57-8-15. Bylaws

The administration of every property shall be governed by bylaws,fn1 which may either be embodied in the declaration or in a separate instrument,fn2 a true copy of which shall be appended to and recorded with the declaration. No modification or amendment of the declaration or bylaws shall be valid unless the same is set forth in an amendment and such amendment is recorded.


Enacted by Chapter 111, 1963 General Session

FN 1.  Despite this provision, consistent with traditional practice in condominiums, and consistent with the typical meaning and use of bylaws in a corporate sense, the best practice is generally for bylaws to provide for the administration of the association (which is usually a nonprofit corporation), namely the procedures, rights and obligations associated with the corporate structure of the association while the declaration establishes the rights and obligations that are associated directly with the property itself.  Thus, the bylaws should contain the procedures and processes of voting, meetings, officer duties, and so forth.  The declaration should contain the rights of individuals to use the property, should govern how the property may be used, and should contain the obligations to maintain and repair the property and to pay for administration of the property.  This practice provides a clearer distinction between the purposes and content of the declaration versus the bylaws, a distinction which is all the more important when an association's bylaws have a different, often lower, percentage of votes required to amend them than the declaration.

FN 2.  As to who must execute the initial bylaws, see Subsection 57-8-10(8) (all of the owners and any lessees of the land).


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