Maintenance & Repairs Clause
in Your Lease
How this page is sourced
Statutes verified against primary state sources
Every statute cited here was read in its published text before this page went live: on the state's own site where that site can be reached, otherwise on a republished copy of the code. Court decisions are quoted from the published opinion and linked to it, so you can read the original yourself.
Primary sourcesNot legal advice
Content verified against primary state statutes before publicationLast updated: October 2026
What it actually means, what Utah law says, what's specific to Salt Lake City - and exactly what to do. In plain English.
Quick Summary - What You Need to Know
- The clock starts with a written notice of deficient condition in the form § 57-22-6(2)(b) sets.
- The owner then has three calendar days for habitability, or 10 for a lease requirement, to take substantial action.
- A dangerous condition can be reported any reasonable way, and work must begin within 24 hours.
- No substantial action in time means your notice's remedy applies, if you comply with § 57-22-5.
- City inspectors can also order repairs, within a period their notice sets by severity.
Try your numbers
Is your repair deduction over the limit?
Applies to a Salt Lake City renter whose written notice chose repair and deduct, when the owner took no substantial action within the corrective period; a renter not in compliance with § 57-22-5 gets no remedy (Utah Code § 57-22-6(4)(a)(ii)). Arithmetic only, not legal advice.
Count it for your dates
3 days: when does it end?
What it means: The owner must have taken substantial action toward correcting the condition; this is a deadline to act, not to finish the repair. Applies to a Salt Lake City owner served a notice that meets § 57-22-6(2)(b); the period is three calendar days for a standard of habitability and 10 calendar days for a requirement of the rental agreement, and a dangerous condition needs remedial action begun within 24 hours of notice by any reasonable means (Utah Code § 57-22-6(1)(a), (4)(a)). Calendar arithmetic only; check how the section counts days before you rely on a date.
Copy and send: As soon as something needs fixing, served as § 78B-6-805 or your rental agreement provides
Notice of deficient condition
Fill in the brackets and keep a copy of what you send.
How Utah compares
Deadline to make repairs, state by state
3 days7 days10 days14 days30 daysNo figureGuide coming soonYou are here
See all 27 cities as a chart
Figures are the state rule, or the stronger city ordinance where one exists. Verify the current law for your own situation before relying on it.
Understanding the Maintenance & Repairs Clause
This page is for Salt Lake City renters waiting on a repair, from no hot water to a dead furnace. The key point: Utah's short clock starts only when you serve a written notice in the form the statute sets.
A phone call is enough only for a dangerous condition. Keep paying rent while you wait, keep a copy of the notice, and pick your remedy in the notice itself, because that choice decides what happens if the owner does nothing.
What renters assume
A Salt Lake City owner has three days to finish any repair, and a phone call starts the clock.
What is actually true
Under Utah Code § 57-22-6, the three calendar days covers habitability problems, runs from a written notice in a set form, and asks for substantial action, not a finished repair. Only a dangerous condition needs no formal notice.
Salt Lake City's row in the comparison on this page shows 3 days. Ten of the 27 rows carry no figure, and Salt Lake City's is among the 17 that do.
The figures fall into five groups. Los Angeles, Portland, Columbus and Baltimore sit at 30 days, with Columbus labelled an outer limit and Baltimore a presumed limit.
Chicago, Nashville, Boston, Las Vegas, Minneapolis, Kansas City, Louisville and Oklahoma City show 14 days, Seattle and Phoenix 10 days, Austin and Miami 7 days, and Salt Lake City 3 days.
Read Salt Lake City's bar with its label. The three calendar days in § 57-22-6(1)(a) covers a standard of habitability and asks for substantial action, not a finished repair.
A lease requirement gets 10 calendar days, and a dangerous condition 24 hours for work to begin.
Repairs Clause Example - What the Wording Looks Like in Salt Lake City, UT
The sample clause below is real lease language - a court quoted it word for word, and then ruled on it. What the judge decided is at the bottom of this block.
Find the equivalent paragraph in your own lease and read the two side by side. The wording will differ; the moving parts rarely do.
