How much can a landlord charge for a rental application fee in Utah?

No statutory cap on application fees.

Does an application fee have to be refunded in Utah?

Yes — in Utah at least one circumstance requires application-stage money to be returned. A prospective renter may demand back all money paid in relation to the home if either an amount in the owner's good-faith estimate differs from the amount in the rental agreement, or the rental agreement includes a type of use-based, non-rent expense that was not disclosed beforehand. The demand must be in writing, must be made within five business days after the person receives the rental agreement, and may be made only while that person has not yet signed the agreement or taken possession. On receiving a valid demand the owner must return all the money within five business days.

Does a landlord have to give a receipt for an application fee in Utah?

No statutory receipt duty for application money.

Does Utah have a reusable tenant screening report law?

No statute on reusable screening reports.

Can a landlord charge a holding deposit in Utah?

Money taken from a prospective renter to hold a home before a lease is signed is covered by the same two rules as an application fee, because the statute reaches an application fee or any other payment from a prospective renter: it may not be accepted until the written disclosure has been given, and it must be returned in full on a timely written demand where the rental agreement does not match what was disclosed. Utah sets no cap on such a payment and no rule about what becomes of it if the lease is signed, if the applicant withdraws, or if the home goes to someone else.

What can a landlord charge for a rental application in Utah?

Verified August 26, 2026 All Utah topics →

What did not become law. None of the following is law; failed bills are sometimes still described as if enacted:

H.B. 478 (2026 General Session) — Would have amended provisions relating to landlords and tenants, defining terms and setting a period of time by which a landlord must give a tenant notice of a rent increase or of an additional fee. It listed section 57-22-4 among the sections it would change, but its subject was notice to an existing tenant rather than money taken at the application stage. Status: Introduced and given a first reading on February 4, 2026, sent to a standing committee on February 20, held in committee on February 24, and returned to Rules on March 4; its enacting clause was struck and the bill filed on March 6, 2026, the last day of the session. (checked August 26, 2026).
H.B. 182 (2025 General Session) — Would have enacted provisions related to rent increases, defining terms and setting a period of time by which a landlord must give a tenant notice of a rent increase. It did not reach application or screening fees. Status: Introduced on January 21, 2025 and sent to a standing committee on January 24; a motion to recommend the bill failed on January 31, it was returned to Rules on March 4, and its enacting clause was struck and the bill filed on March 7, 2025, at the close of the session. (checked August 26, 2026).

Utah does not cap rental application or screening fees, but it does regulate the moment the money changes hands: before accepting an application fee or any other payment from a prospective renter, an owner must disclose in writing a good-faith estimate of the rent and of each fixed non-rent expense, the type of each use-based non-rent expense, the day the home is scheduled to be available, the criteria the owner will use to judge eligibility, and how to get the money back.

Cited to Utah Code § 57-22-4 (3)(a), (5) and 19 more cited sources · Verified August 26, 2026

If the rental agreement then differs from that estimate, or contains a type of use-based non-rent expense that was never disclosed, the prospective renter can demand all the money back in writing within five business days of receiving the agreement, and the owner must return it within five business days. Utah sets no rule on how many applicants may be charged, does not require that a screening actually be carried out, has no reusable screening report law, and imposes no state denial-notice duty. The Fit Premises Act also states that a renter may not bring a cause of action over a failure to meet these duties.

