# Questions to ask about an HOA before buying > Twelve questions, sorted by who can answer them. The association answers some, the seller answers others, and a few only the documents will settle. - Author: Kelsey Earl, Realtor, Keller Williams South Valley - Location: Utah, Utah - Section: The Washington County Insider - Published: 2026-10-28 - Canonical: https://homesbykelseyut.com/blog/questions-to-ask-about-an-hoa-before-buying - Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTT_z9gHWkM - Contact: 801-419-8917 ยท Kelsey.earl@kw.com --- **Quick answer:** Ask the association about dues, reserves, assessments and litigation; ask the seller what they have personally been fined or refused; and read the minutes for what neither will volunteer. Sorting the questions by who is obliged to answer accurately is what makes the exercise work. --- The questions to ask about a Utah HOA before buying divide neatly by who is actually obliged to answer them accurately. That sorting is the whole technique. Buyers ask their agent everything, and an agent is not the authoritative source for an association's finances or its rules. Send each question to whoever holds the answer and you get facts instead of impressions. ### Ask the association or its management company These should come in writing, and most management companies are used to supplying them. **What are the current dues, and exactly what do they cover?** Get the itemized list, not a summary. Two communities charging similar amounts can deliver entirely different things. **What have dues done over the last five years?** A flat fee over a decade is not reassuring. It often means reserves are being underfunded. **Is there a reserve study, how old is it, and how funded are the reserves against it?** The money question. An underfunded reserve is a future special assessment with a friendly monthly face. **Is there a special assessment approved, pending, or under discussion?** Approved is a cost you inherit. Under discussion is a risk. **Is the association involved in any litigation?** This can affect financing as well as money. Some lenders will not lend into a community with active litigation. **What is the owner-occupancy ratio, and is there a rental cap?** If the cap is already reached it limits what you can do and who can buy from you later. **Is there a transfer fee or a move-in fee at closing?** A real number that surprises people at the table. ### Ask the seller Different questions, because they know things the association will not volunteer. **Have you ever been fined, and for what?** The single most revealing question on this list. It tells you which rules are actually enforced. **Have you ever been refused permission for something?** Paint, a shed, a fence, a vehicle. **What do your neighbors complain about?** **Is there anything coming that the association has discussed but not decided?** In Utah a seller's disclosure obligations cover what they know about the property. [What a seller has to disclose in Utah](/blog/what-does-a-seller-have-to-disclose-when-selling-a-house-in-utah) covers the scope, and anything you intend to rely on should be asked in writing. ### Read for yourself Some things neither party will summarize accurately, because they involve judgment. **The minutes from the last year.** What the community argues about, what is breaking, what is being avoided. **The rules you will live under daily.** Parking, vehicles, exterior changes, pets, landscaping. [Whether you can park an RV in your driveway in Herriman](/blog/can-i-park-an-rv-in-my-driveway-in-herriman) is one of these and the answer depends on the city as well as the association. **The budget against the reserve study.** [What to look for in HOA documents](/blog/what-to-look-for-in-hoa-documents) covers which five documents matter and what you are looking for in each. ## What the association cannot do to you Worth knowing before you read a rule and assume it binds. Utah law sets a floor that an association's documents cannot override. [What Utah's association laws are](/blog/what-are-utahs-hoa-laws) covers that, and [whether an association can stop you installing solar](/blog/can-my-hoa-stop-me-from-installing-solar-in-utah) covers the specific question I get most. So when a packet appears to prohibit something you believe is protected, check the statute rather than taking the document's word. ## When to ask Earlier than most people do. The packet comes from the association or its management company, often for a fee, and it can take days to arrive. If your due diligence period is running, that delay is eating it. [What due diligence means in a Utah real estate contract](/blog/what-is-due-diligence-in-a-utah-real-estate-contract) covers the window you are inside. Request it the day you go under contract, not the day before the deadline. ## How this differs across my two markets Both have associations and the emphasis differs. In the south Salt Lake Valley the live questions are usually new-construction ones: who still controls the board, what dues become at full build-out, what the developer is subsidizing. [Whether homes in Herriman have associations](/blog/do-homes-in-herriman-utah-have-hoas) covers how common they are there and what they typically do. In Washington County the questions skew toward rentals, landscaping and water. [Whether homes in Washington County have associations](/blog/do-homes-in-washington-county-have-hoas) covers that side, and [what xeriscaping is and whether it is required](/blog/what-is-xeriscaping-and-is-it-required-in-st-george) covers the rule that most often surprises arrivals. ## The questions that are not worth asking Three that waste your time, because the answer is unreliable by construction. **"Is the HOA good?"** Nobody can answer that for you. A well-run association with strict rules is somebody else's nightmare and somebody else's reason for buying. Ask what it does, not whether it is good. **"Will the dues go up?"** Everyone will say they do not know, and they genuinely do not. Ask instead what the dues have done over five years and how funded the reserves are. Those two facts predict the answer better than any opinion. **"Are the neighbors nice?"** Not a question anyone should answer for you, and not one a real estate agent should characterize at all. Read the minutes and draw your own conclusion about how the community operates. ## What to do if the documents are late More common than it should be, and you have options. If the packet has not arrived with your due diligence period running down, say so in writing and ask for an extension rather than letting the deadline pass. An association that is slow with documents is itself a small piece of information about how the place is managed. What you should not do is waive the review because the paperwork is inconvenient. The budget and the reserve study are the two documents most likely to contain a number that changes your mind, and they are the two that arrive last. ## What I actually see Buyers who asked about the pet rule and never asked about the reserves. That is the pattern, and it is understandable. The pet rule is concrete and the reserve study is dull. One of them affects whether you enjoy the house, the other decides whether you get a bill for thousands in year three. The second thing I see is buyers taking a verbal answer on what the dues cover. Get the itemized list in writing. [What the Daybreak association covers](/blog/what-does-the-daybreak-hoa-cover) shows how much variation can sit inside one community, let alone between two. ## What to do next Send the first seven questions to the management company in writing the day you go under contract. Ask the seller the four personal ones directly. Then read the minutes yourself, because that is where the things nobody volunteers are written down. I am Kelsey Earl, a Realtor with Keller Williams South Valley, and I read the whole packet rather than the summary. [Tell me which community](/contact) and I will tell you what to request first. --- Source: https://homesbykelseyut.com/blog/questions-to-ask-about-an-hoa-before-buying Any market figure in this post is accurate only where a date and source are stated alongside it.