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If your business has a place of business inside West Valley City limits, you need a West Valley City license. This guide covers the license types, the city's online portal, the licensing office at City Hall, the fees in the city code, renewal, and the fire inspection side of it.
Apply, check status and renew through the city's online licensing portal at pllportal.wvc-ut.gov. The licensing office is at West Valley City Hall, 3600 S Constitution Blvd, open Monday through Thursday, 7 a.m. to 6 p.m., phone 801-963-3290. City code lists a $110 base fee plus $10 per employee, so a five-employee business pays $160 before inspection fees. Confirm the current amount with the office.
The city's business licensing page says that if your business has a place of business inside city limits, you need a license from West Valley City. You need a separate license for each type of business and for each place of business. A license from another city does not cover you here, so a shop in West Valley City and a second shop in Taylorsville are two licensing relationships.
The city recognizes four main license types. A home business license is for a business whose home base is your residence, if you live in West Valley City. That includes mobile businesses with no other address. A commercial business license is for any location inside city limits that is not your home. The address cannot be residential, and it has to be an approved use for that location. A rental dwelling license is for any owner of rental units, and an owner of several units needs only one license if they give the city a current list of those units. A solicitor license covers solicitors, peddlers and vendors, and it is valid only inside West Valley City.
This guide covers West Valley City only. For the Salt Lake City process, see our Salt Lake City business license guide, and for the neighbor to the south, our West Jordan business license guide. For other news from the area, see our West Valley City page.
Business Licensing is at West Valley City Hall, 3600 S Constitution Blvd, West Valley City, UT 84119. The city's page lists hours of Monday through Thursday, 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. It does not list Friday or weekend hours, so call before you drive over on a Friday.
The licensing office number is 801-963-3290. The main City Hall line is 801-966-3600, and the city lists a TTY line at 385-316-8658. The licensing page lists an email address for licensing questions, and you can also ask in person at City Hall.
New applications go through the city's online portal at pllportal.wvc-ut.gov/portal. The same portal handles license status checks and renewals. The city's licensing page does not list a full document checklist, so call the office at 801-963-3290 before you start and ask what your application will need.
Do the groundwork first, because most delays come from things that have nothing to do with the city form:
The city's licensing and types pages do not list dollar amounts. They point to the city's Consolidated Fee Schedule. The West Valley City municipal code, section 1-2-104, lists the figures below. Its host blocked our automated check on the day we wrote this, so treat these as the code's published numbers and confirm them with the licensing office before you budget.
| Fee | Amount in city code | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Base fee | $110 | Applies to all businesses |
| Per employee | $10 | Per employee |
| Inspections | $50 | Covers up to two building and two fire inspections |
| Additional inspection | $30 | Each inspection past those |
| Transfer | $25 | Listed in the same section |
Take a hair salon with five employees. At the code's figures, the license is $110 plus five employees at $10, or $160. If the new-business building and fire inspections apply, add the $50 inspection fee for $210 in the first year. The city says salons and other skin-contact businesses should contact the licensing office to learn their extra requirements, and a salon will also have health and professional licensing outside the city's fees.
Rental owners are different. The city's types page says an owner of fewer than three rental units pays variable fees from the Consolidated Fee Schedule with no base fee, and an owner of three or more pays the base fee plus those variable fees. Ask the office for the current rental figures.
City code requires licenses to be renewed annually. The renewal application is due before the current license expires, it has to report any change to your business information, and it has to include the fee. The online portal is where the city handles renewals, the same login you use to check your license status.
Do not wait for a reminder to find out your date. Log into the portal or call 801-963-3290 and ask for your exact expiration date and the renewal amount, since employee count changes the total. If you added staff since last year, report them on the renewal rather than hoping nobody checks. If you closed, moved or changed ownership, call the office instead of renewing, because a license covers one business at one place.
The city's Fire Prevention and Inspections Division is at the same City Hall address and answers at 801-963-3336. The city says inspectors look at sprinklers, fire extinguishers, emergency lighting and exit signs, storage and housekeeping, paths of exit and electrical hazards. Most inspections take under 30 minutes, and the city asks the owner to be there if possible. For low-risk, low-occupancy locations the city may allow a self-inspection, which you complete in the city's online portal before you renew the license.
We could not confirm from the city's pages whether a fire inspection must pass before a brand-new license is issued, so ask the licensing office at 801-963-3290 when you apply. Businesses that handle hazardous materials need a separate hazardous materials permit, applied for through the city's online portal.
The city also tells you to contact the licensing office directly if your business involves food handling, hotels or motels, pawnshops, salvage yards, alcohol distribution, check cashing, title loans, department stores or malls, or skin contact with clients such as massage, nail or hair salons.
A business run from a West Valley City home needs a home business license, with one exception. The city says home businesses grossing less than $2,000 a year are exempt if you sign an affidavit, and that you must apply for a license right away if your income goes above that. If the business operates from a non-residential address, the city treats it as commercial.
Home business fees are not on the city's licensing page, so ask the office what applies to you. Renters should also check their lease, because a city license does not override a landlord's rules.
A license puts your name in city records. It does not bring in customers. Set up a free Google Business Profile that matches your license name and address, using our Google Business Profile guide, and list the business in our Local Directory. If you own taxable equipment, the county files separately, covered in our Salt Lake County business personal property tax guide.
We publish The Salt Lake Valley, a free local newsletter with 2,475 subscribers as of today, and we sell ads in it, so weigh this with that in mind. Our menu lists SLV The Closer at $149 a month, SLV Neighbor at $179 a month and SLV Local Favorite at $539 a month, and our advertising page shows what each includes. A new West Valley City shop announcing its opening is the kind of job those plans are built for. A Local Directory listing is $49 a month, and a 30 day post on our job board is $49 if you are hiring.