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This guide is for the owner of a shop, restaurant, bar, food truck or office in Salt Lake City who has been asked for a certificate of insurance and is not sure what to buy. Utah requires very little by statute, so most of what you carry is set by the city permit you need, the landlord who owns your building and the Wasatch Fault under it.
In Utah, workers' compensation is the coverage the state itself requires of employers, and nearly everything else is required by a Salt Lake City permit, your lease or a client contract. A Salt Lake City special event permit, for example, requires insurance that names the city as an additional insured, and bars serving alcohol should price liquor liability because Utah's dram shop law lets an injured third party sue for up to $1,000,000. Earthquake damage is a separate policy, and the state puts the chance of a magnitude 6.75 quake on the Wasatch Front at 43% over 50 years.
The one coverage the state itself puts on an employer is workers' compensation. The Utah Labor Commission says that, with a few exceptions, every employer is required to provide it for all of its employees, and you must post a notice of compliance where employees can see it. The Utah Insurance Department says the same thing in the same words. The Labor Commission also says an employer who gets coverage by fraudulently underreporting payroll is subject to criminal prosecution.
Everything else on your policy list is a requirement someone else wrote. The Salt Lake City permit office wants a certificate. Your landlord wants general liability with specific limits and wants to be named on it. The general contractor you subcontract for wants the same. A bank that finances your build-out wants property coverage. None of these is a state law, but you will not get the permit, the keys or the job without them.
If you have a license in progress, start with the Salt Lake City business license guide, because the license and the insurance certificate are often requested in the same week.
Four city programs matter to most small businesses, and each one asks for a certificate of insurance. None of the city pages we read lists a dollar limit, so the limit comes from the city when you apply.
If you sell or serve alcohol, general liability will not be your main exposure. Utah Code 32B-15-201 makes a business liable for injury or death to a third person when it provides alcohol as part of a commercial sale to someone under 21, someone apparently under the influence, someone it should have known was under the influence, or a known interdicted person, and the injury comes from that intoxication. Punitive damages are excluded.
The statute also tells a jury what counts as prima facie evidence: you served the last drink, it was consumed at your location, the injury happened within 30 minutes and 10 miles of leaving, and the customer was charged with DUI or, if the customer died, tested at .05 or higher. That is the exact fact pattern after a bar closes on State Street or in Sugar House.
Section 32B-15-301 caps what can be awarded under that chapter at $1,000,000 per person and $2,000,000 for all persons injured in one occurrence, and it gives the injured person two years to file. The cap does not limit a suit against the drunk driver. It is a ceiling on a court award, and the limit on your policy is a separate number you choose, so ask your agent what your liquor liability limit is and whether it sits inside or on top of your general liability. The dram shop sections do not apply to a shop licensed only to sell beer for off-premise consumption.
A restaurant owner who also wants outdoor tables should read our Salt Lake City restaurant guide for the DABS advertising rules that sit next to these liability rules.
Salt Lake City sits on the Wasatch Front, where the Working Group on Utah Earthquake Probabilities put the chance of at least one magnitude 6.75 or larger quake in the next 50 years at 43%. The Utah Insurance Department, citing the Utah Geological Survey study, lists 57% for a 6.0 and 93% for a 5.0 over the same period.
A standard property policy does not pay for that damage. Utah's earthquake site says regular homeowner's policies exclude it, and the Insurance Department describes earthquake insurance as a supplemental policy. Ask your agent whether your carrier writes it as an endorsement on your commercial property policy or as a separate policy, and ask three things: whether the deductible is a percentage of the insured value, whether there is a waiting period, and whether landslide or flood damage that follows a quake is excluded.
The earthquake site says most earthquake policies carry a deductible of 5% to 20%, that a waiting period of 30 days or more can apply after a policy is issued, and that insurers may stop issuing new earthquake policies for a time after a significant quake. So the time to buy is before one, and a percentage deductible on a downtown building is a large number, so run it against your cash on hand before you sign.
If you own the building, earthquake is your decision. If you lease, the landlord usually carries it on the structure, and your policy needs to cover your inventory, equipment and buildout, which is a different question.
Salt Lake City requires snow to be removed from the sidewalk within 24 hours after a storm ends, with a path at least 42 inches wide. Each property gets one warning per winter, then fines of $50 to $200 depending on property size and how long the snow or ice sits. The city clears only crossings and corners in the Central Business District and the Sugar House Business District, so the sidewalk in front of your door is yours.
The fine is the small cost. A customer who slips on your walk files a claim against your general liability, so ask your agent how your carrier treats a claim when no snow-removal log exists. A dated entry for each storm, who shoveled and when, costs nothing to keep. If a snow contractor clears your lot, ask them for their own certificate of insurance naming you, and keep it with your policy documents.
Outdoor dining has a seasonal rule too. Salt Lake City parklets may operate from April 15 to October 30, and all materials must be removed and stored on private property from October 31 to April 14. The city encourages storing sidewalk dining furniture off site over winter so plows and pedestrians can get through. Furniture in storage is your property, so confirm that your policy covers it wherever it sits.
Commercial leases in downtown Salt Lake City buildings usually include an insurance article, and it is the document that sets your minimums. Before you sign, read four things in it: the required general liability limits, whether the landlord must be named as additional insured, whether you must carry property coverage on your own improvements, and whether the lease requires a waiver of subrogation. We could not find a published standard lease for Salt Lake buildings, so treat the lease in front of you as the source, not a rule of thumb.
Your agent issues the certificate of insurance. Send them the lease article, not a summary of it. The agent can then tell you whether your current policy already satisfies the lease or whether you need a higher limit or an endorsement. Before you hand it over, check the named entity and the policy dates on the PDF against the lease.
Property tax is a separate bill. See the Salt Lake County personal property tax guide for the equipment list you probably already keep, because the same list supports an insurance claim.
This table lists what a Salt Lake City business usually buys and who tends to ask for it. We have left out premiums. Prices depend on your classification, payroll, claims history and limits, and a quote from a licensed agent is the only number that applies to you.
| Policy | What it pays for | Who asks for it |
|---|---|---|
| Workers' compensation | Medical bills and lost wages for an employee hurt on the job | The State of Utah, through the Labor Commission |
| General liability | A customer's injury or property damage at your location | Landlords, city permits, general contractors |
| Commercial property | Your equipment, inventory and buildout after a fire or burst pipe | Lenders and landlords |
| Liquor liability | Claims under Utah's dram shop law | Salt Lake City event permits that involve alcohol, and your own risk |
| Earthquake | Shaking damage that property policies exclude | Only your own risk decision |
| Commercial auto | A crash in a vehicle you use for work | Clients and your own risk |
Get quotes from an independent agent who places policies with several carriers, and give every one of them the same facts: your annual revenue, payroll by job type, square footage, whether you serve alcohol, and the limits your lease requires. Quotes built on different numbers cannot be compared.
Ask each agent how the policy treats a claim that follows an earthquake, a burst pipe in a freezing week, and a customer fall on ice. Then ask for the policy form itself, not the summary page, and read the exclusions section.
If you sell insurance or run a Salt Lake City agency, the owners reading this are your customers. A Local Directory listing is $49 a month and puts you in front of the 2,400+ subscribers of The Salt Lake Valley, and you can browse the business directory to see how your competitors present themselves.