Utah Judgment Collection: No Identifiers, No Lien
Utah Code 78B-5-201(6)(a) says a judgment recorded without the required debtor-identifying information is not a lien until a separate information statement is recorded. The identifiers include a birth month and year and a driver license number. Utah put a locating problem inside its lien statute, and this page is about what follows from that.
The Short Version
A Utah judgment continues for eight years from the date of entry unless satisfied, renewed or stayed. It becomes a lien on real property only when the judgment or an abstract is recorded with the county recorder – and only if it carries the debtor identifiers in 78B-5-201(4), otherwise it is not a lien until a separate information statement is recorded. Renewal is by motion in the original action with an accounting affidavit; the renewal order keeps the original judgment's date and priority while restarting the limitation from the date the order is entered. State agency judgments lien all Utah property and are exempt from recording.
Watch: Utah Judgment Collection: Liens, Identifiers and Renewal
A quick orientation, then the Utah Code sections that decide these files.
Watch Overview
In Utah the Lien Depends on Identifying the Debtor
Section 78B-5-201(6)(a) is unusually direct: a judgment recorded without the required debtor-identifying information "is not a lien" until a separate information statement is recorded.
Most states make the creditor record something and leave the question of who the debtor is to the index and to whoever searches it. Utah made identification a condition of the lien itself. Any judgment requiring payment of money entered on or after September 1, 1998, and any judgment or abstract recorded with a county recorder after July 1, 2002, that does not include the debtor-identifying information "is not a lien until a separate information statement of the judgment creditor is recorded in the office of a county recorder in compliance with Subsections (4) and (5)."
Read alongside section 78B-5-202(7), the rule has two layers. Subsection (7)(a) says a judgment entered by a district court, a justice court, the Business and Chancery Court or the Constitutional Court becomes a lien on real property if the judgment or an abstract containing the identifying information described in 78B-5-201(4)(b) is recorded with the county recorder, or if the judgment or abstract together with a separate information statement is recorded there. Recording alone is not enough; recording plus identification is.
This is a research requirement dressed as a filing requirement. A creditor holding a Utah judgment against a common name, an old address and no other identifiers cannot complete the statement from the file, and until it is completed and recorded there is no lien to be behind or ahead of anything. Section 78B-5-201(5) allows for that honestly: the creditor provides what is known or available from the creditor's records, the attorney's records, or the court records in the action, and otherwise states on the statement that the information is unknown or unavailable. But an unknown is still an unknown, and a lien built on one is a lien a title examiner will struggle to attribute.
Section 78B-5-201(2) preserves an older layer for judgments in the period before July 2002: on or after July 1, 1997 a judgment does not create a lien on or affect the title to real property unless filed in the Registry of Judgments of the office of the clerk of the district court of the county where the property is located. Subsection (1)(b) defines that Registry as "the index where a judgment is filed and searchable by the name of the judgment debtor through electronic means or by tangible document" – searchable by name, which is the same idea again.
What the Separate Information Statement Must Carry
Section 78B-5-201(4)(b) itemises it, and three of the six items are identifiers a creditor is unlikely to have in a collection file.
| Item required | Where it usually has to come from |
|---|---|
| Every judgment debtor's name, stated correctly, plus the last-known address held for that person | The court file and current public records |
| For each of them, whatever address was used when service of process was accomplished | The return of service in the original action |
| The name and address of the judgment creditor | The creditor's own records |
| The amount of the judgment as filed in the Registry of Judgments | The court record |
| If known, and if the debtor is an individual: the last four digits of the social security number, the month and year of birth, and the driver license number | Rarely in the collection file; often only in the litigation record |
| Whether a stay of enforcement has been ordered and the date it expires | The court docket |
Section 78B-5-201(6)(b) adds what a later, curative statement must contain if the original recording was deficient: the name of any judgment creditor, debtor, assignor or assignee; the date the judgment was recorded with the county recorder; and the recorder's entry number and book and page for the recorded judgment. Section 78B-5-201(8) supplies the counterweight – a judgment or notice of judgment wrongfully filed against real property is subject to the Wrongful Lien Act in Title 38, Chapter 9. Utah asks for precise identification and penalises getting it wrong, which is a coherent pair of rules and an expensive one for a creditor working from a thin file. Utah's place among the docketing and recording states is mapped in our judgment lien guide by state.
Four Courts, One Recorder, and the Entry Date
Where the lien comes from, which judgments can produce one, and what date it runs from.
Section 78B-5-202(7)(a) names the courts whose judgments can become liens on this route: a district court, a justice court, the Business and Chancery Court, and the Constitutional Court. The last two are recent additions to Utah's judicial structure and their inclusion here is one of the clearest signs that this section is actively maintained rather than inherited – the version of 78B-5-202 currently published by the Legislature carries a 2026 effective date.
