Legislative Update - 2026 Week 5
Legislative Updates
Friday February 27th, 2026
Just ONE WEEK LEFT in the session. Here are some things the RHA has been working on this week:
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 remove 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 a message to their legislators expressing concerns about this ill-considered proposal. So far in the campaign, over 1300 messages have been sent to legislators expressing opposition to the proposal. The campaign will continue through next week to make sure Legislators know how important this property tax exemption is to maintain for the long term.
The link for RHA members to use to send the call for action is here:
https://speak4.io/lp/i301nnw9
SB 309 Single Family Home Rental Modifications by Sen. John Johnson (R)
This was the bill to add an excise tax ranging from $2-6k per unit on any owner who owns 25 or more single family home rentals. This bill was heard in committee this past Monday. 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 will not advance this year. However, this will likely continue to be an issue to watch in the future.
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. This bill was heard in committee this week. The RHA opposed the original bill because we believe there are better ways to help tenants build credit than this mandatory process that the bill attempted to put into statute. 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. Special thanks to RHA GAC member and Titan Legal attorney Nick Lloyd for his help on SB 187 and SB 76 this session.
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. The bill was head in House Business and Labor this week. Rep. John Arthur is a new representative who replaced Rep. Gay Lynn Bennion in Cottonwood Heights. He presented the bill and RHA Gov Affairs Director Justin Allen 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.