Updated September 7, 2026. Quick answer: In Utah, once the personal representative publishes notice to creditors, a creditor has 3 months to file a claim; and if notice is never published, the absolute deadline is 1 year from the date of death; and a creditor who is personally mailed notice gets 60 days.
What is the creditor-claim deadline in Utah?
| Once notice to creditors is published | 3 months |
| If notice is never published (absolute deadline) | 1 year from the date of death |
| Creditor personally mailed notice | 60 days |
“All claims against a decedent’s estate which arose before the death of the decedent…are barred…unless presented within the earlier of the following dates: (a) one year after the decedent’s death; or (b) within the time provided…for creditors who are given actual notice, and where notice is published, within the time provided…for all claims barred by publication. … notifying creditors of the estate to present their claims within three months after the date of the first publication of the notice or be forever barred.”
Source: Utah Code §§ 75-3-803, 75-3-801
What makes Utah different
Utah uses the classic one-year absolute bar from death, shortenable to three months by newspaper publication or to the later of 90 days from publication / 60 days from mailed actual notice for a known creditor.
Does this deadline apply the same way if the estate never opens probate?
These deadlines are creatures of the probate process itself; they run once an estate is opened (by publication, mailing, appointment, or the grant of letters, depending on Utah’s own rule above). A creditor of a decedent whose estate never enters probate at all is not cut off by this particular statute, though the underlying debt’s own ordinary statute of limitations still applies.
Sources
| Statute | Utah Code §§ 75-3-803, 75-3-801 |
| Utah courts (general reference) | Utah judicial branch |
| Confidence | High |
Every statute quoted on this page was read directly from the state’s own legislature/code site this session, or, where that site blocked automated access, from a reputable legal-citation mirror quoting the same official text with its official citation (disclosed below). General information, not legal advice; the exact deadline in a given estate can turn on facts (whether a personal representative was appointed, whether notice was ever published or mailed) that only your own probate court file can confirm.