The property reached is defined by where the recording happened and by time: all the real property of the judgment debtor in the county where the recording occurs, and owned or acquired at any time by the debtor "during the time the judgment is effective." So a Utah lien is county-by-county and forward-looking within its own life.
Subsection (7)(b) then says something short and important: "The judgment shall run from the date of entry by the court." The lien is created by recording, but the judgment's clock is measured from entry. A creditor who records in year three has a lien from year three and a judgment that has already spent three of its eight years. Section 78B-5-202(1)(a) sets that duration: judgments continue for eight years from the date of entry unless previously satisfied, renewed, or unless enforcement is stayed in accordance with law.
Two special cases sit alongside. A small claims judgment "may not qualify as a lien upon real property unless abstracted to the district court and recorded" in accordance with subsection (3) – an abstract issued by the court where the judgment was entered may be filed in any court of this state and has the same force and effect as a judgment entered in that court. And where a judgment is appealed and cash or other security sufficient to secure the full amount is deposited, subsection (5) has the court terminate the lien and grant the creditor a perfected lien in the deposited security as of the date of the original judgment – the position moves to the fund without losing its date.
One Creditor Gets a Statewide Lien for Nothing
Utah's recording rule has an exception that inverts it completely, and it is worth knowing which side of the line a judgment sits on.
Section 78B-5-202(7)(d): "If the judgment that gives rise to a lien described in Subsection (7)(a) is a judgment in favor of a state agency, the real property subject to the lien includes all real property of the judgment debtor in the state." Not the county of recording – the state. And subsection (7)(e) removes the price of admission: "State agencies are exempt from the recording requirement of Subsection (7)(a)." The same exemption appears in 78B-5-201(3)(b).
So a private creditor must identify the debtor precisely, record in each county where the debtor owns land, and gets a lien limited to that county. A state agency records nothing and gets every parcel in Utah. For anyone assessing a Utah title, that asymmetry means a search of the county recorder's judgment index is not a complete answer where a state agency may be a creditor – there is nothing there to find.
The child support provisions in subsection (6) run on their own timetable and are worth separating out. A child support order, including an order or judgment for guardian ad litem attorney fees and costs, or a sum certain judgment for past due support, may be enforced within four years after the date the youngest child reaches majority, or eight years from the date of entry of the sum certain judgment entered by a tribunal – and subsection (6)(b) says "the longer period of duration shall apply in every order." A sum certain judgment may be renewed to extend the duration.
Section 78B-5-202(8) closes the indexing loop: a judgment referred to in subsection (7) must be entered under the name of the judgment debtor in the judgment index in the county recorder's office as required by section 17-71-302, and a judgment containing a legal description must also be abstracted in the appropriate tract index. Name index and tract index are two different searches, which is why a Utah property answer is rarely a single lookup.
A Utah Renewal Creates Two Dates at Once
One order, two different consequences – and the family's recurring confusion about which event a clock runs from appears here inside a single state.
| What the renewal order does | Which date applies | Authority |
|---|---|---|
| Keeps the date of the original judgment | The original judgment's date | 78B-5-202(1)(b)(i) |
| Keeps the priority of collection of the judgment | The original judgment's priority | 78B-5-202(1)(b)(ii) |
| Begins the time limitation for an action upon the judgment anew | Restarted, "except as explicitly provided otherwise by law or contract" | 78B-5-202(1)(b)(iii) |
| Renews the judgment for the 78B-5-202(1) period | From the date of entry of the renewal order | 78B-6-1804 |
| Sets the outer limit for an action upon the judgment | Eight years from entry of the judgment, or from renewal under the Renewal of Judgment Act | 78B-2-311 |
Read the first three rows together and the design is elegant rather than contradictory: Utah wanted a renewed judgment to keep the queue position it had earned while getting a fresh enforcement life, so it split the two concepts deliberately. The trap is only for a reader who assumes one date governs both. A creditor calculating priority against a competing encumbrance uses the original judgment's date; a creditor calculating how long is left uses the date the renewal order was entered. Section 78B-2-311 states the outer rule plainly – an action may be brought within eight years upon the date of entry of a judgment of any court of the United States or of any state or territory, or upon the date of renewal of such a judgment according to the Renewal of Judgment Act.
Renewal Is a Motion, Not a Filing
Utah's Renewal of Judgment Act sets six conditions, and two of them are about the debtor rather than the paperwork.
