Security Deposit Alternative in Utah
Utah sets no ceiling on a security deposit and instead ties what you can keep to what your lease actually says: rent, damage past reasonable wear and tear, cleaning, and other costs and fees the contract provides for. You have 30 days from the resident handing back possession to send the balance of the deposit, any prepaid rent, and a written notice itemizing and explaining every deduction you made.
What Utah law says about security deposits
Read from the Utah statute on 2026-09-11. Deposit rules change, and this is general information rather than legal advice. Confirm the current text with your own counsel before you change a lease.
Can you require it of every Utah resident?
Utah has no statute written for a monthly fee charged instead of a deposit, so the arrangement rests on your lease and the general deposit rules. Those rules are short. A deposit may go toward rent, damage beyond reasonable wear and tear, cleaning, and other costs and fees the contract provides for, which means a charge you want to recover from the deposit has to be in the lease to begin with. Within 30 days of the resident vacating you send the balance of the deposit, the balance of any prepaid rent, and, where you kept anything, a written notice that itemizes and explains each deduction. Utah allows that to go electronically if the resident gave you the means.
Rules differ by state and by city, and subsidized housing is its own question. This is general information for property managers, not legal advice. Get a written opinion before you make the fee a condition of tenancy anywhere.
How the program works in Utah
The mechanics are the same in every state Beagle operates in. The program is designed to comply with applicable state and local regulations, and the rate is set by the deposit amount rather than by geography, so a Utah property and one two states over are quoted the same way.
The resident chooses at signing
Instead of producing the full deposit, the resident pays a smaller non-refundable monthly fee that is billed with rent. Nothing is held, so nothing has to be returned.
The property keeps its protection
Damage beyond normal wear is reimbursed up to the deposit amount the unit would otherwise have required, so what you can recover does not shrink.
Move-out stops being a negotiation
A claim is filed against the program rather than deducted from money you are holding, which takes the itemised-deduction letter and the dispute that follows it off your team's desk.
You earn on every resident who takes it
You set an administrative fee on top of the premium, up to $5 per unit per month, and keep it.
Utah security deposit alternative FAQs
Because in Utah the deposit only covers what the lease said it would. Anything you did not write into the contract is not deductible from it, and the itemized notice is due within 30 days regardless. A deposit alternative lowers what a resident produces at move-in without lowering what the property can recover.
See it on your Utah units
Run the program against your own unit count, or walk through it with our team. No upfront fees, no onboarding charges, no long-term contracts.