This sentence opens the reimbursement paragraph of the apartment lease in the Texas case; the rest of that paragraph is not reproduced below.
REIMBURSEMENT. You must promptly reimburse us for loss, damage, or cost of repairs or service caused anywhere in the apartment community by your or any guest's or occupant's improper use or negligence.
Quoted from the published opinion in Churchill Forge, Inc. v. Brown, 61 S.W.3d 368 (Tex. 2001). Judicial opinions are not subject to copyright; the lease language is reproduced in limited part for commentary under 17 U.S.C. § 107.
What the 4 highlighted phrases mean
“promptly reimburse us”
Promptly is the tenant's clock in this sentence, and it carries no number. Utah's repair clock in § 57-22-6 points at the owner and carries two: after the renter's written notice, three calendar days for a standard of habitability and 10 calendar days for a requirement of the rental agreement. Inside that period the owner must take substantial action toward the fix, which is less than finishing it.
See the example
“loss, damage, or cost of repairs or service”
This is the phrase that moves a cost onto the household, and Utah says how a duty may be moved. § 57-22-3(4) provides that “Any duty in this act may be allocated to a different party by explicit written agreement signed by the parties.” The Texas court enforced this sentence because Texas gave the landlord no repair duty over damage the tenant's side caused. In Utah the question is narrower: has a duty the Act puts on the owner been handed over in a signed agreement that says so explicitly?
See the example
“caused anywhere in the apartment community”
Anywhere reaches past your own door to hallways, stairs and grounds. Utah writes those shared spaces into the owner's duties: under § 57-22-4(1) the owner keeps common areas sanitary and safe, and that is one of the standards of habitability carrying the three calendar day corrective period. This sentence prices damage your household causes there. Keeping the shared spaces safe is a separate duty, and the Act gives it to the owner.
See the example
“improper use or negligence”
Fault is this sentence's test for the bill. Utah's Act draws a different line around what it covers at all: § 57-22-3(3) says the chapter “does not apply to breakage, malfunctions, or other conditions which do not materially affect the physical health or safety of the ordinary renter.” Heating, plumbing, hot and cold water and electrical systems sit inside the habitability standards. Cosmetic breakage that leaves health and safety untouched is the kind of condition that subsection leaves out, whoever caused it.
See the example
The sentence stood, and the case went back. The Texas Supreme Court held the reimbursement clause enforceable, reversed summary judgment for the co-signing tenant and remanded the case. The route matters more than the result: Tex. Prop. Code § 92.006 bars only a contractual waiver of repair duties the landlord actually owes under Subchapter B, and § 92.052(b) gives a landlord no duty to repair damage caused by the tenant, an occupant or a guest. With no duty on that damage there was nothing to waive, so neither the Property Code nor public policy stopped the parties agreeing the tenant would pay. Why a renter should care: the clause reached a cotenant who had not herself been negligent, because it covers your guests and your occupants as well as you. Justice Baker dissented and would have voided the sentence for failing § 92.006(e) - its requirement that such an agreement cover one dwelling, and the requirement in § 92.006(e)(4) that it be conspicuous and underlined. This is 2001 Texas law, decided on the Texas Property Code. It is state-specific and not a national rule: a differently worded statute produced the opposite answer in Iowa in 2016.
How this state's law treats this clause
One court, one lease, one state. That answer is not automatically yours, and your lease may be worded to land differently. Use this to know what to look for and what to ask - your state's tenant hotline or a local tenant attorney can answer it for your document.
Utah Law on Maintenance & Repairs Clause
- The two clocks are in the definitions.
Read the law's words
Utah Code § 57-22-6(1)(a) defines "Corrective period" as "for a standard of habitability, three calendar days; and for a requirement imposed by a rental agreement, 10 calendar days." A standard of habitability is one the owner must meet under § 57-22-3(1) or § 57-22-4(1)(a) or (b)(i) to (iii): a unit fit for human habitation, with electrical systems, heating, plumbing and hot and cold water maintained, common areas kept sanitary and safe, and any air conditioning operable. What the owner must do inside the period is "take substantial action" toward correcting the condition under § 57-22-6(4)(a), which is not the same as finishing the repair. - The clock runs from a notice in a set form.
