Tenant background check in Utah

Disclaimer: This article is not legal advice. We encourage you to consult a local real estate attorney for guidance on this or any other legal topic.

Screening tenants helps you understand who you're renting to before you sign a lease. Tenant screening gives you a view of an applicant's credit, criminal record, and eviction history, so you can evaluate every application against the same criteria.

In Utah, there's no cap on application fees, no statewide fair chance housing law, and no limit on asking about past evictions. What Utah state law does require comes at the very start of the process: before an applicant pays you anything, you owe them a written disclosure of your costs, your criteria, and how they can get their money back.

Utah also clears 2 kinds of records on a schedule. Many minor criminal cases and some eviction cases drop out of the public record, so a report can lawfully leave out an old misdemeanor or an expunged eviction that once would have appeared.

Here's the screening order in Utah, step by step from writing your criteria to sending a denial notice, along with what each report shows and how to weigh it.

What Utah's screening laws say, and who they apply to

Four Utah laws shape tenant screening. Two are rules you follow directly. The other 2 clear records from the public record, which changes what your reports show.

The single-family exemption under Utah's Fair Housing Act has conditions. It generally applies only if you own fewer than 4 single-family homes held for rent, don't use a real estate agent, and don't use discriminatory advertising. The federal Fair Housing Act has its own exemption with different conditions. Talk to a local real estate attorney before relying on either.

The Utah screening order at a glance

Screening a Utah applicant comes down to 6 steps.

1. Set your criteria and costs. Put your screening criteria in writing and know every fee the lease will include.
2. Give your written disclosure. This has to come before you take an application fee or any other payment.
3. Get the applicant's permission. Screening companies require it before releasing reports, so this comes before any review.
4. Review the reports. Check credit, income, eviction history, and the background report against your criteria, in whatever order works for you.
5. Weigh what you find. Apply the same standards to everyone, and look at each record on its own terms.
6. Decide and send any required denial notice. If a report leads you to deny an applicant or offer less favorable terms, federal law requires a denial notice (oral, written, or electronic).

Before you list

You have a few decisions to make before anyone applies. Making them first keeps your disclosure accurate and your process consistent.

Write down your criteria

Decide what criteria every applicant needs to meet, like a credit history threshold, an income-to-rent ratio, and good references from past landlords. Then put your tenant screening criteria in writing and apply them the same way to everyone.

In Utah, written criteria are a requirement. They're part of the disclosure applicants receive before paying, so settle them before you list. If you plan to consider criminal history, credit, income, employment, or rental history, the law expects your criteria to say so.

Know every cost the lease will include

Your disclosure must include a good-faith estimate of the rent and each fixed monthly fee, like pet rent, parking, or a flat trash fee. List the types of usage-based charges the tenant will pay, like water or electricity billed by use.

Gather these before you list. If the lease you send later shows a different rent or a charge you didn't disclose, the applicant can back out and ask for their money back.

Set your application fee

Utah doesn't cap application fees. RentSpree's standard screening costs $39.99 per applicant and includes credit, background, and eviction history. Comprehensive screening costs $49.99 and adds bank-verified income and reference checks that help you avoid fraud.

Applicants typically pay the application fee, and you can choose to cover it instead. Some jurisdictions limit or prohibit passing the fee to applicants, so check your local rules.

Watch your ad and application wording

Utah's Fair Housing Act covers ads, listings, and application forms, along with your final decision. Wording that signals a preference against a protected group can be a violation on its own, even if you never turn anyone away.

Utah protects more groups than federal law does. Beyond race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, and familial status, Utah's Fair Housing Act adds:

• Source of income, which includes public assistance and rental assistance
• Sexual orientation
• Gender identity

Utah’s definition of familial status also covers single applicants, which federal law doesn’t. Like federal law, it protects applicants who are pregnant or in the process of getting custody of a child.

Source of income often comes up during screening. Utah protects applicants who receive rental assistance, including housing vouchers. Turning someone away because they use a voucher, or advertising "no Section 8," can violate state fair housing law. You can still require every applicant to meet the same financial criteria.

An applicant who believes they faced housing discrimination can file a complaint within 180 days with the Utah Antidiscrimination and Labor Division. A first violation can carry a civil penalty of up to $10,000, along with damages and attorney fees.

