Utah County, UT Accessory Structures: ADU Rental Restrictions (2026)

116 lets an attached or detached Accessory Dwelling Unit grow past the standard 1,000-square-foot cap, up to 1,500 square feet, but only if the property owner of record has signed and recorded a restrictive covenant and acknowledgement in a form acceptable to the Utah County Attorney's Office which acknowledges the Accessory Dwelling Unit on the subject property shall only be rented at an amount which qualifies as moderate income housing as defined by Utah State Code. That covenant is not optional paperwork: the ordinance requires it be recorded in the Utah County Recorder's Office prior to issuance of any applicable permits associated with the Accessory Dwelling Unit, meaning the county will not issue a building permit for the larger unit until the rent restriction is already on the property's chain of title.

The same covenant requirement applies identically whether the larger ADU is attached to the primary home or built as a stand-alone detached unit, and it runs with the land rather than the current owner personally, since it is recorded against the parcel. A moderate-income rent ceiling ties the unit's allowable rent to the income-based standard set in Utah State Code, so the maximum an owner can charge moves with the state's published moderate-income figures rather than a fixed county dollar amount. An owner who wants the standard 1,000-square-foot ADU with no rent restriction can skip the covenant entirely; it is triggered only by choosing the larger 1,001-to-1,500-square-foot size tier.