✓ Law Verified August 2026
An Utah eviction record can block apartment applications for years — often regardless of how the case actually ended. This guide answers the question directly for Utah: whether a sealing law exists here, exactly how to use it if it does, and the real alternatives if it does not. Verified against official Utah sources as of August 2026.
In This Utah Guide:
How the Utah Sealing Law Works
| The law | Utah Code Title 78B, Chapter 6, Part 8a — Expungement of Eviction Records (Sections 78B-6-850 through 78B-6-855), created by H.B. 359 “Eviction Records Amendments” (2022 General Session), effective July 1, 2022; amended by S.B. 184 “Expungement of Eviction Amendments” (2024 General Session), effective May 1, 2024 |
| Who qualifies | Three routes. (1) Stipulation — 78B-6-851: all parties to the eviction may agree in a settlement agreement or separate filing to expunge the eviction record; no case-type limit and no waiting period once the stipulation is filed. (2) Automatic — 78B-6-852: the entire case was dismissed, no appeal is pending, and at least 3 years (1095 days) have passed since the eviction case was filed; also automatic where a stipulation to expungement has been filed. Applies only to evictions filed on or after July 1, 2022. (3) Petition — 78B-6-853: any party may petition where any judgment entered in the eviction has been satisfied and a satisfaction of judgment has been filed, and the eviction was for holding over after the end of the lease or for nonpayment of rent. Evictions based on criminal activity, nuisance, unauthorized occupants or pets, subletting, or other lease breaches are not covered by the petition route; S.B. 184 (2024) added a petition path for evictions based solely on the use or possession of a controlled substance. Tenancies at will are not expressly covered. |
| Automatic or petition | BOTH. Automatic under 78B-6-852 — the court itself issues the order of expungement with no filing by the tenant when the case was fully dismissed with no pending appeal and 3 years have passed from filing, or when a stipulation to expungement has been filed. PETITION under 78B-6-853 for everything else — the tenant files a Petition to Expunge Eviction and serves the other parties under the Utah Rules of Civil Procedure. If no written objection is filed within 60 days of the petition date, the court shall order expungement. If the landlord files a written objection, the court may not expunge the eviction — the landlord effectively holds a veto on the petition route. |
| Waiting period | Automatic route: 3 years (1095 days) from the day the eviction case was filed, for fully dismissed cases with no pending appeal. Stipulation route: no waiting period — expungement follows once the stipulation is filed. Petition route: no fixed waiting period, but you may not petition until any judgment is satisfied and a satisfaction of judgment has been filed; after filing, the court waits 60 days for objections before ordering expungement. |
| Cost | 150 |
Step by Step: Sealing Your Utah Eviction Record
File in the district court that issued the order of restitution in your eviction case (78B-6-853 venue rule — only a district court judge can order eviction expungement).
Steps many tenants follow: (1) pay off or otherwise satisfy the judgment and make sure a Satisfaction of Judgment is filed in the case; (2) complete the Utah state court form Petition to Expunge Eviction (form 4000EV) available from the Utah Courts self-help housing page;
(3) file it in the same district court case, paying the fee or filing form 1301GE, Motion to Waive Fees and Statement Supporting Motion; (4) serve notice of the petition on every other party to the eviction under the Utah Rules of Civil Procedure; (5) wait the 60-day objection window — if no written objection is filed, the court shall order expungement;
if the landlord objects, the court cannot grant it, so many tenants first ask the landlord to sign a stipulation to expungement under 78B-6-851 and file that instead, which triggers expungement without a contested petition. No hearing is required when there is no objection; check with your court’s clerk on local scheduling.
What sealing actually does: An order of expungement seals or otherwise restricts access to the eviction records held by the court and any agency holding them (78B-6-850 definition of “expunge”), and the order is distributed to the agencies and record holders identified in 78B-6-854/855 so the case stops appearing in public court records that tenant screening companies scrape.
Under 78B-6-854(3)(b), a person whose eviction is expunged may answer an inquiry about the matter as though the eviction never occurred.
Important limits: the statute’s restriction on using expunged records does not reach individual landlords, so a private landlord who already knows about or independently kept a copy of the old filing may still consider it; screening reports built before the expungement may keep circulating until you dispute them; and records the court does not control are not automatically erased.
You may be able to clear the record, but no outcome is guaranteed — check with your court.
Why An Utah Eviction Record Follows You — and For How Long
An eviction case becomes a public court record the day it is filed — even if you won, even if it was dismissed, even if you moved out voluntarily before the hearing. Tenant screening companies copy these records in bulk and resell them to landlords, which is how an Utah eviction record from years ago can quietly sink a rental application today.