When someone applies

At the application stage, you have 2 jobs: give your written disclosure before you take any money, and get the applicant's permission before you order any reports.

Give your criteria and costs in writing before anyone pays

Before you accept an application fee or any other payment, Utah law requires you to give the applicant a written disclosure that includes:

• A good-faith estimate of the rent and each fixed monthly fee in the lease
• The types of usage-based charges in the lease
• The date the unit will be available
• The criteria you'll use to decide, including any criteria on criminal history, credit, income, employment, or rental history
• How the applicant can get their money back if the lease doesn't match what you disclosed

The law allows a rental application, deposit agreement, or written summary to carry at least part of this information. The simplest approach is to put all 5 items in one written document that every applicant receives before paying.

With RentSpree, you can share your screening criteria in your listing details, so applicants see your requirements before they apply.

A quick example

Say your written disclosure estimates rent at $1,850 per month. An applicant pays the application fee, gets approved, and receives a lease that lists rent at $1,900.

Because the rent in the lease differs from your estimate, the applicant has 5 business days from receiving the lease to ask in writing for their money back, as long as they haven't signed it or moved in. If they ask, you have 5 business days to return everything they paid you.

The same applies if the lease includes a type of usage-based charge you didn't disclose. An accurate disclosure up front keeps a signed lease from turning into a refund request.

Get the applicant's permission

Get the applicant's permission before you order their screening reports. TransUnion requires it, and RentSpree captures it as part of the online application. Federal law also requires a legitimate reason to pull a consumer report, which a rental application provides.

Reviewing the application

Check each applicant's reports against the criteria you disclosed, and apply them the same way to everyone.

Credit history

A credit report shows how an applicant has handled open accounts, payments, balances, and collections over time. With RentSpree, that report comes from TransUnion and includes ResidentScore®, a score built for tenant screening that gives more weight to housing-related payment behavior.

• Look past the score to the pattern. Steady payments with one rough stretch read differently from repeated misses over time.
• Separate a thin file from a damaged one. A short credit history isn't the same as a poor one.
• Treat the score as one input. Weigh it alongside income, rental history, and the rest of the application.

Income

Pay stubs and bank statements have become easy to fabricate, and AI tools can now produce convincing fakes. In a 2024 National Multifamily Housing Council survey of large apartment operators, more than 93% reported experiencing fraud, and 84% of those had encountered falsified pay stubs, employment letters, or reference letters.

Bank-verified income pulls deposit history directly from the applicant's financial institution through Finicity, a Mastercard company, so there's no document to alter. When you add RentSpree's income verification for $10, paid by the applicant, you see up to 18 months of deposit history.

• Compare verified deposits to what the applicant reported. Consistency over time tells you more than a single month.
• Count every lawful income source. Utah protects applicants who receive government assistance, including rental assistance, so count those payments the same way you count wages.
• Ask before you decide. If something doesn't line up, you can always ask the applicant to clarify.

Eviction history

Eviction records show landlord-tenant cases that ended in a judgment against the applicant, such as a judgment for possession or for money owed. RentSpree tenant screening reports are powered by TransUnion and cover Utah records from the past 7 years.

Utah clears some eviction cases from the record. Under the state's eviction expungement law, a case filed on or after July 1, 2022 is cleared from the public court record automatically if:

• The entire case was dismissed, no appeal is pending, and at least 3 years have passed since it was filed, or
• Both sides agreed to the expungement and filed that agreement with the court

Tenants can also petition to expunge a case over unpaid rent or staying past the end of a lease, once any money judgment is paid and a satisfaction of judgment filed. If the landlord in that case objects within 60 days, the court has to deny the petition.

Once a case is expunged, screening companies have to remove it from their records, and the applicant can lawfully answer as though the eviction never happened.

• Know what the report leaves out. Only cases that ended in a judgment appear, so dismissed cases won't show up whether or not Utah has cleared them yet.
• Expect some judgments to be missing. A judgment can drop off if both sides agreed to expunge the case, or if the tenant paid it and the court granted a petition.
• Weigh timing. One case from years ago reads differently from a recent pattern.
• Use rental references too. A call to a past landlord fills in what a report can't.

Background report

A background report searches national records, including sex offender registries, Most Wanted lists, and the OFAC watchlist, along with local criminal court records in covered jurisdictions. Utah local court records are available under RentSpree's standard coverage.

