Rental Dwelling Business License

[Rebecca Belnap]

One of my tenants needed some rental assistance this month so he applied to Utah Community Action for one month of help.  They asked me for several different forms and one of the items was a "Rental Dwelling Business License".  A WHAT?

I did a little research, and fortunately none of the cities we own in requires them.

Most of Salt Lake County started doing it in 2011, Ogden has been requiring the classes since 2004. 

Cedar Hills charges $65 per year for the first unit and $25 for each additional.

Provo charges $20 for one unit and $60 for a duplex or larger (not sure the logic there).  

I don't know why it is surprising me so much that government has found another way to get more income, but it just hit me wrong.  Right now the rental market is so strong that if I do buy in a city that charges it, I will have no problem raising the rates and passing the cost on to the renter. 

The main point of this post is please check for another possible expense when you are doing your cash flow analysis.  Not a huge cost, but they do pile up.

[William Hochstedler]

Here's the page with the list from the UAA.  Provo doesn't seem to be on it, so their doing their own thing.

Another thing to think about is that if you use a professional property manager, they should be taking these courses and getting those lower rates for you.