Section 78B-6-1802 lists them. A court of record may renew a judgment if a motion is filed within the original action; the motion is filed before the statute of limitations on the judgment, or any renewal of it, expires; the motion includes an affidavit containing an accounting of the judgment and all post-judgment payments, credits and other adjustments provided for by law or contained in the judgment; the facts in the supporting affidavit are determined by the court to be accurate and the affidavit affirms that notice was sent to the most current address known for the judgment debtor; the time for responding to the motion has expired; and the fee under section 78A-2-301(1)(l) has been paid to the clerk.
The accounting requirement is more demanding than it looks. Not a balance, but an accounting of the judgment and of every post-judgment payment, credit and adjustment – which for an assigned file that has passed through two servicers is a reconstruction exercise, and one the court is asked to find accurate. A renewal motion is not a form.
The notice requirement is the locating problem again, and it is phrased more carefully than a mailing address: the affidavit must affirm that notice was sent to "the most current address known for the judgment debtor". Section 78B-6-1803 adds that notice of a motion for renewal is served in accordance with the Rules of Civil Procedure and that opposition may be filed under those rules. An eight-year-old address from the original complaint is not obviously the most current one known, and the affidavit is sworn.
Section 78B-6-1804 then says what the granted motion produces: "Upon granting a motion for the renewal of judgment, the court shall enter an order which renews the judgment from the date of entry of the order for the amount of time set forth in Subsection 78B-5-202(1)." Eight more years, running from the order. The Act itself was enacted by Chapter 22 of the 2011 General Session, which is why Utah authority written before that describes a different renewal mechanism – the Court of Appeals noted in Jackson v. Halls, 2014 UT App 152, that under the pre-2011 scheme a renewed judgment lien related back in time, and the Supreme Court took up the interaction between foreclosure and expiry in Gildea v. Wells Fargo Bank, N.A., 2015 UT 11.
Where Utah Files Come Undone
Six of them, and every one is about a fact rather than a rule.
The recorded judgment carried no identifiers
78B-5-201(6)(a) says it is not a lien until a separate information statement is recorded. The document is on file and the lien is not.
The birth month and licence number were never in the file
They are required "if known", and what is known is what the creditor, the attorney and the court record between them can supply.
Only one county was recorded in
The lien reaches the debtor's real property in the county where the recording occurred. Land elsewhere is untouched.
The eight years was counted from recording
78B-5-202(7)(b) says the judgment runs from the date of entry by the court, and (1)(a) measures the eight years from entry.
The renewal affidavit could not affirm current notice
78B-6-1802(4) wants notice sent to the most current address known for the debtor, and the affidavit is sworn.
A small claims judgment was assumed to be a lien
78B-5-202(4) says it may not qualify as one unless abstracted to the district court and recorded.
How a Utah File Is Put Together
Identity first, because in Utah identity is what the lien is made of.
Fix the date of entry
Both the eight-year duration and the judgment's own clock run from it, whatever date the recording happened.
Assemble the identifiers
Correct name and every known variant, last-known address, the address of service from the original return, and the birth month and year, licence number and last four social security digits where the record supports them.
Establish which counties matter
Utah liens are recorded county by county and reach only that county's real property, so the property map decides the filing plan.
Search the name index and the tract index
Section 17-71-302 requires the name entry; a judgment with a legal description is also abstracted in the tract index. Two searches, not one.
Build a current-address answer for the renewal affidavit
78B-6-1802(4) requires an affirmation about the most current address known, which is a different standard from an address on file.
Reconstruct the payment history
Because the renewal motion needs an accounting of the judgment and all post-judgment payments, credits and adjustments, found accurate by the court.
Deliver the underlying documents
With sources and dates, so counsel can swear an affidavit on evidence rather than on a summary.
What We Supply, and What We Refuse
Records research with the boundaries fixed before the engagement.
Utah requires a creditor to say precisely who the debtor is, and to say so on the record. The same standard is worth applying to a research firm, so here is ours in the same spirit. Public records and skip tracing are what this firm does. Nobody here is a licensed Utah private investigator, and no investigative licensure is claimed on this page. On a Utah judgment the job is the one section 78B-5-201 presumes already finished: pinning the debtor's identity down tightly enough to record against, finding the counties holding their property, and producing an address current enough that a renewal affidavit can be sworn about it.
A requester states the lawful basis for the search first, and we decide independently whether that basis is the true one. Collecting a Utah judgment held in your own name meets it. Wishing to know a person's present whereabouts does not, and offering a judgment as the reason does not turn one into the other. Pretexting forms no part of the method here: no false identity is adopted with a county recorder, a court clerk, a constable, an employer or a financial institution, and whose enquiry it is is never misstated to move things along.