Utah doesn't restrict when you can review criminal history or how far back you can look, though federal law limits how long some non-conviction records can be reported. It does clear many minor records automatically under its Clean Slate law. Cases that qualify clear on these timelines:

• Class C misdemeanors and infractions: 5 years
• Class B misdemeanors: 6 years
• Class A misdemeanor drug possession: 7 years

Felonies, most class A misdemeanors, DUIs, and domestic violence, weapons, violent, and sex offenses don’t clear automatically. Neither do cases for applicants who are in prison or on probation or parole, who have unpaid court debt or a pending charge, or whose prosecutor objects.

Automatic clearing paused from October 2024 through the end of 2025 and resumed in January 2026, so a record that qualifies may still show up on a report while courts catch up. Once a record is expunged, the applicant can lawfully answer as though the arrest or conviction never happened.

Federal fair housing law still applies to how you use criminal history. HUD withdrew its criminal-records guidance in 2025, but courts still recognize challenges to a blanket policy that falls harder on a protected group, so weigh each record on its own terms instead:

• Separate a charge from a conviction. A charge means a case was filed; a dismissed case or acquittal isn't a conviction.
• Check how recent it is. A conviction from last year reads differently from one that is decades old.
• Weigh how serious it is. Decide in advance how your criteria treat different levels of offense, and apply that the same way to every applicant.
• Connect it to the rental. Consider whether the record bears on the safety of other residents or your property.

Making a decision

Once the reports are in, return to the criteria you disclosed at the beginning. If an applicant meets those criteria, approve and move on to the lease. If not, there are 2 more checks before you finish.

Check whether your city has a good landlord program

Some Utah cities, including Ogden, charge a per-unit rental fee and offer a reduced fee to landlords who complete a city training program, often called a Good Landlord Program. Some programs require background and credit checks on new tenants to qualify for the discount.

State law sets limits on these programs. A city can’t require you to deny an applicant over criminal history unless it has a facility that houses people released on parole or probationers who violated their probation. It also can’t collect your tenants’ screening reports without your agreement. Owner-occupied buildings with 4 or fewer units are exempt from the per-unit rental fee, and a city can’t stop you from passing the fee on to tenants. Ask your city's business licensing office whether a program applies to your rental and what it requires.

Send the required denial notice

If information in a screening report leads you to deny an application, or to offer less favorable terms like a higher deposit or a co-signer requirement, federal law requires a notice. It must:

• Name the screening company that provided the report, with its address and phone number
• State that the company didn't make the decision
• Explain the applicant's right to a free copy of the report within 60 days and to dispute anything inaccurate
• Include the credit score, its source, the scoring range, and the main factors behind it, if a score contributed to your decision

RentSpree generates the required denial notice from your dashboard, so the notice goes out without an extra step on your list.

Common mistakes to avoid

Each of these comes back to the order of steps or the disclosure.

• Taking a fee before the disclosure. The written disclosure has to reach applicants before any money does.
• Disclosing criteria but not costs. Your estimated rent and fixed fees are part of the same disclosure.
• Sending a lease that doesn't match. A different rent or an undisclosed usage-based charge gives the applicant grounds for a refund.
• Writing "no Section 8" in a listing. Utah protects applicants who receive rental assistance, so ad wording can be a problem on its own.
• Relying on the single-family-exemption with an agent. Working with a real estate agent ends Utah's single-family exemption.

Screen Utah tenants from listing to decision

To follow Utah's screening rules, pay attention to the order of your screening process. Set your criteria and costs before you list, give your written disclosure before anyone pays, review each report against the same criteria, and send a denial notice when a report leads to a no. Expect some older records to be missing from what comes back, since Utah clears them on a schedule.

RentSpree keeps those steps in one place. You can advertise your rental, share your screening criteria, collect applications and consent, review TransUnion credit, background, and eviction history, add bank-verified income, and accept or deny from your dashboard. Once your tenant moves in, Landlord PRO, $6.99 a month billed annually, adds rent collection with no transaction fees and maintenance requests that arrive sorted and dispatched.

RentSpree is free for landlords and agents to use. Screening starts at $39.99 per applicant, typically paid by the applicant, though you can choose to cover it yourself. Some jurisdictions limit or prohibit passing the fee along, so check your local rules.

FAQs

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