Utah's 2026 HOA Law Rewrote Transfer Fees. Your Ski Condo's Bill Didn't Move.

The settlement statement is where Park City closings get interesting. A buyer has already budgeted for the loan origination fee, the title insurance, the prepaid property taxes. Then a line appears that nobody mentioned during the tour: a reinvestment fee, sometimes called a transfer fee, calculated as a percentage of the purchase price rather than a flat number. On a $2 million ski condo, that line can run $20,000 to $40,000 depending on which community it sits in.

Utah lawmakers spent the 2026 session trying to bring some order to these fees. HB 306 rewrote the reinvestment fee cap effective May 6, 2026, just under four months before this post, and SB 122 added new accounting rules for the flat administrative fee charged at closing. If you've read anything about the changes, you may have come away thinking Park City's transfer fee problem got smaller this year. For most of the communities where ski-in, ski-out condos actually sit, it didn't. Here's why, and what to check instead.

What the Fee Actually Is

A reinvestment fee is a percentage of the sale price, written into a covenant that runs with the land, collected by the association every time the property changes hands. It's not the same as a monthly HOA due, and it's not the same as a special assessment. It exists specifically to capture a share of each transaction for the association's reserves or amenities, on the theory that a sale is a natural moment to ask new owners to buy into the community's capital base.

In Park City's resort communities, these fees are common and they are not small. Empire Pass, the ski-in, ski-out enclave tied to Deer Valley, charges a 1% fee through its master homeowners association on top of whatever the individual building's own HOA charges, sometimes another 0.5%. Canyons Village properties are commonly cited as carrying a fee near 2% through the Canyons Village Management Association, which funds lift and village infrastructure. The Colony at White Pine Canyon typically runs 0.5% to 1%. Among the golf-oriented communities buyers often compare against ski product, Glenwild and Promontory both sit at 1%, while Red Ledges runs 0.5%.

Here's what those percentages mean in dollars at a representative price point:

Scale those figures to a $4 million Colony property or a $6 million Deer Crest estate and the fee moves from a line item to a real budgeting decision.

The Law That Was Supposed to Rein This In

Before this year, Utah capped reinvestment fee covenants at 0.5% of the property's value, with an exemption for large master planned developments. HB 306 revised that cap for covenants recorded on or after May 6, 2026: 0.5% for standard associations, 0.25% for a newly defined category called a "low-amenity association," meaning a community of detached single-family homes with no capital-intensive infrastructure to maintain. The bill also added a new requirement that at least half of every reinvestment fee dollar collected must go into reserves rather than general operations, again with an exemption for large master planned developments.

Separately, SB 122 renamed the flat administrative charge that management companies collect at closing, previously called an "association transfer fee," to an "administrative setup fee." That fee is typically a few hundred dollars, distinct from the percentage-based reinvestment fee, and covers the paperwork of moving an owner's record from seller to buyer. Under the new law, a manager who collects this fee must give the association a full accounting of what was collected each calendar year, due no later than December 31.

Read on its own, this looks like meaningful reform: fee caps, mandatory reserve allocation, and a transparency requirement. For a buyer closing on a unit at Empire Pass or in Canyons Village this fall, the practical effect is narrower than that.

Why the Cap Doesn't Reach the Buildings You're Touring

The cap and the reserve requirement in HB 306 apply to reinvestment fee covenants recorded on or after May 6, 2026. Covenants recorded before that date are left exactly as written. The reinvestment fee covenants governing Empire Pass, Canyons Village, The Colony, Glenwild, and Promontory were recorded when these communities were built out, well before this year's change. None of them get rewritten by a statute that only reaches new recordings.

There's a second layer to this. The law's largest carve-out exempts "large master planned developments" from the cap entirely, regardless of when the covenant was recorded. Whether a given resort association technically meets that definition is a question for the association's counsel, but the exemption exists precisely for communities built at the scale of Park City's biggest resort developments. Either way you look at it, through the recording date or through the size exemption, the fee schedule a buyer sees today at any of these communities is the same fee schedule that existed before May 6, 2026.

What the law does change is who has to account for the money. SB 122's annual accounting requirement means a management company collecting administrative setup fees now has to report that total to the association board every year. That's real transparency, and it matters if you plan to sit on the board or simply want to know your dues are being tracked honestly. It is not the same as a lower bill at closing.

A Cautionary Note on Structure, Not Just Fees

Fee percentages assume the association collecting them is financially sound and the building it serves actually exists as promised. That assumption doesn't always hold. The Ascent, a condotel in the Frostwood Village area below Canyons Village, remained under construction as of January 2026, roughly four years after one buyer purchased a unit there, according to Salt Lake Tribune reporting. By April, the same reporting found the ownership group behind two developments near Park City Mountain Resort hadn't paid property taxes. In July, the developer defaulted on a $30 million loan and the property went to a foreclosure auction.

That story isn't about reinvestment fees specifically. It's a reminder that the percentage on a fee schedule only matters if the association, the building, and the developer behind them are in a position to deliver what the covenant promises. Before writing an offer on anything still under construction or structured as a condotel, that verification matters more than the fee math.

The Due-Diligence Sequence Before You Sign

1. Request the recorded reinvestment fee covenant directly, not a summary, and note the recording date. If it predates May 6, 2026, the 2026 caps and reserve rules don't apply to it.
2. Confirm the exact fee percentage and whether it's charged by a master association, an individual building HOA, or both, since Empire Pass and similar communities can layer more than one fee on a single sale.
3. Ask where the money goes. A covenant that routes the fee into reserves is a different financial picture than one that funds general operations or amenity development.
4. Request the annual accounting a manager is now required to produce under SB 122 for administrative setup fees, and compare it against what you're being asked to pay at closing.
5. If the property is new construction or a condotel structure, verify the developer's standing and the association's actual funding before treating any fee schedule as settled.
6. Decide who pays before you're deep into negotiations. It's negotiable, not fixed by the CC&Rs, and cash buyers in a slower market have more room to ask the seller to absorb it.

Short FAQ

Does Utah's 2026 law mean my reinvestment fee at Empire Pass or Canyons Village should be lower now? No. The new caps apply only to covenants recorded on or after May 6, 2026. Fee schedules at established resort communities were recorded well before that date and remain unchanged.

Who typically pays the reinvestment fee, buyer or seller? In most Park City transactions, the buyer pays. The CC&Rs don't mandate this, so it's a point of negotiation, particularly for cash buyers or in a market with more inventory.

Is a reinvestment fee the same thing as a special assessment? No. A reinvestment fee is triggered by a sale and is written into the covenant as a fixed percentage. A special assessment is a separate, project-specific charge the board can levy on all current owners when reserves fall short of an actual repair or capital need.

What should I ask for before I write an offer? The recorded covenant showing the fee's date and percentage, confirmation of where the fee revenue goes, and, if a management company is involved, the annual accounting now required under SB 122.

Fee mechanics like these are exactly the kind of detail that gets lost between the listing photos and the settlement statement. If you're comparing ski condos across Empire Pass, Canyons Village, or The Colony and want the actual numbers run against a specific property before you write an offer, Sarah Elder is a good place to start that conversation. Let's Connect.