Utah

Proposed Utah bill takes aim at hidden rental fees

Published

1 month ago

February 12, 2026

Proposed Utah bill takes aim at hidden rental fees

SALT LAKE CITY — After spending a year living out of her car, Rachel Ortiz said she does everything she can to avoid going back to that life. And that includes keeping a very tight budget.

“Unexpected things come up and I’m able to pay them thankfully, but a lot of people aren’t able to do that,” Ortiz said.

But her carefully planned budget blew up on her when her Salt Lake City apartment turned out to be not as affordable as advertised.

The listed rent price for her place was $869. But each month, Ortiz pays nearly a hundred dollars more to live there – not including utilities.

The reason? Hidden rental fees.

“It’s hard to afford a place nowadays with the rent, and if the inflation is going up,” she said.

The monthly add-ons driving up rent

Ortiz’s monthly fees include $10 for pest control. Another $14 goes to her place’s liability waiver program — an alternative to the required renter’s insurance. And with no adjacent street parking available, she also must pay $25 for parking: covered or uncovered. On top of those fees, there’s a $16 “real estate tax” for her share of the complex’s property taxes.

“I mean, they want to charge you separate for every little thing,” Ortiz said.

She also shares the costs of landscaping, maintenance, snow removal, security and utility bills for her place’s common areas. That fee varies, but last month it came to $32.

“I go to pay this amount, and then you tell me it’s this amount,” she said. “And I have this amount for the rent.”

Fees renters report paying nationwide

Ortiz isn’t alone in having to tackle monthly rent inflated by hidden rental fees. Americans spend hundreds of millions of dollars on rental fees every year, according to a National Consumer Law Center study. That same study identified 27 distinct types of fees renters are paying in addition to their rent.

Those include a fee for having a guest over. Some renters pay an additional fee for the landlord to process their rent payments. Some pay for mandatory trash pick-up or valet service even though they want to take their garbage to the dumpster on their own. Some tenants report having to pay fees to receive packages or to get their mail sorted.

What current law protects renters

Since 2021, landlords in Utah have been required to disclose all fees before taking an application fee.

“The tenants, when they are touring those apartment communities, the law is that they have to disclose all the fees,” said Derek Seal of the Utah Rental Housing Association – a leading trade association for landlords, property managers and others linked to the rental housing industry. “We want people and tenants to be able to make informed decisions.”

Seal says the current law already prevents a landlord from charging a fee that wasn’t disclosed before the renter signed the lease. On the flip side, if a fee was disclosed in the lease – he says renters really don’t have room to complain.

“They have a responsibility to understand the agreement … that they’re getting into,” he said.

What HB29 would change

But now, HB29 aims to require fee disclosure well before a prospective tenant sees an agreement. It wants it to happen in the advertising.

“It’s setting a standard,” said the bill’s sponsor, state Rep. Tyler Clancy, R-Provo. “We’re making sure that they (consumers) have an expectation that the marketplace is being honest and transparent.”

HB29 bans hidden rental fees by requiring a listing or an advertisement for a rental to disclose the total price.

“When you’re not being upfront about your price, that could be anti-competitive in nature because you’re not really advertising your product,” Clancy said. “Setting an expectation that families can know if something fits into their budget or not, I think that’s a reasonable thing.”

“The extra fees then should be baked into the price,” said Katie Hass, who leads Utah’s Division of Consumer Protection — which will enforce HB29 if it passes.

They have a responsibility to understand the agreement … that they’re getting into.

–Derek Seal, Utah Rental Housing Association

She says the listed rental price must reflect the real price a tenant will have to pay to live there, excluding personal utilities. And that price, she said, cannot be a range that depends on variable or seasonal fees.

“You (landlords) get to set your own prices,” she said. “You just have to be truthful what’s included in that price and what’s optional at the end of the transaction.”

Federal scrutiny and Greystar’s response

At least eleven other states have similar laws about disclosing hidden rental fees in listings or ads. And in December, the Federal Trade Commission and the State of Colorado reached a $24 million settlement with rental housing giant Greystar over allegations it deceived renters with hidden fees.

“These little fees, at the end, they create a bitterness to our economy that we don’t want here in Utah,” Hass said.

KSL reached out to Greystar about the settlement, who pointed us to their Dec. 2, 2025 statement that reads in part, “The agreement contains no admission of wrongdoing, and Greystar continues to maintain, as it has from the start of this matter, that its advertising has always been transparent, fair, and fully consistent with the longstanding industrywide practice of advertising base rent to potential residents.”

In that same statement, Greystar also says the agreement clarifies the FTC’s position “that federal law requires displaying the Total Monthly Leasing Price, including base rent and all mandatory fees, when advertising housing for rent.”

