What changed in Utah
Insurance law does not sit still, but most guides are written once and left alone. Repealed programs and retired forms keep circulating for years. This is what actually changed inUtah, when, and where to verify it.
Every state we cover, in one feed: what changed across the country · RSS
May 6, 2026
Coverage lapseDriving without proof of insurance in the car went from an infraction to a class C misdemeanor
H.B. 24 (Laws of Utah 2026, chapter 382) repealed Utah Code § 41-12a-303.2 and folded the offense of failing to carry and display evidence of owner's or operator's security into § 41-12a-302, the no-insurance statute. The repealed section had graded that offense separately: an infraction for a first offense with a fine of not less than $400, and a class C misdemeanor only for a repeat within three years. Under the merged section every violation, including simply not producing proof on an officer's demand, is a class C misdemeanor carrying the same $400 fine floor, with up to $300 waivable if coverage is obtained before sentencing. The affirmative defense that coverage was actually in force survived the merger, as did the rule that an officer may not cite you when the Uninsured Motorist Identification Database shows the vehicle or driver is insured. The bill states its own effective date of May 6, 2026.
H.B. 24, Criminal Penalty Amendments, enrolled copy — Laws of Utah 2026, ch. 382January 1, 2025
Minimum coverageMinimum liability limits rose to 30/65/25 for policies issued or renewed from January 1, 2025
H.B. 113 (Laws of Utah 2023, chapter 51, signed March 13, 2023) rewrote Utah Code § 31A-22-304 with a delayed trigger. A policy issued or renewed on or before December 31, 2024 could still stop at $25,000 per person, $65,000 per accident and $15,000 in property damage, or an $80,000 combined single limit — the figures Utah had used since Laws of Utah 2008, chapter 371. A policy issued or renewed on or after January 1, 2025 must carry at least $30,000 per person, $65,000 per accident and $25,000 in property damage, or a $90,000 combined single limit. The per-accident bodily injury figure did not move. One exception was written in: a policy for a self-insured private rental fleet may still be written at the old 25/65/15 floor. Guides that still list Utah at 25/65/15 are quoting limits that expired with the last renewal cycle.
H.B. 113, Motor Vehicle Insurance Revisions, enrolled copy — Laws of Utah 2023, ch. 51May 12, 2020
Crash reportingThe crash reporting threshold rose from $1,500 to $2,500, in two separate bills
Utah raised its property damage reporting threshold in two steps that are easy to miss because they sit in different sections. H.B. 302 (Laws of Utah 2019, chapter 149, effective May 14, 2019) changed Utah Code § 41-6a-401(4), the duty to notify the nearest law enforcement office immediately, from $1,500 to $2,500. H.B. 151 (Laws of Utah 2020, chapter 74, effective May 12, 2020) then changed the matching figure in § 41-6a-402(1), the written report the Department of Public Safety may require within 10 days. Until that second bill the two numbers disagreed. Sites that still put Utah's reporting threshold at $1,500 are quoting a figure no longer in either section.
H.B. 151, Traffic Safety Amendments, enrolled copy — Laws of Utah 2020, ch. 74January 1, 2018
Moving hereThe annual safety inspection for ordinary vehicles was abolished
H.B. 265 (Laws of Utah 2017, chapter 406, signed March 25, 2017, effective January 1, 2018) repealed the requirement that a vehicle pass a safety inspection to be registered or operated on a highway, and paid for the change with higher registration fees that fund additional Highway Patrol troopers. What remains in Utah Code § 53-8-205 is narrow: a salvage vehicle at its first registration, an off-highway or novel vehicle being registered as street legal, and an annual inspection for commercial vehicles, ground transportation service vehicles, buses and vans for hire, taxicabs, and vehicles with three or more axles or pulling a trailer. A new resident bringing a car into Utah needs an emissions certificate in the five testing counties but no safety inspection.
H.B. 265, Safety Inspection Amendments, enrolled copy — Laws of Utah 2017, ch. 406
What this list does and does not cover
Recorded here: changes to the rules this site tracks for Utah — liability minimums, SR-22 and proof-of-insurance requirements, penalties for driving uninsured, the fault system, what a lapse costs, new-resident deadlines and crash reporting. Each entry names the session law or statute that made the change and the date it took effect, not the date it was signed.
Not recorded: rate filings, individual insurer decisions, court rulings that do not change the text of the law, and changes to rules outside those seven subjects. A short list does not mean a quiet legislature — it means little moved in the parts of Utah law a driver has to comply with.
A change that has passed but has not yet taken effect is not shown as current anywhere on this site. It sits on the Utah pages as a dated pending value and replaces the current figure on the morning it comes into force. You can see every pending change across the country at the top of the national change feed, and the sources behind the Utah figures on its statute index.