Utah application & screening fees at a glance

Application fee cap	No statutory cap on application fees
Fee limited to actual screening cost	No statute ties the fee to screening cost
Screening charge rules	An owner may not accept an application fee or any other payment from a prospective renter until the owner has given that person a written disclosure that includes the eligibility criteria the owner will consider, covering criminal history, credit, income, employment, and rental history, and the day the home is scheduled to be available. The disclosure may be delivered through the rental application itself, a deposit agreement, or a written summary. The condition runs to the taking of the money rather than to its amount. Utah does not limit how many applicants may be charged for the same home, does not require that a screening actually be carried out once the fee is taken, does not restrict who may charge, and sets no separate written agreement as a prerequisite.
Receipt required	No statutory receipt duty for application money
Refund required in some circumstances	Yes
Refund rules	A prospective renter may demand back all money paid in relation to the home if either an amount in the owner's good-faith estimate differs from the amount in the rental agreement, or the rental agreement includes a type of use-based, non-rent expense that was not disclosed beforehand. The demand must be in writing, must be made within five business days after the person receives the rental agreement, and may be made only while that person has not yet signed the agreement or taken possession. On receiving a valid demand the owner must return all the money within five business days. The amount returned is everything paid, not merely the excess. The right is a mismatch remedy: it is not triggered because the applicant was never screened, because the home was already taken, because the applicant changed their mind, or because the fee exceeded the cost of screening. None of those triggers appears anywhere in the Utah Fit Premises Act.
Disclosure before collecting	Before accepting an application fee or any other payment from a prospective renter, an owner must disclose to that person in writing: a good-faith estimate of the rent amount; a good-faith estimate of the amount of each fixed, non-rent expense that is part of the rental agreement; the type of each use-based, non-rent expense that is part of the rental agreement; the day the home is scheduled to be available; the criteria the owner will consider in deciding eligibility, including criteria related to criminal history, credit, income, employment, or rental history; and the requirements and process for getting the money back. The estimate portion may be given through a rental application, a deposit agreement, or a written summary. This is the central duty of Utah law at the application stage, and it is a pre-payment duty: the disclosure comes first, the money second. Utah does not require the applicant to be told what the application fee itself pays for, and it sets no duty to give fresh notice if the eligibility criteria later change.
Denial-notice duties (state law)	No state statute — federal fair-credit duties still apply
Reusable screening reports	No statute on reusable screening reports
Holding deposits	Money taken from a prospective renter to hold a home before a lease is signed is covered by the same two rules as an application fee, because the statute reaches an application fee or any other payment from a prospective renter: it may not be accepted until the written disclosure has been given, and it must be returned in full on a timely written demand where the rental agreement does not match what was disclosed. Utah sets no cap on such a payment and no rule about what becomes of it if the lease is signed, if the applicant withdraws, or if the home goes to someone else. Utah has no holding-deposit section as such; the coverage comes from the breadth of the Fit Premises Act's application-stage language, which expressly contemplates the disclosure being delivered through a deposit agreement. The state's deposit chapter operates at the end of a tenancy, though it does require that any non-refundable part of a deposit be stated in writing when the deposit is taken.
Rental fee-transparency rules	Utah requires the non-rent expenses of a tenancy to be itemized to the applicant in writing before any application-stage money is taken: a good-faith estimate of the amount of each fixed, non-rent expense that is part of the rental agreement, and the type of each use-based, non-rent expense. A type of use-based non-rent expense that turns up in the rental agreement without having been disclosed is one of the two grounds on which the prospective renter can demand all the money back. Utah sets no all-in advertised price rule for rental listings. The duty is a pre-payment disclosure duty owed to an individual applicant rather than an advertising rule owed to the public, so it does not govern how a home is listed. Utah's general consumer statutes and the Division of Consumer Protection's advertising rules are written around consumer goods and services and are not applied by their text to homes offered for rent.
Penalty for violation	Utah names no damages figure and no civil penalty for the application-stage duties, and it expressly closes off a renter's private action for them: section 57-22-4(9) provides that a renter may not use an owner's failure to comply with subsections (2) through (7), which include the pre-payment disclosure duty and the duty to return money on demand, as a basis to excuse the renter's compliance with a rental agreement or to bring a cause of action against the owner. Where an action is brought under the chapter, a court may award costs and reasonable attorney fees to the prevailing party, and an owner may not be held liable under the chapter for a claim of mental suffering or anguish. In practice the duty to return all the money within five business days is its own enforcement. Note that subsection (9) speaks of a renter, a term the chapter defines as a person entitled under a rental agreement to occupy the home, while the money-back right belongs to someone who has not signed a rental agreement; the statute does not say how the two fit together. Nothing in Utah law makes a breach of these duties a deceptive act under the state's consumer sales practices statute, and the deposit chapter's hundred-dollar civil penalty attaches to the return of a deposit after a tenancy ends, not to application-stage money.

