Rental Housing Association of Utah 2026 Legislative Recap

Rental Housing Association of Utah 2026 Legislative Recap
Thursday March 19th, 2026

The 2026 Legislative session wrapped up at midnight on Friday, March 6th. It was a very busy session with many complicated issues. Below are updates on many of the various issues and bills the RHA worked on this session:

HB 377 3rd Sub—Real Estate Amendments by Rep. Neil Walter (R)

Rep. Neil Walter’s bill to continue to update the Property Management License statute completed its final step of the legislative process at 11:40 pm on the last night of the session. The RHA worked closely with the bill sponsor along with the UAR, Division of Real Estate, and other key stakeholders to continue work on the new residential property management license and training program that will now go into effect in January of 2027. The final bill was a compromise approach to beginning this new license. 

This bill set the effective date of the bill to January 1, 2027. It returned the dual broker language back into the statute after it had been removed last year. The bill codifies the position of Principal Property Manager as a primary point of contact for a Property Management entity. It established that broker supervision is still required for this new license unless the entity manages over 750 units or more. The bill also put into law that PM licensees not under broker supervision are not required to use trust accounting as long as there is an agreement between the owner and the property manager and that provision is included in the lease agreement. Finally, the bill instructed the Legislature to study to best way for property management enforcement to be handled between the Division of Real Estate and the Division of Consumer Protection. 
Rep Walter is a real estate practitioner and property manager himself and is a great advocate for the real estate and property management industry. The RHA is working with DRE staff on ideas for the best approach to administrative rule and continuing education for the new license. We hope to have the rules and education for this new license largely completed by the end of the summer. The statute and rule related this new residential property management license will likely evolve in the first few years as we see how the new license works in practice. 

SB 97 Tax Revenue Amendments by Sen. Dan McCay (R)

As you may have heard, The RHA of Utah received a grant from the National Apartment Association to run an issue advocacy campaign to oppose SB 97, the bill that would have removed the primary residential property tax exemption from rental properties. 

The campaign engaged RHA members, other rental housing providers, real estate practitioners, and tenants to send messages to their legislators expressing concerns about this ill-considered proposal. During the campaign, over 1500 messages were sent to legislators expressing opposition to the proposal.  

SB 97 evolved with each substitute bill. The third substitute put that residential property tax  exemption to 40% from the current 45%. The RHA continued to oppose the bill throughout the process because we believe the tax treatment of owner-occupied and rental properties should be equal. The RHA worked in conjunction with the UAR and others to lobby the Senate leading up to the final consideration of the bill on the Senate Floor during the last week of the session. 

Once the bill was uncircled on the third reading calendar on Wednesday, March 5th, Senator Cal Musselman proposed an amendment to change the 40% exemption for rental properties to 45%. Senator Musselman did a great job advocating for rental property owners and renters and discussed how this tax policy change would not be an effective policy change to incentivize home ownership. His amendment ended up passing comfortably with over 20 votes and the bill was amended. The amended bill still failed on a 14-15 vote.

We want to sincerely thank all RHA members, industry friends, and the other stakeholders and members of the general public who reached out to their legislators to express support for the current property tax policy for rental housing. 

HB 29 Unfair and Deceptive Pricing Amendments by Rep. Tyler Clancy (R)

This bill would have given the Division of Consumer Protection broad authority to investigate and fine Utah businesses engaged in a variety of transactions. RHA opposed this bill because it was clear that rental housing leases were among the transactions the Division of Consumer Protection was interested in investigating using this expanded authority. RHA believes the Division of Real Estate is the best division in the Department of Commerce to regulate real estate because of the Division of Real Estate Commission and DRE staff with real estate expertise. HB 29 ended up dying in the Senate after passing in the House. 

SB 309 Single Family Home Rental Modifications by Sen John Johnson (R) 

This bill  sought to add an excise tax ranging from $2-6k per unit on any owner who owns 25 or more single family home rentals. During its lone committee hearing, the RHA testified in opposition to the bill along with other groups like the National Rental Home Council and the Utah State Tax Commission. The bill was held in committee and did not advance for further consideration. However, this will likely continue to be an issue to watch in the future. 

SB 76 Residential Rental Reporting Payments Amendments by Sen Jen Plumb (D) 

The RHA opposed this bill because we believe there are better ways to help tenants build credit than the mandatory rent reporting that the bill attempted to put into statute. The RHA opposed this effort to mandate additional administrative burden on rental housing providers without the ability to charge a reasonable fee for that additional administrative burden. The Senate Business and Labor Committee voted to hold the bill in committee and it did not proceed any further in the process.

SB 187 Renter Credit Reporting Amendments by Sen Stephanie Pitcher (D)

This bill would have established mandatory credit reporting of rent by any landlord who accepts public assistance vouchers, as well as limiting the amount a landlord could charge for that service to the pass-through credit agency fee. The RHA opposed the original bill for the same reasons we opposed SB 76. In response to our concerns, the bill sponsor Senator Pitcher moved a substitute bill that would have limited this bill to a pilot test for just the Salt Lake Housing Authority, who was willing to cover the cost of this credit reporting. We worked with the sponsor on a further amendment clarifying that this would only apply to properties owned by the SL Housing Authority. The bill ended up failing to advance out of committee on a 2-2 vote. Senator Pitcher appreciated our efforts to work with her on the bill. 

HB 478 Residential Rental Modifications by Rep. John Arthur (D)

This bill was the continued attempt to codify a mandatory 60-day notice of rent increase. The RHA has typically resisted this proposed addition to statute as we prefer to handle these type of matters in contract. Rep. John Arthur is a new representative who replaced Rep. Gay Lynn Bennion in Cottonwood Heights. He presented the bill and RHA GAC member Jeremiah Maughan spoke in opposition. The committee end up voting to hold the bill in committee, which means it has died now four years in a row. 

RHA-supported Appropriations Requests:
The RHA supported two Requests for Appropriation (RFA) this session. Rep. Jim Dunnigan sponsored a RFA in the Criminal Justice Appropriations Subcommittee that would fund an expanded statewide eviction prevention court mediation program. This money helps facilitate fair mediation between landlords and tenants and provides money to help resolve issues amicably. That RFA was prioritized by the subcommittee and was eventually funded at the amount of $450k one-time by Executive Appropriations in the final budget. 

Senator Lincoln Fillmore sponsored an RFA in the Economic and Community Development Appropriations Subcommittee to provide additional funding for the Section 8 Voucher Landlord Incentive Fund that makes landlords whole who experience difficulties when renting to tenants utilizing public-assistance vouchers. That RFA was also prioritized and was eventually funded at the amount of $450k one-time by Executive Appropriations for the final budget. A big thank you to Subcommittee Chair Senator Cal Musselman and Senate Majority Leader Kirk Cullimore for their leadership and support. 

We express appreciation to all members of the RHA Government Affairs Committee who met each week to discuss the issues being considered by the legislature. Several members of the Government Affairs Committee volunteered time to attend committee hearings and testify in support or in opposition to bills. We welcome all RHA members’ participation in the Government Affairs Committee  and in our advocacy efforts generally.