Free Massachusetts Rental Application

M.G.L. c.186 § 15B(1)(b) provides that at or prior to the commencement of a tenancy a lessor may require only four things: the first month’s rent, the last month’s rent, a security deposit not exceeding one month’s rent, and the cost of a key and lock. The list is exhaustive. An application or screening fee does not appear on it, and so may not be required. Since St. 2025 c.9, effective 1 August 2025, the bar reaches the lessor’s agent as well, and payments made to an agent.

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A rental application creates no tenancy; it identifies an applicant and records their consent to be screened. Massachusetts is the state where the form and the fee come apart most cleanly: a landlord may screen an applicant and may ask for everything on this form, but may not require a fee for doing so before the tenancy begins. That makes the application a straightforward information document here, and it makes the fee section of the generator above a place to record that no fee is payable rather than to compute one.

• The property applied for and the desired move-in date
• The applicant’s full legal name, date of birth and government ID
• Current and previous addresses with the landlords’ contact details
• Employer, position, gross monthly income and a verification contact
• That no application fee is payable, § 15B(1)(b) being exhaustive
• Which of the four permitted payments are being required, and when
• Who is collecting them — the lessor or an agent
• Written consent to obtain a consumer report, signed and dated
• An address for any adverse-action notice if the application is declined
• Any document attached to and forming part of the application

• Assuming there is a permitted maximum. There is no Massachusetts application fee cap because there is no permitted application fee — § 15B(1)(b)’s list is closed and does not include one.
• Thinking a broker can charge it instead. Since 1 August 2025 the bar reaches the lessor’s agent and payments made to an agent.
• Renaming it. The list is of what may be required; a charge outside the four items is outside them whatever it is called.
• Confusing the deposit cap with a fee. A security deposit not exceeding one month’s rent is permitted and is a different thing entirely — it is refundable and secures the tenancy.
• Concluding a landlord cannot screen you. It can. What § 15B(1)(b) reaches is the money required before the tenancy begins, not the screening itself.

No — and the route to that answer is unusual. M.G.L. c.186 § 15B(1)(b) does not mention application fees. What it does is state exhaustively what a lessor may require at or prior to the commencement of a tenancy:

• the first month’s rent;
• the last month’s rent;
• a security deposit not exceeding one month’s rent; and
• the cost of a key and lock.

Because that list is exhaustive rather than illustrative, anything not on it may not be required. An application or screening fee is not on it.

The original framing addressed what a lessor may require, which left an obvious route around it: a charge collected by a broker or managing agent rather than by the landlord directly.

St. 2025 c.9, §§ 54-55, effective 1 August 2025, extended § 15B(1)(b) to the lessor’s agent and to payments made to an agent. The identity of the person collecting the money no longer decides the question.

Anyone relying on guidance written before August 2025 should check it against the current text for exactly this reason — the pre-amendment position and the current one differ on the case most likely to arise in practice.

This is the distinction that matters most and the one most easily lost. § 15B(1)(b) reaches money required before the tenancy begins. It does not stop a landlord obtaining a credit report, checking references, verifying income or asking for everything on this form.

So a Massachusetts applicant should expect to be screened thoroughly and to be asked for the same information as anywhere else — and should not expect to pay for it. Filling in a complete, accurate application is still the thing that gets an application taken seriously.

Two items carry legal weight. The consent to obtain a consumer report is what makes the screening lawful, and its importance does not depend on whether a fee was charged — if anything it is clearer here, because consent is doing all the work with no fee attached to it. The adverse-action acknowledgement matters because an applicant declined wholly or partly because of a consumer report is entitled under the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (15 U.S.C. § 1681m) to be told so and given the reporting agency’s details.

The Massachusetts-specific thing worth recording is simply which of the four permitted payments are being asked for, when, and by whom. Our guide to how to screen tenants covers the landlord’s side.

Signing one binds nobody to a tenancy. That distinction is doing extra work in Massachusetts, because § 15B(1)(b) attaches to the commencement of a tenancy — so what may be required, and when, turns on where in the process the parties actually are.

An application is the one moment in a tenancy when a stranger’s history is examined, so it is worth knowing what is being looked at. Eviction records are part of most screenings, and what they mean depends on how the process works locally — our guide to Massachusetts eviction notice laws sets out the notices and timelines that produce those records in the first place.

If the application succeeds, the next money question is the deposit, and it is a different question from the fee discussed here: an application fee buys screening, a deposit secures the tenancy and is generally refundable. Massachusetts security deposit laws cover what may be held and when it has to come back.

For everything the application stage does not settle — the obligations that begin once a tenancy starts, and the rules that apply to both parties throughout it — see Massachusetts landlord tenant laws.

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