Caution: This section conflicts with another section and is possibly superseded. See the comment below. Use Section 57-8a-311 instead.
(1) (a) The manager or board of directors shall issue a written statement indicating any unpaid assessment with respect to a lot covered by the request, upon:
(i) the written request of any unitfn1 owner; and
(ii) payment of a reasonable fee not to exceed $10.
(b) The written statement described in Subsection (1)(a) is binding in favor of any person who relies in good faith on the written statement upon the:
(i) remaining owners;
(ii) manager; and
(iii) board of directors.
(2) Unless the manager or board of directors complies with a request described in Subsection (1)(a) within 10 days, any unpaid assessment that became due prior to the date the request described in Subsection (1)(a) was made is subordinate to a lien held by the person requesting the statement pursuant to Subsection (1)(a).fn2
Enacted by Chapter 153, 2004 General Session
FN1 It is not clear why the term "unit owner" is used here. Neither "unit" nor "unit owner" are defined in this Act.
FN2 Again, a person requesting the statement pursuant to Subsection (1)(a) is any "unit owner." A "unit owner" is not defined in the Act, but presumably means "lot owner." However, it is difficult to ascertain what lien the "unit owner" could hold that the unpaid assessment would become subordinate to.
Comment
Two sections of the Act allow for obtaining a statement of unpaid assessments, this Section 57-8a-206, enacted in 2004, and Section 57-8a-311, enacted in 2011. They are almost identical but there are a couple of key differences.
They both provide that an association must issue a written statement indicating any unpaid assessment with respect to a lot upon: (1) a written request of either "any unit owner" (57-8a-206) or "the lot owner" (57-8a-311), and (2) payment of a reasonable fee not to exceed either $10 (57-8a-206) or $25 (57-8a-311). And, they both provide that the written statement is conclusive or binding in favor of a person who relies on the written statement in good faith.
This Section 57-8a-206 also provides that unless the association complies with the request within 10 days, any unpaid assessment "is subordinate to a lien held by the person requesting the statement." (Note that a person that may request the statement is “any unit owner.”)
It is not clear why there are two different sections of the Act addressing the same issue with nearly identical language, with a third addressing very nearly the same issue (Section 57-8a-106). A parallel statute for 57-8a-206 does not exist in the Condo Act, yet parallel statutes for both 57-8a-311 and 57-8a-106 are in the Condo Act. Because 57-8a-311 was enacted after 57-8a-206, one can only assume 57-8a-311 was intended to supersede 57-8a-206. For that reason and because of the issues with 57-8a-206 in discussed in the footnotes above, 57-8a-311 should be the controlling section on the issue of written statements of unpaid assessments. However, see also Section 57-8a-106 regarding providing "payoff information needed at closing."
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