Cite this page: "Landlord Atlas, Utah Application & Screening Fee Laws (verified August 26, 2026), landlordatlas.com/laws/application-fees/utah/" — free to cite and quote with a link (how these records are verified). Everything above is cited in the citations section below.

Notes and caveats

No cap, but a hard disclosure gate — The amount of a Utah application fee is left to the landlord. What Utah regulates is sequence: the written disclosure must come before the money. An owner who takes an application fee without giving that disclosure has not met the statute, whatever the amount was.
The refund right is a mismatch remedy — The money-back right is triggered only by a difference between the good-faith estimate and the rental agreement, or by an undisclosed type of use-based non-rent expense. It is not a right to a refund because the home was already taken, because no screening was run, or because the applicant changed their mind.
Three tight conditions on the demand — The demand must be in writing; it must be made within five business days after the prospective renter receives the rental agreement; and it must be made before that person signs the agreement or takes possession. Missing any one of them ends the right.
What must be itemized is the tenancy, not the fee — The estimate covers the rent and the non-rent expenses of the rental agreement. Utah does not require a landlord to break down what the application fee itself pays for.
The Act limits who can sue over these duties — Section 57-22-4(9) says a renter may not use an owner's failure to meet subsections (2) through (7) as a basis to excuse compliance with a rental agreement or to bring a cause of action. The chapter defines a renter as someone entitled under a rental agreement to occupy the home, and the money-back right belongs to a person who has not signed one; the statute does not spell out how those two fit together.
Local rules must match the state act — A county or municipality may not adopt an ordinance, resolution, or regulation inconsistent with the Utah Fit Premises Act, so a conflicting local application-fee rule cannot stand.
Federal law still applies to denials — A landlord who turns an applicant down because of a credit or background report has duties under the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act, including notice of the decision and of the agency that supplied the report. Utah adds none of its own.
The rules came from a 2021 act — The disclosure and money-back provisions were added by House Bill 68 of the 2021 General Session, chapter 98, in force since May 5, 2021. The section has not been amended since, and nothing in the 2025 or 2026 general sessions changed it.
About the application fee rule — Utah sets no dollar cap, formula, or cost-based limit on a residential rental application fee. Section 57-22-4 of the Utah Fit Premises Act, which is where such a limit would sit, instead takes the fee as given and regulates the moment around it: an owner may not accept an application fee or any other payment from a prospective renter until certain things have been disclosed in writing, and must return the money in full if the rental agreement later fails to match that disclosure. The chapter's only monetary caps, a late fee ceiling of the greater of ten percent of rent or seventy-five dollars and a bar on charging more than the rental agreement allows, apply to a renter under a rental agreement rather than to an applicant.
How the cost limit works — Utah does not tie an application or screening charge to what the screening actually costs. Section 57-22-4, the section that names the application fee, contains no cost-relatedness requirement; its conditions are about what must be disclosed and when money must be returned, not about how the amount is set.
What the receipt duty covers — Utah requires no receipt for application or screening money. The Fit Premises Act's written duty runs the other way in time: it requires a disclosure before money is taken, not an acknowledgment after. The nearest adjacent duty is in the deposit chapter, which requires that if any part of a deposit is to be non-refundable, that must be stated in writing at the time the deposit is taken.
When money must come back — Utah forces the return of application-stage money in one defined situation. Where a prospective renter makes a valid written demand because the rental agreement does not match the good-faith estimate given before payment, or because it contains a type of use-based non-rent expense that was never disclosed, the owner must return all of the money that person paid, within five business days of receiving the demand.
Denial notices — Utah imposes no state duty on a landlord who turns an applicant down: no notice of the decision, no timing rule, no duty to hand over a copy of the report. The Utah Fit Premises Act, which carries the state's application-stage duties, stops at the disclosure and money-back rules and says nothing about the decision itself. A landlord who denies an applicant based on a credit or background report is answering to the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act, which is federal law rather than a Utah rule.
Reusable screening reports — Utah has no reusable or portable screening report law. A landlord need not accept a report an applicant already paid for, there is no bar on charging a fee when such a report is used, and no validity window is set. The Utah Fit Premises Act is the act that would carry such a rule and does not.

