What late fees can a landlord charge in Utah?

Verified July 10, 2026 All Utah topics →

Utah caps residential late fees at the greater of 10% of the monthly rent or $75 — so $75 is the floor of the cap, not its ceiling, and on a $2,000 lease the maximum late fee is $200 (Utah Code 57-22-4(5)(a), enacted by HB 68 in 2021).

The word 'greater' matters: many summaries flip it to 'lesser,' which understates what landlords may lawfully charge on higher rents. A late fee also effectively must be in the rental agreement, because 57-22-4(5)(b) bars any fee that is not included in the agreement or that exceeds the agreed amount — except that on a month-to-month agreement an owner may add a charge after giving the renter a 15-day notice. Utah mandates no grace period: rent is late when the lease says it is, and the three-business-day window in the eviction statute (78B-6-802(1)(c)) only delays termination for nonpayment, not fee accrual. The cap's enforcement is unusual and weak: under 57-22-4(9) a renter may not sue the owner or withhold performance over a violation — the cap operates defensively, for example in disputing unlawful charges when a landlord seeks to collect or evict.

Utah late fees at a glance

Statutory cap	The greater of 10% of the rent agreed to in the rental agreement or $75 (Utah Code 57-22-4(5)(a))
Mandatory grace period	None mandated statewide
Must be in the lease	Yes
Daily fees	No statute addresses daily late-fee accrual. Any fee structure must stay within the 57-22-4(5)(a) cap — 'a late fee' per rental agreement that 'exceeds the greater of 10% of the rent ... or $75' is prohibited regardless of how it accrues — and under (5)(b) a fee not included in the rental agreement, or exceeding the agreed amount, may not be charged at all (month-to-month agreements excepted, with a 15-day notice of the charge).
Reasonableness standard	Not addressed by statute

Notes and caveats

Load-bearing formula read twice (official le.utah.gov versioned text and Justia 2025 mirror, verbatim match): 'a late fee that exceeds the greater of: (i) 10% of the rent agreed to in the rental agreement; or (ii) $75.' Three traps documented: (1) the cap is routinely miscited as '57-22-4.3' — NO section 4.3 exists in Chapter 22 (official TOC: 1, 2, 3, 4, 4.1, 5, 5.1, 6, 7); the cap is 57-22-4(5)(a); (2) the enacting bill is 2021 HB 68 'Rental Expenses Disclosure Requirements' (Ch. 98, eff. 5/5/2021) — NOT 'HB 213,' which in 2021 was a dog-bite liability bill (Canine Injury Amendments, verified on the Legislature's own bill-status endpoint); (3) 'greater' is flipped to 'lesser' in circulating summaries. must_be_in_lease is TRUE via 57-22-4(5)(b) (no fee 'not included in the rental agreement'), with the statutory exception for month-to-month agreements after a 15-day notice of the charge — encode the exception wherever this renders. grace_period_days is null: no Utah statute mandates one; the 3-business-day pay-or-quit window of 78B-6-802(1)(c) is an eviction cure period, not a grace period (same trap class as OK 131(B)). reasonableness_standard is null because a hard statutory cap exists. Enforcement caveat for page copy: 57-22-4(9) expressly bars a renter from bringing a cause of action or excusing lease compliance based on a violation of subsection (5); subsection (8) preserves fees 'allowed by law or stated in the rental agreement' but does not override the specific late-fee cap.

Statute citations

Utah Code § 57-22-4 (5), (8), (9) Official source
Utah Code § 78B-6-802 (1)(c) Official source

How this record was verified: Direct read of statute text on the official Utah Legislature site (le.utah.gov): the versioned section content files behind the xcode pages for Utah Code 57-17-1 through 57-17-5, 57-22-2, 57-22-3, 57-22-4, 57-22-7, 57-20-1, 78B-6-802, and 10-8-85.5, plus the chapter tables of contents for Title 57 Chapters 17 and 22 (negative checks). Every load-bearing figure re-read on law.justia.com's 2025 Utah Code mirror and matched verbatim: the 30-day deposit return clock and its vacate-plus-return-of-possession trigger, the five-business-day cure window and $100 civil penalty with the 57-17-3(3) notice prerequisite, the late-fee cap ('the greater of 10% of the rent agreed to in the rental agreement; or $75'), the 24-hour entry-notice default and its 'except as otherwise provided in the rental agreement' carve-out, the 57-22-4(9) no-cause-of-action clause, the 15-calendar-day month-to-month termination notice of 78B-6-802(1)(b)(i), and the 57-20-1 rent and fee control prohibition. Bill attributions and statuses verified against le.utah.gov's own bill-status JSON endpoint and enrolled/introduced bill texts: 2021 HB 68 (Ch. 98, late-fee cap and entry notice, eff. 5/5/2021), 2025 HB 480 (Ch. 275, electronic deposit returns, eff. 5/7/2025), 2026 HB 591 (Ch. 401, nuisance-only changes to 78B-6-802, eff. 5/6/2026). 2026 General Session (adjourned sine die March 2026, no carryover) checked: HB 478 (rent-increase/fee notice) and HB 516 both died 'House/ filed' 3/6/2026; no enacted 2026 law touches the four topics.