Utah Commercial Real Estate Loans: Trustee Sales & C-PACE

Commercial property loans in Utah use the same programs as every other state — SBA 504, DSCR loans, bridge loans, bank and life-company permanent loans. What Utah changes is mostly in the trust deed: who may act as trustee, a three-month notice-of-default period that is also the borrower’s only statutory window to cure, a trustee’s deed with no redemption, a three-month deadline for deficiency suits, and a C-PACE statute that requires your mortgage lender’s written consent.

Closing costs: flat recording fees per instrument

Utah’s county recorders charge by the document, not by the price or the loan amount. The recording fee for an instrument not otherwise provided for is $40, plus $2 for each legal description over ten. Counties of the second through sixth class add $5 to each of those fees unless their restricted recording-fee account already has a balance. The recorder may charge only one fee per instrument, however many titles or attachments it carries.

Example: a $2,000,000 commercial building bought with a $1,400,000 loan, each document with ten or fewer descriptions.

• Recording the deed: $40, or $45 with the $5 add-on
• Recording the trust deed: $40, or $45 — the same at $400,000 or $14,000,000
• All together: $80, or $90

On the same example, Arizona’s recording charges come to $60 and North Carolina’s deed excise tax is $4,000. Title insurance, the trustee’s and lender’s fees, and third-party reports are still part of a Utah closing; budget them with the commercial mortgage calculator.

The trustee: a Utah attorney or a Utah title company

Most Utah commercial loans are secured by a trust deed. Several kinds of institutions may be named trustee — banks, insurance and trust companies, federal agencies — but the power of sale itself can be exercised only by a trustee in one of two groups: an active member of the Utah State Bar, or a law firm employing one, that keeps an office in Utah where the borrower can ask what it takes to reinstate or pay off and can deliver the funds; or a title insurance company or agency that is licensed in Utah and keeps a staffed office open to the public there. A lender can be named trustee only if it is a bank or other depository institution, insurance company, trust company, federal agency or Farm Credit lender — and even then, the sale must be run by a qualified attorney or title company.

The power of sale exists even when the trust deed does not spell it out, and the lender may instead foreclose in court as a mortgage. Utah allows only one action to recover a debt secured solely by a mortgage on real estate, and that action follows the mortgage-foreclosure part of the Judicial Code (Title 78B, Chapter 6, Part 9).

Foreclosure: three months, then 30 days of notice

A trustee’s sale starts with a notice of default recorded in each county where the property sits, stating the breach and the trustee’s election to sell. The trustee must then wait at least three months before giving notice of sale. The notice of sale is published at least three times, once a week for three consecutive weeks in a newspaper of general circulation, with the last publication 10 to 30 days before the sale; it is posted on the Utah public legal notice website for 30 days before the sale, and at least 20 days before the sale on the property and at the county recorder’s office. The sale is held at a courthouse in the county, between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. If the loan financed residential rental property, the notice also carries a tenant statement and is posted on each unit’s door (fewer than nine units) or in three places on the property (nine or more), or mailed to each occupant.

Example: a notice of default recorded on March 2 starts the three-month wait, which ends June 2. Counting the 30-day website notice that follows, the earliest sale date is in early July — about four months after the notice of default.

The borrower, a junior lienholder or a subordinate trust deed beneficiary can cure the default within three months after the notice of default is recorded: pay what is then due, without the principal that was accelerated, plus the costs and the trustee’s and attorney’s fees actually incurred, and the loan is reinstated as if no acceleration had occurred. This right covers a loan accelerated before its maturity date; it does not apply to a loan that has simply reached maturity, such as an unpaid balloon. After the three months, reinstating by paying arrears needs the lender’s agreement. At the sale, any person may bid, the trustee may require a deposit stated in the notice, and a sale can be postponed by public announcement for up to 45 days before it must be re-noticed. The trustee records the trustee’s deed within five business days of being paid, and it conveys the property without any right of redemption.

If a sale or refinance is your way out of a troubled loan, start before the three-month cure window closes; use DSCR to see how far the property’s income has fallen short.

Deficiency: three months, measured against fair market value

After a trustee’s sale, a lender has three months to sue for the balance. The complaint must state the whole debt, the sale price and the property’s fair market value on the sale date, and the court must find that fair market value before it rules. The judgment cannot be larger than the debt — with interest, costs and sale expenses, including trustee’s and attorney’s fees — minus the fair market value. Whoever prevails recovers its costs and reasonable attorney fees.

Example: the debt with interest and sale costs is $1,460,000 on the sale date, the winning bid is $1,150,000, and the court finds the fair market value was $1,300,000. The most the lender can recover is $1,460,000 − $1,300,000 = $160,000, not the $310,000 gap to the bid. Whether a personal guarantee or a non-recourse carve-out reaches that amount is a question for your loan documents and your attorney.

C-PACE: statewide district, lender consent required

Utah’s C-PACE Act lets a county, city or other local entity — or, at the written request of the county, city, town or other local government where the property sits, a statewide C-PACE district administered by the Office of Energy Development — levy an assessment that pays for energy-efficiency upgrades, clean energy systems and EV charging permanently attached to commercial or industrial property. Apartment buildings with more than four rental units qualify. The owner applies voluntarily and must show no delinquent taxes or uncured notice of default on the property, and the property cannot be included without the written consent of each person or institution holding a lien on it — in practice, your mortgage lender.

The assessment can be repaid in installments over up to 30 years. It becomes a lien senior to the trust deed, with the same priority as property taxes, and it continues until paid — even through a tax sale. The amount is capped at the contract price plus overhead of up to 15% and, if levied before construction is finished, contingencies of up to 10%, plus capitalized interest and a reserve fund; costs incurred up to three years earlier can be refinanced or reimbursed.

Example: on a $500,000 contract price levied before construction, overhead can add up to $75,000 and contingencies up to $50,000, so the assessment can reach $625,000 before capitalized interest and any reserve. For programs and providers, see C-PACE Desk, a BestLoanUSA site.

Where to start

Choose the program — SBA 504 for an owner-occupied building, a DSCR loan or permanent loan for an income property, a bridge loan for a transition — and read the trust deed’s default and remedies sections, and any guarantee, before you sign. Size the loan with the commercial mortgage calculator. For financing that isn’t tied to real estate, the Utah business loan guide covers SBA offices and state programs.

Ready to compare? Start a commercial real estate loan request — one application, compared across our lender network.

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Sources: Utah Code § 17-71-407; Utah Code §§ 57-1-21, 57-1-23, 57-1-24, 57-1-25, 57-1-27, 57-1-28, 57-1-31, 57-1-32; Utah Code § 78B-6-901; Utah Code §§ 11-42a-102, 11-42a-106, 11-42a-202, 11-42a-204, 11-42a-205, 11-42a-301. Checked 2026-11-03.