Read the law's words
Under § 57-22-6(2)(b) the notice must "describe each deficient condition", state that the owner has the corrective period "stated in terms of the applicable number of days", state the renter remedy chosen, "provide the owner permission to enter the residential rental unit to make corrective action", and be served as provided in § 78B-6-805 or the rental agreement. Section 57-22-6(4)(b) adds that "A renter is not entitled to a renter remedy if the renter is not in compliance with all requirements under Section 57-22-5", which include being current on all payments the rental agreement requires. - A dangerous condition moves faster and needs no formal notice.
Read the law's words
Section 57-22-6(3) covers a deficient condition that poses a substantial risk of "imminent loss of life" or "significant physical harm"; the renter may notify the owner "by any means that is reasonable under the circumstances", and the owner shall "within 24 hours after receiving notice" commence remedial action and "diligently pursue remedial action to completion." Section 57-22-6(3)(d) says that notice does not count as a notice of deficient condition unless it also meets subsection (2). - What happens if the owner does nothing.
Read the law's words
If the renter chose rent abatement, § 57-22-6(4)(a)(i) abates rent from the date of the notice, ends the rental agreement, requires the owner to "immediately pay" back the entire security deposit and prorated prepaid rent, and requires the renter to vacate within 10 calendar days after the corrective period ends. If the renter chose repair and deduct, § 57-22-6(4)(a)(ii) lets the renter fix the condition and deduct the cost from future rent "not to exceed an amount equal to two months' rent", keeping receipts and giving copies to the owner within five calendar days after the next rental period begins. Under § 57-22-6(4)(c) an owner whose unit "is not fit for occupancy" may instead decline to repair and end the agreement by written notice before the corrective period ends. - The Act has limits on what it covers.
Read the law's words
Section 57-22-3(3) says the chapter "does not apply to breakage, malfunctions, or other conditions which do not materially affect the physical health or safety of the ordinary renter", and § 57-22-3(4) says "Any duty in this act may be allocated to a different party by explicit written agreement signed by the parties." Section 57-22-2(5) defines a residential rental unit as "a renter's principal place of residence" and excludes "facilities contained in a boarding or rooming house or similar facility, mobile home lot, or recreational property rented on an occasional basis."
Sources include Utah Code § 57-22-6; Utah Code § 57-22-3; Utah Code § 57-22-4; Utah Code § 57-22-5; Utah Code § 57-22-7; Salt Lake City Code § 18.96.110; Salt Lake City Code § 18.96.120; Salt Lake City Code § 18.50.100 - statutes change; verify the current text for your situation.
Utah's repair rules for renters sit in Utah Code § 57-22-6. Habitability standards (§ 57-22-3(1), § 57-22-4(1)) mean a unit fit to live in, with wiring, heat, plumbing and hot and cold water maintained.
- (2)(b) Notice. Describe each problem, state the corrective period in days, name your remedy and give permission to enter. Serve it as § 78B-6-805 or the lease provides.
- (1)(a) and (4)(a) Deadline. The owner must take substantial action within three calendar days for habitability, or 10 calendar days for a lease requirement.
- (3) Danger. For a substantial risk of imminent loss of life or significant physical harm, tell the owner by any reasonable means. Remedial action must begin within 24 hours.
- (4) Remedies. Rent abatement ends the agreement: the owner pays back the deposit and prorated prepaid rent immediately, and you leave within 10 calendar days after the corrective period ends. Repair and deduct is capped at two months' rent. An owner whose unit is not fit for occupancy may instead end the agreement in writing before the period ends ((4)(c)).
- Limits. A renter not in compliance with § 57-22-5, which includes being current on all payments, gets no remedy.
Read the current text of § 57-22-6 before you rely on it.
What's Specific to Salt Lake City
Salt Lake City adds an inspection track, not a fixed deadline. Under Salt Lake City Code § 18.96.110, the owner must take reasonable steps to begin repairing listed failures, such as an inoperable toilet, no hot or cold water or nonfunctioning heat, promptly after written notice under § 18.50.100.
