The Utah REPC, short for the Utah Real Estate Purchase Contract, is a deadline-driven document. Every major event in a Utah deal (seller disclosures, inspection, loan, appraisal, settlement, closing) hangs on a date set in Section 24 of the contract. Miss any of them by a day and the consequences range from "the buyer gets their earnest money back" to "the seller gets to cancel the deal."
This guide walks through every REPC deadline you'll manage on a Utah file: when it's triggered, what it controls, how earnest money is affected, and what typically goes wrong. It's written for Utah agents and the transaction coordinators running their files. Every deadline below is counted in calendar days from the Contract Acceptance Date.
Key takeaways
- The Utah REPC sets 7 primary deadlines in Section 24, all counted in calendar days from the Contract Acceptance Date.
- Earnest money is due at the title company within 4 calendar days of acceptance.
- The Due Diligence Deadline (typically 14 days) is the buyer's broad right to cancel for any reason and recover earnest money.
- Utah separates Settlement (signing) and Closing (recording) into two distinct events, a detail out-of-state agents most often get wrong.
What is the Utah REPC?
The Real Estate Purchase Contract (REPC) is the standard residential purchase agreement used in Utah real estate transactions. It's maintained jointly by the Utah Association of Realtors and the Utah Division of Real Estate, and Utah real estate agents are required to use it on residential transactions unless the client uses an attorney-drafted alternative. The current form is published as a downloadable PDF on commerce.utah.gov.
The current form received major updates in August 2024, the biggest of which was folding brokerage compensation into Sections 4.3(e) and 4.3(f). Previously that language lived in a separate UAR addendum. The Institute of Real Estate Education's breakdown of the August 2024 updates walks through the clause-by-clause changes. Agents writing offers today should verify they're using the current form. A stale REPC from early 2024 or earlier will be missing the new compensation language and can create confusion at close.
The REPC sets seven primary deadlines in Section 24. Miss any of them and the downstream effect ripples through the rest of the transaction. The sections below walk through each one.
What are the key Utah REPC deadlines?
Every Utah REPC sets seven contract-driven deadlines, each of which must be negotiated and filled in at offer time. At a glance:
| Deadline | Typical days from acceptance | What it controls | Who gets cancellation right if missed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Earnest Money Deposit | 4 | Funds at the title company | Seller (after cure period) |
| Seller Disclosure | 5–7 | Delivery of required disclosures | Buyer |
| Due Diligence | 14 | Broad property and discovery review | Buyer |
| Financing & Appraisal | 21–28 | Loan approval + appraised value | Buyer |
| Settlement | Contract-set | Signing of closing documents | Either (via breach) |
| Walkthrough | Contract-set | Buyer's final property inspection | n/a |
| Closing (Recording) | Contract-set | Recording with the county, funding, possession | Either (via breach) |
Each row breaks down in detail below. Every deadline is measured in calendar days from the Contract Acceptance Date. Weekends and holidays don't extend them. A Friday afternoon acceptance means Monday is already day 3.
Quill runs every Utah file with a calendar-day timeline built from the Contract Acceptance Date, with 48-hour and 24-hour reminders on every deadline above. The REPC timeline isn't a checklist; it's a sequenced system where each deadline triggers the next one's prep work.
When is the Seller Disclosure Deadline?
The Seller Disclosure Deadline is the date by which the seller must deliver Utah's required disclosures to the buyer. On most REPCs, the parties negotiate this to between 5 and 7 calendar days after the Contract Acceptance Date. The exact number is written into Section 24(a) at offer time.
The disclosures themselves include the Seller Property Condition Disclosure, the lead-based paint disclosure if the property was built before 1978, the methamphetamine contamination disclosure required on Utah properties with any testing history, and any applicable HOA-related disclosures if the property is in a common-interest community.
Missing this deadline is asymmetric. If the seller fails to deliver by the Seller Disclosure Deadline, the buyer gains a cancellation right: they can terminate the contract and their earnest money is returned. If the seller is on time, there's no downstream penalty to either party beyond the normal flow of the deal.
That asymmetry is why we treat the Seller Disclosure Deadline as a first-week sprint on every Utah file. We request disclosures from the listing side the day the contract is executed. If they're not in by day 3, the follow-up cadence is active; by day 4 we're alerting the listing agent's broker if the disclosures haven't arrived. By day 5, the listing side is running out of time.
How does the Utah REPC Due Diligence Deadline work?
