The Salt Lake City rental business license and the Good Landlord Program, explained
Renting out a home inside Salt Lake City requires a business license. The Good Landlord Program can reduce the fee substantially. Here is how both work and what your manager should handle.
By the Ekot team · October 8, 2026 · Reviewed by Esther Jackson-Stowell, Principal Broker
The licence
Salt Lake City requires a business license for residential rental dwellings, renewed annually, with a per-unit disproportionate-impact fee. Several neighbouring cities, including South Salt Lake, run their own versions. Operating without one invites fines and complicates any later eviction filing.
The Good Landlord Program
Owners who complete approved landlord training, screen residents to the program’s standards, and use compliant lease language can have most of the per-unit fee waived. The training is a few hours and renews periodically; the savings compound every year you hold the property.
What a manager should do for you
- Apply for and renew the licence on your behalf, and keep the certificate in your portal.
- Maintain Good Landlord compliance: training, screening criteria and lease addenda.
- Track the renewal dates for every city where you own.
- Tell you in writing what the fee was, and what the program saved.
Ekot handles licensing and the Good Landlord requirements for every home we manage inside Salt Lake City and South Salt Lake, and tracks the equivalent rules in Millcreek, Holladay and Cottonwood Heights. General information, not legal advice; fee schedules change, so we confirm each year.
General information for Salt Lake Valley owners and residents, not legal, tax or lending advice. Figures are dated and sourced where given. Reviewed by Esther Jackson-Stowell, Principal Broker.
