Outline of the eviction process in Utah

Utah evictions are unlawful detainer actions under Utah Code § 78B-6-801 and following, filed in the state district court. The process is fast: a three business day notice to pay or vacate, three business days to answer the summons, an occupancy hearing within 10 business days of the answer on request, three calendar days to leave under the order of restitution, and tripled damages. Utah has no just-cause requirement, and local governments may not control rents on private residential property without the Legislature’s express approval (§ 57-20-1).

Day counting differs by notice type, many eviction records can be expunged, and the core sections were amended in 2024, 2025 and 2026.

1. Grounds for eviction

Under § 78B-6-802(1), a tenant commits unlawful detainer by staying in possession: after a fixed term expires (no statutory notice is required, though your lease may require one); after a proper notice ending a periodic tenancy or tenancy at will; after default in rent or other amounts due and an unmet pay or vacate notice; after subletting or assigning contrary to the lease, committing waste, carrying on an unlawful business, maintaining a nuisance, or committing a criminal act on the premises, and a notice to quit; or after breaching any other lease covenant and an unmet comply or vacate notice.

2. Notices: length, content, service and counting days

• Nonpayment: three business days (§ 78B-6-802(1)(c)). A written notice requiring, in the alternative, payment of the rent and other amounts due or surrender of the premises. It may be served any time after rent becomes due.
• Other curable lease violations: three calendar days (§ 78B-6-802(1)(h)). A written notice requiring, in the alternative, performance or surrender, served on the tenant and any subtenant in actual occupation.
• Subletting, waste, unlawful business, nuisance, criminal act: three calendar days’ notice to quit, no cure (§ 78B-6-802(1)(d) to (g)). The same no-cure notice may be used when a violation cannot afterwards be performed or brought into compliance (§ 78B-6-802(2)).
• Ending a periodic tenancy: 15 calendar days (§ 78B-6-802(1)(b)(i)). Serve it 15 calendar days or more before the end of the month or period; it requires the tenant to quit at the end of that period.
• Tenant at will: not less than five calendar days (§ 78B-6-802(1)(b)(ii)).

Required language. We found no statutory form or block of mandatory wording for these notices. What § 78B-6-802 does require is that the rent notice and the comply notice be in writing and framed in the alternative: pay (or perform) or surrender the premises. A bare demand for money does not match the statute. The Utah courts publish a free notice form for each ground.

Service (§ 78B-6-805). A notice may be served: (a) by delivering a copy to the tenant personally; (b) by registered mail, certified mail or an equivalent means, addressed to the tenant at the residence or leased property; (c) if the tenant is absent, by leaving a copy with a person of suitable age and discretion at the residence; or (d) if no such person can be found, by affixing a copy in a conspicuous place on the leased property. Posting is valid but is the fallback, so record why you posted. The courts say to serve one copy per tenant. Text and ordinary email are not on the statutory list.

Counting days. Per the Utah courts’ landlord page, business days skip weekends and court holidays, calendar days count every day, and the day of service is not counted. A pay or vacate notice served Friday runs through Wednesday. The statute uses calendar days for every three-day notice except the rent notice, but the courts’ page and forms may describe three-day notices in business days. Waiting three business days is never shorter than three calendar days, so it is the safe choice before filing.

Federally backed properties may also be subject to the federal CARES Act 30-day notice. Utah addresses that rule in § 78B-6-802(5) and (6); get advice.

3. Filing the case

File a Complaint for Unlawful Detainer in the district court. The complaint must set out the facts and, in a nonpayment case, state the amount of rent or other amounts due (§ 78B-6-807(1), (2)). The filing fee depends on the damages claimed and is shown on the cover sheet.

Entity landlords. The Utah courts’ landlord page states: “If your business is anything other than a DBA, you need someone to represent you.”

4. Service, the answer and the possession bond

Service. You may not serve the summons and complaint yourself. The courts list any adult 18 or older not involved in the case, a sheriff or constable, or a process server, and say service must be made within 120 days of filing.