Under federal reporting rules these records generally stop appearing on screening reports after seven years, but the public court file itself can remain searchable far longer unless it is sealed.
That is why the filing itself, not just the outcome, is what matters — and why sealing laws are spreading state by state. Most landlords never read the court file; they read the one-line summary a screening company sells them. Getting the Utah eviction record sealed, corrected, or accurately described is what changes that one line.
Check Your Utah Eviction Record First
Before filing anything, find out what your Utah eviction record really looks like to a landlord. Search the online case index for the court where the eviction was filed, and request your file from the major tenant screening companies — you are entitled to it.
Tenants are often surprised in both directions: some discover the case they worry about was never reported, others find a case they had forgotten, or one that is not even theirs.
Knowing exactly what appears, and how it is described, tells you whether to pursue sealing, a dispute, or both.
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Screening reports are also where errors live. A dismissed case reported as an eviction, an old address matched to the wrong person, or a paid judgment still shown as owing are all fixable — and fixing the report is sometimes faster than any court process in Utah.
Your Federal Rights Against Tenant Screening Companies
Tenant screening companies are consumer reporting agencies under the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act, 15 U.S.C. 1681 and following.
If a report shows an eviction that is wrong, expunged, dismissed, satisfied, or belongs to someone else: (1) if you were denied housing, denied a lease, or charged a higher rent or deposit because of the report, the landlord must give you an adverse action notice naming the screening company, and you are entitled to a free copy of that report from the company within 60 days of the notice;
(2) dispute the item in writing directly with the screening company, attaching proof such as the dismissal order, satisfaction of judgment, or the Utah expungement order; (3) the company generally must reinvestigate and respond within 30 days (extended to 45 days if you send extra documents during the 30-day period), and must delete or correct information it cannot verify; (4) you can also dispute with the furnisher of the data;
(5) if the item is corrected or deleted, you may ask the company to send corrected reports to anyone who received the report in the past 6 months. You may also file a complaint with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau at consumerfinance.gov/complaint. You are entitled to one free file disclosure every 12 months from nationwide specialty consumer reporting agencies, which includes tenant screening companies.
Timing matters more than tenants expect. If you are apartment-hunting right now, start the screening-report disputes today — they run on federal deadlines and cost nothing — while any Utah court process moves in parallel. If the move is months away, that is enough time for most sealing petitions, vacated judgments, or corrected reports to finish before a landlord ever pulls your Utah eviction record.
Worth watching in Utah: S.B. 215 “Eviction Record Amendments” (2026 General Session) was introduced January 29, 2026, received a favorable 8-0 committee recommendation on February 3, 2026, was amended on the floor, and was placed on the Senate 2nd Reading Calendar February 4, 2026.
It would shorten the automatic-expungement waiting period for fully dismissed eviction cases from 3 years to a much shorter window — the introduced version used 1 year and the Senate-amended version used 90 days — applying to evictions filed on or after July 1, 2022, with a stated effective date of May 6, 2026.
Final passage and signature status as of August 20, 2026 is UNVERIFIED — confirm the current text at le.utah.gov before relying on the 3-year figure, because a dismissed case may now qualify far sooner. Earlier amendment history: S.B. 184 (2024), effective May 1, 2024, broadened the petition route. No county-level pilot expungement programs in Utah were verified.
Free help with eviction expungement petitions is available from Utah Legal Services and the Utah Courts Self-Help Center.
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Official Utah Sources & Resources
- Utah Courts Self-Help: utcourts.gov/en/self-help/case-categories/housing/landlord/e…
- Utah Statute: le.utah.gov/xcode/Title78B/Chapter6/78B-6-S853.html
- U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development: hud.gov
- Cornell Legal Information Institute: law.cornell.edu/wex
Taking Control of Your Utah Eviction Record
An Utah eviction record is not a life sentence — it is a document, and documents can be sealed, corrected, or accurately explained. The tenants who struggle longest are usually the ones who never look at what their Utah eviction record actually says, so start by pulling the court file and your screening reports.
Whether Utah offers sealing or only the federal dispute route, acting on the Utah eviction record beats hoping landlords will not check — they almost always do. A short, honest cover letter to a prospective landlord explaining the circumstances can also do real work while the record process runs.
This Utah eviction record guide was last verified against official sources in August 2026. Sealing laws are changing fast — new states pass them every year, so re-check before relying on this page.
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Disclaimer: This guide is informational only and is not legal advice. Landlord-tenant laws change and vary by city and county within a state. Verify current rules with your state, your local court, or a free legal-aid office before acting. If you are facing eviction, contact a local tenant attorney or legal-aid organization right away.