Mortgage Relief Guides for Utah Homeowners

Utah Runs Two Foreclosure Tracks, The Lender Chooses, And The Power Of Sale Exists Without Any Clause In Your Trust Deed (Utah Code §§ 57-1-23 to 57-1-32; Title 78B, Ch. 6, Part 9).

Utah is usually described as a simple non-judicial state. That is incomplete in two ways. Under Utah Code § 57-1-23, the trustee is given the power of sale “or, at the option of the beneficiary, a trust deed may be foreclosed in the manner provided by law for the foreclosure of mortgages on real property” — the beneficiary chooses the track, and judicial foreclosure runs under Title 78B, Chapter 6, Part 9, where § 78B-6-901 supplies the one-action rule. And the same section states that the power of sale “may be exercised by the trustee without express provision for it in the trust deed” — there is no power-of-sale clause to look for. What § 57-1-21 does restrict is who may exercise it: an active member of the Utah State Bar or a qualifying law entity, or a title insurance or abstract company authorized in Utah.

§ 57-1-24.3 is Utah’s largest state-law protection, and it operates before anything is recorded. On owner-occupied residential property, before a notice of default may be filed the beneficiary or servicer shall designate a single point of contact and mail the trustor notice stating the nature of the default, “the total amount the default trustor is required to pay in order to cure the default and avoid the filing of a notice of default, itemized by the type and amount of each component part,” the cure deadline, and the contact’s name, telephone number, email address and mailing address. Subsection (3) lets the trustor apply directly with that contact before the § 57-1-24(2) three-month period expires. Subsection (6) then provides that “notice of a trustee’s sale may not be given under Section 57-1-25 with respect to the trust property of a default trustor who has applied for foreclosure relief until after the single point of contact provides the notice required by Subsection (5)(d),” and subsection (9) requires cancellation of the notice of default where the trustor qualifies and a written agreement is entered into. The limits matter too: subsection (10) does not require a beneficiary to create or approve relief, (12) excludes individual beneficiaries, (13) treats federal single-point-of-contact compliance as satisfying the section, and (14) provides that non-compliance does not affect the validity of a sale to a bona fide purchaser.

The non-judicial sequence itself is statutory. § 57-1-24 requires a recorded notice of default and that “not less than three months has elapsed” before notice of sale. § 57-1-26 requires the notice of default to be mailed within 10 days of recording by certified or registered mail, return receipt requested, and the notice of sale to be mailed at least 20 days before the sale. § 57-1-25 requires publication at least three times, once a week for three consecutive weeks, with the last publication at least 10 but not more than 30 days before the sale, publication on the state public notice website under § 45-1-101 for 30 days, and posting at least 20 days before the sale on the property and at the county recorder’s office. § 57-1-27 holds the auction at a courthouse between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m., with any postponement longer than 45 days requiring re-noticing. The statutory floor is roughly three and a half to four months from the recorded notice of default.

Utah’s cure right is better than most, and the reason is one clause. Under § 57-1-31, within three months of the notice of default recording, the trustor may pay “the entire amount then due under the terms of the trust deed (including costs and expenses actually incurred in enforcing the terms of the obligation, or trust deed, and the trustee’s and attorney’s fees actually incurred) other than that portion of the principal as would not then be due had no default occurred” — accelerated principal is excluded — after which “the obligation and trust deed shall be reinstated as if no acceleration had occurred.” Under § 57-1-31.5, a reinstatement-statement request is not timely unless the trustee receives it at least 10 business days before that window closes. What follows the sale then depends entirely on the track: § 57-1-28(3) provides that the trustee’s deed conveys without right of redemption, with recitals that are prima facie evidence of compliance and conclusive in favor of bona fide purchasers, while on the judicial track Utah Rule of Civil Procedure 69C allows redemption within 180 days after the sale at the sale price plus six percent. Deficiency is capped by § 57-1-32: an action within three months of the sale, with the court required to find fair market value at the date of sale and barred from entering judgment for more than the amount by which the indebtedness with interest, costs and expenses of sale exceeds that fair market value — fair market value is the measure, and the statute contains no purchase-money exemption.

Utah maintains no court-administered foreclosure mediation program. The state courts run mediation for domestic, probate and general civil matters and the Department of Agriculture and Food runs an agricultural program, but nothing foreclosure-specific. That leaves § 57-1-24.3 and the federal framework carrying the weight: the 120-day floor under 12 CFR § 1024.41(f), the early-intervention duties under 12 CFR § 1024.39, the investor-identification right under 12 CFR § 1024.36, the completeness designation under 12 CFR § 1024.41(b)(2)(i)(B), the 30-day evaluation under 12 CFR § 1024.41(c), the dual-tracking ban under 12 CFR § 1024.41(g), and the 14-day appeal under 12 CFR § 1024.41(h). The modification available depends on the investor — the Fannie Mae Flex Modification under Servicing Guide D2-3.2, the Freddie Mac Flex Modification under Servicing Guide Chapter 9203, the FHA waterfall under 24 CFR § 203.605 with the Partial Claim under 24 CFR § 203.371 and the face-to-face requirement under 24 CFR § 203.604, or the VA framework under 38 CFR § 36.4350. Homeowners across the Salt Lake metro and the Silicon Slopes corridor, Provo–Orem, the Ogden–Layton corridor, Park City, St. George and Logan operate under the same statewide framework, with Hill Air Force Base and its Ogden Air Logistics Complex, Dugway Proving Ground and Tooele Army Depot in Tooele County, and Camp Williams south of Salt Lake City adding significant VA-specific considerations. The guides below walk through each stage.