Legislative Update - 2026 Week 1
Legislative Update Thursday January 29th 2026
The first full week of the Legislature has concluded. Following are the issues the Rental Housing Association of Utah is working on.
Property Management Licensing – HB 377 Real Estate Amendments – Representative Walter (R) St. George
Representative Walter, who is a Real Estate Broker and Entrepreneur, owns several real estate brokerages and manages many rental properties, is sponsoring a bill this year to add some clarifications to the process. The bill was numbered and released early this week. It is very simple and does not put a lot of guardrails on the Division of Real Estate so most of the issues will be decided by the Division in Regulation, as opposed to in the statute by the legislature. RHA is working with the Division, including a meeting soon to discuss regulations and will provide more information in the coming weeks.
HB 29 Unfair and Deceptive Pricing Act - Representative Clancy (R) Provo
This bill gives incredible power to the Consumer Protection Agency in investigating and declaring many types of businesses as using unfair and deceptive pricing. We are told it will affect rental operators and are working to make sure that it will not be too onerous. As many of you will recall, RHA supports price transparency and helped pass a law called Rental Expense Disclosure that does many of the things supporters of this bill want, including requiring price transparency up front. We are in discussions with the Consumer Protection Division, the Attorney Generals office and the sponsor to support transparency and allow the state to prosecute rental operators who are truly unfair and deceptive but allow the current practice of allowing advertising to refer to other sources for more details (rather than have long advertising that contains miles of details) stand. We will keep you posted.
SB 76 – Residential Rental Payment Reporting Amendments – Sen. Plumb (D) Salt Lake City
This bill would require most rental operators to report rent payments to the credit bureaus, supposedly to help renters build credit. There are already many operators who allow renters to purchase this service. A requirement to report would cause an incredible burden and cost for rental providers. The RHA has taken a position of opposition to this bill but has been willing to talk with the sponsor about alternatives.
2025 Political Action Committee Fundraising: The Industry collectively donated over $265,000 in 2025 for our Government Affairs Efforts. Thank you to all of you who donated. Please donate this year as well.