The fix is due within the period in the inspector's notice and order, which § 18.50.100(B)(1) bases on severity. The city sections we read set no fixed number of days. You must give the owner reasonable access to do the work.
Useful. § 57-22-6(2)(b) lets your notice be served as the rental agreement provides, and the clock runs from that notice.
Good. § 57-22-4(1) makes those standards of habitability, which carry the three-day corrective period.
Read it closely. § 57-22-3(4) needs an explicit written agreement signed by the parties, and § 18.96.040 wants clear, specific wording, boxed, bold or underlined.
Compare it with § 57-22-6(1)(a). Our record of Utah law does not say whether a lease may lengthen those periods.
Sources
The law this guide relies on, and where to read it. Statutes change, so confirm the current text before you act on it.
- Utah Code § 57-22-6; Utah Code § 57-22-3; Utah Code § 57-22-4; Utah Code § 57-22-5; Utah Code § 57-22-7; Salt Lake City Code § 18.96.110; Salt Lake City Code § 18.96.120; Salt Lake City Code § 18.50.100, read on web.archive.org. The Utah Legislature's file of Title 57, Chapter 22, in an Internet Archive copy saved September 9, 2026, shows this section as last amended by Chapter 401 of the 2023 General Session, and the Legislature's page for the section lists that version as its current version; confirm the current text with the Utah Legislature before relying on it.
Red Flags to Watch Out For
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A phone call treated as formal notice
Except for danger, the clock runs from a written notice meeting § 57-22-6(2)(b). A danger report counts only if it meets subsection (2) too (§ 57-22-6(3)(d)).
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Rent behind when the repair stalls
§ 57-22-6(4)(b) withholds both remedies from a renter not in compliance with § 57-22-5, which includes being current on all payments the lease requires.
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Repair duties moved onto you in small print
§ 57-22-3(4) calls for an explicit written agreement signed by the parties, and Salt Lake City's § 18.96.040 asks for wording that is boxed, in bold type or underlined.
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One slow process for every repair
§ 57-22-6(3) has the owner begin within 24 hours of notice of a dangerous condition given any reasonable way. A lease that makes every repair wait sets a slower pace.
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A repair form missing what the statute asks
If you use the landlord's form, make sure it describes each problem, states the corrective period in days, names your remedy and gives permission to enter (§ 57-22-6(2)(b)).
Your Rights as a Salt Lake City Tenant
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A short clock you start in writing
Three calendar days for the owner to take substantial action on habitability, or 10 on a lease requirement, after your written notice (§ 57-22-6(1)(a)).
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Work begun within 24 hours on danger
The owner must commence remedial action within 24 hours of notice of a dangerous condition and diligently pursue it to completion (§ 57-22-6(3)).
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A remedy you choose in the notice
Rent abatement with the lease ending, or repair and deduct up to two months' rent, if the owner takes no substantial action in time (§ 57-22-6(4)(a)).
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A city inspection route
Salt Lake City Code § 18.96.110 has the owner remedy listed failures within the period in the inspector's notice and order.
What To Do - Step by Step
Check the problem is covered
The chapter covers your principal residence and only conditions that materially affect the health or safety of an ordinary renter (§ 57-22-2(5), § 57-22-3(3)).
Report a dangerous condition at once
Any reasonable means will do, and work must begin within 24 hours. Follow up in writing if you want the renter remedies (§ 57-22-6(3)).
Write the notice the statute describes
Describe each problem, state the corrective period in days, name your remedy and give permission to enter (§ 57-22-6(2)(b)).
Serve it, keep proof, keep paying rent
Serve it as § 78B-6-805 or the lease provides, and note the date. Remedies need you current on payments (§ 57-22-6(4)(b)).
Keep receipts if you repair and deduct
Copies go to the owner within five calendar days after the next rental period begins (§ 57-22-6(4)(a)(ii)).
Know what rent abatement means
It ends your lease, and you must leave within 10 calendar days after the period ends. A city inspection under § 18.96.110 is another route.
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Maintenance & Repairs rules near Utah
The same clause in the nearest states we cover.
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