One renter’s reaction as ownership changes

As for Rachel Ortiz, she does feel bitterness toward all the fees she has to pay on top of her rent.

“It’s become like really greedy,” she lamented. “They start thinking with this (pointing to her head) and stop thinking with this (tapping her heart).”

She just recently learned her home has been bought out by Greystar. She now hopes her new landlord will be more transparent.

“It’s just too much,” she said.

What renters can do right now

If passed, HB29 would not take effect until July 1, 2026.

As a renter, the best thing you can do is, before touring a place, contact the landlord and request a full breakdown of all monthly costs you’re expected to pay, as well as any one-time fees, such as a lease initiation fee. And it doesn’t hurt to try to negotiate. Ask whether they’ll consider waiving a fee or maybe lowering the rent to offset the fee costs.

Derek Seal said the Utah Rental Housing Association maintains a fund that reimburses application fees for renters who did not receive full disclosure when they applied. You can apply on their webpage.

The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.

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Utah

Niskanen Center, Arnold Ventures Applaud Utah Clearance Rate Legislation – Niskanen Center

Published

8 hours ago

March 26, 2026

Press Room

Niskanen Center, Arnold Ventures Applaud Utah Clearance Rate Legislation – Niskanen Center

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 26, 2026

Media Contacts:
Louisa Tavlas
ltavlas@niskanencenter.org

Arnold Ventures
media@arnoldventures.org

Olin: Legislators, Cox, “providing law enforcement with additional resources to improve investigative outcomes” and keep Utah safe.

Washington, DC (March 26, 2026) — The Niskanen Center and Arnold Ventures applaud the Utah State Legislature and Governor Spencer Cox for passing new, bipartisan legislation designed to solve more crimes and provide support for crime victims. The bill, H.B. 137, passed both the Utah House of Representatives and the Utah Senate by wide, bipartisan margins and was signed into law by the Governor today.

“Making Utah as safe as possible requires ensuring law enforcement has every available resource to identify and arrest every criminal who preys upon innocent citizens,” said Jason Olin, senior government affairs manager for criminal justice at the Niskanen Center. “HB 137 establishes a Violent Crime Clearance Rate Fund that will provide law enforcement with additional resources to improve investigative outcomes. We thank Rep. Clancy and Sen. McKell for their leadership on this critical issue and Gov. Cox for signing this important piece of legislation.”

“Solving more violent crimes quickly can bring peace to victims and reduce the number of future victims,” said Kevin Ring, vice president of criminal justice advocacy at Arnold Ventures. “Would-be offenders need to know that they will be held accountable, and this law will make it more likely they will. We thank legislative leaders, including Rep. Clancy and Sen. McKell, and Gov. Cox for making sure Utah taxpayers and communities get the biggest public safety bang for their buck.”

H.B. 137, sponsored by Rep. Tyler Clancy (R-60) and Sen. Mike McKell (R-25), creates the Violent Crime Clearance Rate Fund to assist Utah law enforcement agencies in solving violent crimes. The fund will support hiring additional law enforcement officers and providing them with the tools they need to solve crimes. H.B. 137 includes provisions to ensure that resources from the fund reach departments of all sizes across both urban and rural jurisdictions. It will also help researchers conduct rigorous evaluations of the policies and practices that are most effective in solving crimes.

Utah is one of the safest states in the nation. But since 2019, the state’s violent crime clearance rate has hovered around 53%. That means nearly half of all violent crimes reported in Utah result in no arrest and no accountability. Even Utah’s 2024 homicide clearance rate of 74% — well above the national average — leaves more than 1 in 4 murders unsolved. Behind each of those unsolved cases is a victim whose family has been denied justice.

Olin, Ring, and other criminal justice experts are available for interview or comment.

More information on the Niskanen Center’s criminal justice policy work can be found here.

More information on AV’s criminal justice policy work can be found here.

###

The Niskanen Center advances an evidence-based agenda to reduce the social costs of crime and punishment. Our priority is to deter crime and reduce violence by building effective systems that deliver proportional punishment swiftly and predictably, and by ensuring law enforcement has the capacity to keep our neighborhoods safe.

Arnold Ventures is a philanthropy that supports research to understand the root causes of America’s most persistent and pressing problems, as well as evidence-based solutions to address them. By focusing on systemic change and bipartisan policy reforms, AV works to improve the lives of American families, strengthen communities, and promote economic opportunity.

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Utah

Utah Jazz Reacts: Who is the most important core player?

Published

20 hours ago

March 26, 2026

Press Room

Utah Jazz Reacts: Who is the most important core player?