The Due Diligence Deadline is the buyer's broad contractual right to cancel the contract for any reason and get their earnest money back. It's typically set at 14 calendar days after the Contract Acceptance Date, which gives the buyer time to review the seller's disclosures, complete a home inspection, and do any other research (zoning, HOA rules, surveyor questions) they care about.
What makes the Due Diligence Deadline unusually powerful in Utah is its breadth. The buyer doesn't have to cite a specific reason. Unlike inspection contingencies in some states that only allow cancellation for specific property-condition issues, the Utah Due Diligence period lets the buyer walk for any reason discovered during the period: the neighborhood doesn't feel right, the HOA docs reveal a bylaw they don't like, a survey shows a fence encroachment, the buyer's appraiser-friend thought the comps were stretched. Any reason.
If the buyer cancels by the Due Diligence Deadline in writing, the earnest money is released to the buyer. After the Due Diligence Deadline passes without cancellation, that broad right is gone. The buyer is still protected by the Financing & Appraisal Deadline for loan and value issues, but they've now waived the right to cancel for property-condition or other discovery concerns.
The sequencing between disclosures and due diligence matters a lot. The Seller Disclosure Deadline almost always falls inside the Due Diligence window on purpose. The buyer is supposed to receive disclosures, read them, and still have time to cancel based on what they learn. If the disclosures arrive late (say, day 6 when the DD deadline is day 14), the buyer's effective review window has shrunk from 14 days to 8. A good Utah TC catches that compression and flags it to the buyer's agent so the DD deadline can be extended in writing if needed.
In our Utah files, we see the late-disclosure compression often enough that we treat it as a predictable risk. About one in four listing sides delivers disclosures in the back half of their window, and if the due diligence clock is the default 14 days, the buyer's agent and TC get three or four days of effective review time before they either request an extension or move on.
What is the Financing & Appraisal Deadline?
The Financing & Appraisal Deadline is the REPC's loan-and-value contingency, typically set at 21 to 28 calendar days after the Contract Acceptance Date. It's a combined deadline covering two different things: the buyer's ability to secure financing, and the property's appraisal matching or exceeding the purchase price.
If the buyer's lender denies the loan before this deadline, the buyer can cancel the contract in writing and the earnest money is released to the buyer. Same result if the appraisal comes in below the purchase price: the buyer can cancel and recover the earnest money, or negotiate a price adjustment with the seller.
After the Financing & Appraisal Deadline passes, both rights are gone. A buyer whose lender denies the loan on day 29, when the deadline was day 28, is in contract default. The seller can keep the earnest money, though most sellers prefer to release the buyer and move to the backup offer or relist.
The appraisal-gap mechanic is where most Utah files run into stress in a competitive market. If the lender's appraisal comes in $20,000 under the contract price, the buyer has three choices before the deadline: bring more cash to close the gap, renegotiate the price with the seller, or cancel. The TC's job during this window is making sure the appraisal results are in the hands of the buyer's agent with enough time to execute any of those three paths.
We track the Financing & Appraisal Deadline as a weekly-check-in with the lender from day 1 of the contract, then a daily-check-in from one week out. Loan denials and appraisal issues rarely arrive all at once; they're usually telegraphed days in advance through underwriting conditions that aren't being satisfied.
When does earnest money have to be delivered?
The Earnest Money Deposit Deadline is usually 4 calendar days after the Contract Acceptance Date. Most Utah transactions use the title company as the escrow holder for earnest money, though the REPC allows the parties to name the buyer's brokerage as an alternative. In practice the title company is the default across most of Utah.
The 4-day rule is strict. If the buyer fails to deliver earnest money by the deadline, the REPC gives the seller a written-notice cure-and-forfeit mechanism: the seller notifies the buyer of the default, the buyer has a short cure window (typically 3 business days) to deliver the earnest money, and if that cure period expires without delivery, the seller can cancel the contract. The seller doesn't have to wait too long; they can accept a new offer as soon as the cure period closes.
Where this goes wrong in practice is earnest money routing. Buyers sometimes send the check to the buyer's brokerage instead of the title company, because that's how they remember doing it on a previous deal or in a previous state. The brokerage forwards it to title, adding delay. If the delivery-and-forwarding adds up to more than 4 calendar days, the deposit is technically late even though the buyer sent the check promptly. We verify the earnest-money path at contract intake for every Utah file and confirm receipt with the title company directly, not through a hand-off chain.
On the Utah transactions Quill has handled, routing is the single most common reason a buyer technically misses the 4-day deadline. For the detailed mechanics of how earnest money cures and refunds work, see earnest money in Utah real estate.
How do Settlement and Closing differ in Utah?
