurtenances belonging
thereto, and all articles of personal property intended for use in connection therewith.
(33) "Record," "recording," "recorded," and "recorder" have the meaning stated in
[
Title 57,
] Chapter 3, Recording of Documents.
(34) "Size" means the number of cubic feet, or the number of square feet of ground or
floor space, within each unit as computed by reference to the record of survey map and rounded
off to a whole number. Certain spaces within the units including attic, basement, or garage
space may be omitted from the calculation or be partially discounted by the use of a ratio, if the
same basis of calculation is employed for all units in the condominium project and if that basis
is described in the declaration.
(35) "Time period unit" means an annually recurring part or parts of a year specified in
the declaration as a period for which a unit is separately owned and includes a timeshare estate
as defined in Subsection 
57-19-2
(19).
(36) "Unconstructed unit" means a unit that:
(a) is intended, as depicted in the condominium plat, to be fully or partially contained
in a building; and
(b) is not constructed.
[
(36)
] 
(37) (a)
 "Unit" means [
either
] a separate [
physical
] part of the property intended
for any type of independent use, [
including one or more rooms or spaces located in one or more
floors or part or parts of floors in a building or a time period unit, as the context may require. 
A
] 
which is created by the recording of a declaration and a condominium plat that describes the
unit boundaries.
(b) "Unit" includes one or more rooms or spaces located in one or more floors or a
portion of a floor in a building.
(c) "Unit" includes a
 convertible space [
shall be treated as a unit
]
,
 in accordance with
Subsection 
57-8-13.4
(3). [
A proposed condominium unit under an expandable condominium
project, not constructed, is a unit two years after the date the recording requirements of Section
57-8-13.6
 are met.
]
[
(37)
] 
(38)
 "Unit number" means the number, letter, or combination of numbers and
letters designating the unit in the declaration and in the record of survey map.
[
(38)
] 
(39)
 "Unit owner" means the person or persons owning a unit in fee simple and
an undivided interest in the fee simple estate of the common areas and facilities in the
percentage specified and established in the declaration or, in the case of a leasehold
condominium project, the person or persons whose leasehold interest or interests in the
condominium unit extend for the entire balance of the unexpired term or terms.
Section 2. Section 
57-8-24
 is amended to read:
57-8-24.
Common profits, common expenses, and voting rights -- Unit --
Unconstructed unit.
[
The common profits of the property shall be distributed among, the common expenses
shall be charged to, and the voting rights shall be available to, the unit owners according to
their
]
(1) A unit is created by the recording of the declaration and a condominium plat that
describes the unit.
(2) An association of unit owners shall, according to each unit owner's
 respective
percentage or fractional undivided interests in the common areas and facilities[
.
]
:
(a) distribute the property's common profits among the unit owners;
(b)
Ĥ→ 
except as otherwise provided in the declaration for unconstructed units,
 ←Ĥ
209a 
assess the unit owners the property's common expenses; and
(c) make voting rights available to the unit owners.
(3) (a) After the recording of a condominium project's declaration, an unconstructed
unit is a unit for the purposes of the declaration and this chapter, including:
(i) allocation of undivided interests in the common areas and facilities in accordance
with Subsection 
57-8-7
(2); and
(ii) voting rights in accordance with Section 
57-8-24
.
(b) Subsection (3)(a) applies to a condominium project regardless of when the
condominium project's initial declaration was recorded.
Legislative Review Note
Office of Legislative Research and General Counsel