Common questions: Utah application & screening fees

Each answer is the verified value from the table above, restated as a direct answer. Free to quote with a link to this page.

How much can a landlord charge for a rental application fee in Utah?: No statutory cap on application fees.
Does an application fee have to be refunded in Utah?: Yes — in Utah at least one circumstance requires application-stage money to be returned. A prospective renter may demand back all money paid in relation to the home if either an amount in the owner's good-faith estimate differs from the amount in the rental agreement, or the rental agreement includes a type of use-based, non-rent expense that was not disclosed beforehand. The demand must be in writing, must be made within five business days after the person receives the rental agreement, and may be made only while that person has not yet signed the agreement or taken possession. On receiving a valid demand the owner must return all the money within five business days.
Does a landlord have to give a receipt for an application fee in Utah?: No statutory receipt duty for application money.
Does Utah have a reusable tenant screening report law?: No statute on reusable screening reports.
Can a landlord charge a holding deposit in Utah?: Money taken from a prospective renter to hold a home before a lease is signed is covered by the same two rules as an application fee, because the statute reaches an application fee or any other payment from a prospective renter: it may not be accepted until the written disclosure has been given, and it must be returned in full on a timely written demand where the rental agreement does not match what was disclosed. Utah sets no cap on such a payment and no rule about what becomes of it if the lease is signed, if the applicant withdraws, or if the home goes to someone else.

Citations

Utah Code § 57-22-4 · (3)(a), (5) (verified 2026) Official source
Utah Code § 57-22-2 · (4) (verified 2026) Official source
Utah Code § 57-22-4 · (3)-(4) (verified 2026) Official source
Utah Code § 57-22-4 · (3)(a)(iii)-(iv), (3)(b) (verified 2026) Official source
Utah Code § 57-22-4 · (3)(b) (verified 2026) Official source
Utah Code § 57-17-2 (verified 2026) Official source
Utah Code § 57-22-4 · (4)(b) (verified 2026) Official source
Utah Code § 57-22-4 · (4)(a)-(b) (verified 2026) Official source
Utah Code § 57-22-4 · (3)(a)(i)-(v), (3)(b) (verified 2026) Official source
Utah Code § 57-22-4 · (3) (verified 2026) Official source
Utah Code § 57-22-4 · (3)(a), (3)(b), (4)(a) (verified 2026) Official source
Utah Code § 57-22-4 · (3)(a)(i)-(ii), (4)(a)(i)(B) (verified 2026) Official source
Utah Code § 13-11-3 · (2)(a) (verified 2026) Official source
Utah Code § 57-22-4 · (8)-(9) (verified 2026) Official source
Utah Code § 57-22-6 · (6)-(7) (verified 2026) Official source
Utah Code § 57-22-4 (verified 2026) Official source
Utah Code § 57-22-2 (verified 2026) Official source
Utah Code § 57-22-6 (verified 2026) Official source
Utah Code § 57-22-7 (verified 2026) Official source
Utah Code § 13-11-3 (verified 2026) Official source

How this record was verified: Direct read of the Utah Fit Premises Act, Utah Code chapter 57-22, in full (sections 57-22-1 through 57-22-7, including both printed versions of section 57-22-5.1) and of chapter 57-17, Residential Renters' Deposits, in full, as published by the Utah State Legislature; plus chapter 13-11, the Utah Consumer Sales Practices Act, section 78B-6-854, and the Utah Administrative Code rule on consumer sales practices; a code-wide term search for application fee, rental application, prospective renter, tenant screening, screening fee, screening report, portable screening, holding deposit, junk fee, mandatory fee, total price and adverse action; and a bill sweep of the 2025 and 2026 general sessions, and of the 2021 session that produced the current text of section 57-22-4.