The Utah Jazz are clearly doing everything they can to keep their pick in the upcoming NBA draft. Something tells me that next season, we won’t see as many players on the injury report as this season. That means that the core of this Jazz team will play, and it’s clear they’re going to play well. The question is, of the current Jazz roster, who is going to be the most important player next season? Now, Utah may win the lottery and that could change this entire question. If Utah drafts someone like Darryn Peterson or AJ Dybantsa, that changes everything. That said, let’s just ignore the lottery and draft for the sake of this question. If we’re looking at the odds, it’s statistically a little more likely Utah doesn’t draft in the top four of the draft anyway.

Welcome to SB Nation Reacts, a survey of fans across the NBA. Throughout the year we ask questions of the most plugged-in Jazz fans and fans across the country. Sign up here to participate in the weekly emailed surveys.

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Utah

Utah’s wide receiver room poised for big year in new offense

Published

1 day ago

March 25, 2026

Press Room

Utah’s wide receiver room poised for big year in new offense

It’s been nearly 13 years since a pass-catcher on the Utah football team finished a season with at least 1,000 receiving yards.

Whether that streak reaches 14 remains to be seen, but if it does, it certainly won’t be due to a lack of talent.

“Y’all gonna see a different room. I promise y’all that,” said senior wideout Kyri Shoels after Tuesday’s practice session. “We hungry, and that’s really how it is. We don’t got too much to say.”

Shoels, who joins the Utes following a productive season at San José State, where he finished second on the team in receiving yards behind only the nation’s leader in that category, Danny Scudero, has to wait five more months to let his actions do all the talking on the playing field.

By that point, the buzz around Utah’s new wide receiver corps could be ineffable. At least, it seems to be trending that way through one week of spring practices.

“It’s a lot deeper than what it usually is,” said quarterback Byrd Ficklin of the Utes’ wide receiver room. “There’s ballplayers all over.”

Media sessions after spring practices are often a prime setting for coaches and players to hype up one another while the stakes are still low as far as public perception goes. But based on the production and skillset of some of Utah’s newest pass-catchers, there’s reason to assume the praise they’ve received early on in spring practice is more than just good public relations at work.

Take Braden Pegan, for example. The California native is fresh off serving as the No. 1 option at Utah State, where he recorded 60 receptions for 926 yards and five touchdowns, including three games with 100-plus receiving yards, and boasts the size at 6-foot-3, 210 pounds, to compete at the highest level in the Big 12. Also, he reunites with his Aggies offensive coordinator, Kevin McGiven, and the wide receiver coach who previously recruited him in high school, Chad Bumphis.

That all sounds good on paper, but what speaks even louder volumes about Pegan’s impact on the team is the fact he’s already earned a spot on the team’s leadership council, which is voted on by the players.

“That’s one of those dudes that you wish you had 20 of them,” said head coach Morgan Scalley of Pegan. “He’s such a good kid, smart football player, athletic, can jump out of the gym. We’re excited to have him.”

Pegan isn’t the only one helping Utah’s returners understand the ins and outs of the team’s new offense. Shoels, who brings an understanding of McGiven’s pass-friendly system with him from San José State, where McGiven served as the wide receivers coach during Shoels’ first season with the Spartans, aids in that transition process as well.

The 6-foot-tall Las Vegas native also possesses an element of speed that Utah’s wide receiver room was missing last season. Coming off a season in which he recorded 13 yards per reception on 59 catches (768 yards total), Shoels should get a lot of passes thrown his way as the potential No. 2 option behind Pegan.

That said, there’s a group of returners vying for meaningful playing time this season as well. Larry Simmons and Creed Whittemore are two players who ended the 2025 campaign on positive notes; Tobias Merriweather, the 6-foot-5 senior who transferred in from Cal a year ago, has an opportunity to strengthen his rapport with Devon Dampier heading into his second season with the team. Daidren Zipperer could work his way into the rotation as well after missing a majority of last season due to injury.

Time will tell whether Mana Carvalho, Utah’s primary kick returner in 2025, and Ricky Johnson, a sophomore transfer from Mississippi State, play their way onto the field in 2026. It’s worth noting the departures of the team’s top three receivers from last season — Ryan Davis, Dallen Bentley and JJ Buchanan — have opened up more playing opportunities for returners and newcomers alike.

With only so many spots to go around, though, there’s not enough room to cram every pass-catcher Utah has into the main rotation. It’s not the worst problem Bumphis and Scalley could have on their plate, though it does make spring and fall camp essential in determining the pecking order for the regular season.

“Everybody, every practice is ready to go,” Pegan said. “We’re all locked in. It’s exciting. I can’t wait to see what everyone does this year.”

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