Utah is one of the few states that separates Settlement and Closing into two distinct events. It's the thing out-of-state agents working Utah deals most often get wrong.
Settlement is when the buyer and seller sit down at the title company and sign the closing documents. It typically happens one to three business days before Closing. The REPC's Settlement Deadline is the date by which this signing must occur.
Closing is when the loan funds, the deed records with the county recorder, and possession transfers. Most Utah contracts define Closing as the recording date. Agents and clients sometimes use "closing" loosely to mean "the day we sign," but the contractual closing is the recording.
The gap between Settlement and Closing matters for two reasons. First, the buyer's funds are collected at Settlement but can sit in the title company's escrow for a day or two before they disburse at Closing. Second, possession typically transfers at Closing, not at Settlement, so a buyer who signs on Wednesday and expects to move in Wednesday afternoon is probably wrong: possession is after recording, which is Thursday or Friday.
This two-step structure affects how a TC runs the final week. We confirm Settlement as the signing date, Closing as the recording date, and we verify recording with the county before declaring the file closed. Ending the file at signing leaves the last mile uncovered.
What are the most common Utah REPC deadline mistakes?
Four errors repeat across most Utah files we inherit or review:
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Counting business days instead of calendar days. Agents who also transact in states that count business days (not all do) sometimes carry the habit into Utah. Every REPC deadline is calendar days. A 14-day Due Diligence starting on a Friday accepts on day 14 being the following Friday, not two Fridays later.
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Treating Due Diligence and Financing & Appraisal as one deadline. They overlap and are sometimes negotiated with the same end date, but they're independent rights protecting different things. DD covers property and discovery. F&A covers the loan and valuation. Waiving one doesn't waive the other.
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Earnest money to the buyer's brokerage instead of the title company. Default routing mistake. The hand-off adds delay that can blow the 4-day deadline and create a cure-and-forfeit scenario the buyer didn't see coming.
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Stopping the file at Settlement instead of Closing. An out-of-state agent's closing file is often archived at signing. In Utah, that leaves the last mile unmonitored: loan funding, recording, possession. We've seen files sit at Settlement for a day longer than expected because the lender's funding hit a hold, and nobody noticed until the buyer called asking why they couldn't pick up keys.
How does a Utah transaction coordinator manage the REPC timeline?
The REPC's seven deadlines can be tracked by hand on a per-file basis, but on two or more active files at once that quickly becomes the most error-prone part of the Utah agent's job. A transaction coordinator converts the contract into a calendar the moment it's executed, issues reminders at 48 and 24 hours before each deadline, and confirms every party's readiness at each checkpoint. Earnest money routing, disclosure delivery, inspection scheduling, lender follow-up, title commitment review, Settlement, recording: all of it sequenced against the Section 24 dates. For the full step-by-step closing process that sits on top of these deadlines, see the real estate closing process.
For more on what a TC does day-to-day, see what does a transaction coordinator do. For the cost side, see how much does a transaction coordinator cost. For the ROI math on whether a TC pays for itself, see is a transaction coordinator worth it. For Quill's Utah-specific service details and market coverage, see the Utah transaction coordination hub.
How does Quill coordinate Utah REPC files?
We coordinate Utah transactions from the Contract Acceptance Date through recording, working alongside the title company on every phase. Each file runs at a flat $350, billed when the deal closes. Your first file is free.
Utah's calendar-day deadline system is where our coordination adds the most value. The day a REPC lands, we verify the Contract Acceptance Date, build the Section 24 deadline calendar, and issue 48-hour and 24-hour reminders on every milestone. We confirm earnest money routing to the title company (not the brokerage) within the 4-day window, chase seller disclosures starting on day one, and track the Due Diligence and Financing & Appraisal deadlines as independent rights with separate cancellation consequences. We also manage the Settlement-to-Closing gap that trips up out-of-state agents, confirming Settlement as the signing date and Closing as the recording date, then verifying recording with the county before declaring the file complete. For Utah-specific coordination and market coverage, visit the Utah transaction coordination hub.
The REPC is a system, not a checklist
Every deadline in Section 24 exists because something downstream depends on it. The Seller Disclosure Deadline feeds the buyer's Due Diligence review. Due Diligence feeds the Financing & Appraisal path. Financing & Appraisal feeds the Settlement signing. Settlement feeds Closing. A mistake at the top of the sequence compounds all the way to the recording desk.
Quill coordinates transactions at $350 per file, billed when the deal closes. First file free. Utah-specific coordinators handle the REPC deadlines, Settlement-to-Closing gap, and closing conventions your files need.