Certain Utah requests are refused as a rule. A subject who left because of abuse; a subject protected by a Utah protective order or stalking injunction; a subject in an address confidentiality programme. The judgment amount plays no part in that decision and the age of the debt plays none either. It is a line rather than a factor, and it is stated at intake so nobody discovers it late.
One statutory boundary remains. This firm falls outside the Fair Credit Reporting Act because it is not a consumer reporting agency, and a Utah research file is not a consumer report. Employment, tenancy, credit and insurance eligibility decisions cannot rest on it, and a requester who needs one of those is directed to an FCRA-regulated provider rather than sold something adjacent. What is written above is general legal information about the Utah Code, not legal advice; a Utah attorney is who applies it to a judgment. The Legislature publishes the identification rule this whole page turns on at Utah Code section 78B-5-201. Where a debtor has left the state, our page on tracing a debtor's real estate and the wider skip tracing services overview describe how the search widens.
Who Brings Us Utah Judgments
Creditors who cannot complete a Utah filing from the file they hold.
Judgment creditors
Holding a Utah judgment whose recorded copy carries no identifiers, and therefore no lien, until a separate information statement is recorded.
Creditors'-rights counsel
Preparing a renewal motion that needs an accounting and a sworn affirmation about the most current known address.
Assignees and judgment buyers
Where the payment history sits in a servicing system and the identifiers never travelled with the assignment.
Commercial creditors
Chasing a Utah business debtor across counties where recording would have to happen one at a time.
Title and closing professionals
Where a name-index search is not a complete answer because a state agency creditor records nothing at all.
Out-of-state creditors
Meeting Utah's identification condition for the first time and finding that a recorded judgment is not automatically a lien.
Utah sits at the opposite end of this family from a state like Maryland, where a judgment simply expires and cannot be revived – here a renewal keeps the original date and priority while restarting the clock. If your Utah question is legal rather than factual, a Utah attorney is the right first call; if it is factual, Utah skip tracing services is where the locating half begins.
Our Commitment
Utah work is identification work, and identification either holds up or it does not. We tell you which identifiers the record actually supports and which ones we could not establish, because 78B-5-201(5) lets a creditor state that information is unknown and a court will later ask how hard anyone looked.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long does a Utah judgment last?
Utah Code 78B-5-202(1)(a) provides that judgments continue for eight years from the date of entry in a court unless previously satisfied or renewed, or unless enforcement is stayed in accordance with law. Section 78B-2-311 allows an action within eight years upon the date of entry, or upon the date of renewal under the Renewal of Judgment Act.
How do I create a judgment lien on Utah real property?
Under 78B-5-202(7)(a), by recording the judgment or an abstract of it with the county recorder in the county where the property is, either containing the debtor-identifying information described in 78B-5-201(4)(b) or together with a separate information statement.
What if the recorded judgment does not identify the debtor?
Then it is not a lien. Utah Code 78B-5-201(6)(a) says such a judgment "is not a lien until a separate information statement of the judgment creditor is recorded in the office of a county recorder in compliance with Subsections (4) and (5)."
What identifiers does Utah require?
78B-5-201(4)(b) requires each debtor to be named correctly, with the most recent address held for that person and whatever address service of process was accomplished at, the creditor's name and address, the amount as filed in the Registry of Judgments, and – if known and the debtor is an individual – the last four digits of the social security number, the month and year of birth and the driver license number, plus whether a stay of enforcement has been ordered and when it expires.
How is a Utah judgment renewed?
By motion under the Renewal of Judgment Act. Utah Code 78B-6-1802 requires a motion filed within the original action before the limitation expires, an affidavit accounting for the judgment and all post-judgment payments, credits and adjustments, an affirmation that notice was sent to the most current address known for the debtor, the response time to have expired, and the 78A-2-301(1)(l) fee to be paid.
What date does a renewed Utah judgment run from?
Two dates. Under 78B-5-202(1)(b) the renewal order maintains the date and the collection priority of the original judgment while beginning the time limitation anew, and under 78B-6-1804 the court's order renews the judgment from the date of entry of that order for the 78B-5-202(1) period.
Do Utah state agency judgments have to be recorded?
No. Utah Code 78B-5-202(7)(e) exempts state agencies from the recording requirement, and 78B-5-202(7)(d) provides that where the judgment is in favour of a state agency the property subject to the lien includes all the debtor's real property in the state.
Is a Utah small claims judgment a lien on real estate?
Not on its own. Utah Code 78B-5-202(4) provides that a judgment entered in a small claims action may not qualify as a lien upon real property unless abstracted to the district court and recorded in accordance with 78B-5-202(3).
Identify a Utah Judgment Debtor
Send the entry date, the county and whatever identifiers you already hold. We will tell you what the Utah record can add and what it cannot.
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