Answer. The summons must give the tenant “three business days from the date of service” to appear and defend, unless the tenant objects and the court allows more time (§ 78B-6-807(3)(a)). Counting starts the day after service. With no answer, move for default and an order of restitution.

Possession bond (§ 78B-6-808). Any time between filing and final judgment the landlord may file a possession bond (corporate, cash, certified funds or property bond) in an amount the court approves as the tenant’s probable costs and damages if the suit was improperly brought. Notice of the bond is served like a summons and must describe the tenant’s options:

• in a case based solely on nonpayment, pay accrued rent, all other amounts due and costs, including attorney fees as provided in the rental agreement, within three calendar days of service of the bond notice; the lease then stays in force and the complaint is dismissed;
• file a counter bond within three business days of service of the bond notice or 24 hours after the court sets the amount, whichever is later (the court may allow up to 72 hours); or
• demand a hearing within three days, to be held within three days of the demand.

If the tenant does none of these in time, the landlord gets an order of restitution on ex parte motion (§ 78B-6-808(5)). Separately, § 78B-6-802(2) lets the tenant, a subtenant or another person interested in the lease perform the covenant and “save the lease from forfeiture” unless the violation cannot be cured; ask counsel how that applies to a late tender in your case.

5. Occupancy hearing, judgment and appeal

Occupancy hearing. On request of either party, the court must hold an evidentiary hearing within 10 business days after the tenant files an answer, decide who has the right of occupancy during the case, and enter judgment if nothing more needs deciding (§ 78B-6-810(2)). In a nuisance case alleging an act that would be criminal, the hearing is held on request within 10 days after the complaint is filed; if the court finds the act more likely than not occurred, it issues an order of restitution enforceable immediately, or within up to 72 hours (§ 78B-6-810(3)).

No-shows. If a tenant who had notice fails to appear at any hearing, the court must issue the order of restitution and a default judgment unless it finds a reason not to (§ 78B-6-810(4)).

Treble damages. The court assesses damages from the unlawful detainer, waste alleged and proved, amounts due under the contract and the other items listed, then “shall enter the judgment against the defendant for the rent and for three times the amount of the damages assessed” (§ 78B-6-811(2), (3)). Costs and reasonable attorney fees go to the prevailing party, so a landlord who loses pays the tenant’s fees (§ 78B-6-811(5)(a)).

Appeal. Either party may appeal within 10 days (§ 78B-6-813(1)); in a private nuisance abatement action under § 78B-6a-303 it is three days. The judgment may be enforced immediately (§ 78B-6-811(4)), and a tenant’s filing does not stay the order of restitution unless the tenant posts a court-approved bond and the court orders a stay (§ 78B-6-812(3)(b)).

6. The order of restitution and the lockout

The order (§ 78B-6-812(2)). It directs the tenant to vacate and remove personal property or be forcibly removed by a sheriff or constable, gives three calendar days after service to leave (unless the parties agree otherwise or an immediate-enforcement rule in § 78B-6-810 applies), and advises of the right to a hearing on how it is enforced.

Service and enforcement. The landlord cannot serve it. As amended effective September 1, 2026, § 78B-6-812(3)(a) requires service by a person authorized to serve process under § 78B-8-302(3), which lists peace officers, sheriffs and deputies, constables, state investigators and licensed private investigators, not simply any adult. Service follows the § 78B-6-805 methods and includes the hearing request form. If the tenant does not comply, a sheriff or constable, at the landlord’s direction, may enter by force using the least destructive means possible (§ 78B-6-812(4)(a)). The courts note some officers enforce only orders they served.

Tenant property (§§ 78B-6-812(4), 78B-6-816). The officer may remove and store the property or delegate that to the landlord. The tenant must pay removal and storage costs in full to get it back, but within five business days after removal the tenant must get reasonable access to retrieve clothing, identification, financial documents (including immigration and employment documents), public services documents, and medical information, prescriptions and medical equipment. The rest is treated as abandoned property: post and mail (first class) a notice that it is considered abandoned; the tenant has 15 calendar days from the notice to reclaim it by paying costs; then you may sell it at public sale (notice mailed at least five calendar days before) or donate it if commercially reasonable. If a personal animal is on the premises, the officer must give it to the tenant if the tenant is present (§ 78B-6-812(4)(e)); if the tenant is absent, the officer or landlord must notify animal control (§ 78B-6-812(4)(f)).

Self-help and abandonment. It is unlawful to willfully exclude a tenant “in any manner except by judicial process,” except where the tenant has abandoned the premises (§ 78B-6-814). Abandonment is presumed only as § 78B-6-815(1) describes; an owner may establish it by serving a declaration of abandonment, which the tenant has 24 hours (excluding weekends and court holidays) to dispute in writing (§ 78B-6-815(2)).

7. Eviction record expungement

• Automatic (§ 78B-6-852). For evictions filed on or after July 1, 2022, the court expunges without a petition if the entire case was dismissed, no appeal is pending and at least three years have passed since filing, or if the parties filed a stipulation. Parties may stipulate to expungement in a settlement (§ 78B-6-851).
• By petition (§ 78B-6-853). Any party may petition if the eviction was for holding over after the lease ended or for nonpayment, and any judgment has been satisfied with a satisfaction of judgment on file. If any party files a written objection, “the court may not expunge the eviction”; with no objection within 60 days of filing, the court must expunge.
• Effect (§ 78B-6-854). Tenant screening agencies must remove an expunged case within 30 days after it appears on the courts’ published list and may not report or score it.

Recent law changes landlords should know

• 2024: ch. 194 amended § 78B-6-853 to require that the petition be brought in the court that issued the order of restitution; ch. 428 amended § 78B-6-812. Both took effect May 1, 2024.
• 2025: ch. 275 amended §§ 78B-6-810, 78B-6-811 and 78B-6-812, effective May 7, 2025.
• 2026: Laws of Utah 2026, ch. 44 amended §§ 78B-6-812 and 78B-8-302 effective September 1, 2026; the order of restitution must now be served by a person listed in § 78B-8-302(3).
• 2026: S.B. 218, Constable Modifications (Laws of Utah 2026, ch. 130), effective May 6, 2026, amended § 78B-6-801: beginning January 1, 2027, a constable must be licensed under the Constables Licensing Act (Title 58, Chapter 91) to serve in these cases.
• 2026: H.B. 591, Nuisance Amendments (Laws of Utah 2026, ch. 401, signed March 25, 2026, effective May 6, 2026) amended §§ 78B-6-802, 805, 811 and 813 to refer to abatement by eviction of a private nuisance under § 78B-6a-303. The notice periods did not change. The courts’ landlord page warns that its forms “have not been updated under HB 591 Nuisance Amendments effective May 6, 2026.”

What actually goes wrong

• Mixing up the day counts. Only the rent notice runs in business days; the other three-day notices, the 15-day and the 5-day notices are calendar days.
• A rent notice that is not in the alternative, or that demands amounts the lease does not make due.
• Posting first without documenting that no suitable person could be found.
• Serving the court papers or the order of restitution yourself.
• Locking out or clearing the unit without a served order, or denying the five business day access to essentials.

When to bring in an attorney

Use counsel if the owner is an LLC, corporation or other entity, if the case involves nuisance or criminal activity, if the property is subsidized, if the tenant answers, or if you want a possession bond or a settlement with an expungement stipulation. The Utah attorneys listed below represent landlords.

Sources

• Utah Code §§ 78B-6-801, 802, 805, 807, 808, 810 to 816 (le.utah.gov versions effective May 6, 2026 for §§ 802, 805, 811, 813 and effective September 1, 2026 for § 78B-6-812 and § 78B-8-302; law.justia.com 2025 Utah Code for the rest).
• Utah Code §§ 78B-6-851 to 854; Laws of Utah 2024, chs. 194 and 428; 2025, ch. 275; 2026, chs. 44 and 401 (H.B. 591); Utah Code § 57-20-1.
• Utah State Courts self-help pages: Eviction Information for Landlords; Eviction Information for Tenants; Expunging Eviction Records.

This guide is general information about Utah procedure and is not legal advice. Statutes and forms change; confirm the current text before relying on any deadline.