Free Texas Rental Application
Texas sets no limit on the amount. It conditions the right to keep it. If the landlord did not make its tenant selection criteria available when it gave you the application, and then rejects you, it must return the fee and any application deposit — and the right cannot be waived.
Texas belongs to the group of states that regulate the application fee without capping it, and its mechanism is the sharpest in this set. Under Tex. Prop. Code subchapter I of chapter 92, at the time the applicant is given a rental application the landlord must make available a printed notice of its tenant selection criteria and the grounds for denial, and take a signed acknowledgment. If it then rejects the applicant without having done so, it must return the application fee and any application deposit. Bad-faith retention exposes it to one hundred dollars plus three times the amount wrongfully retained plus attorney’s fees, and the right is non-waivable.
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Setting the amount is free; keeping it is not
Most fee regulation works on the size of the charge. Texas works on the landlord’s conduct. § 92.351(1-a) defines the application fee as a non-refundable sum given to offset the cost of screening, and nothing caps it. What § 92.3515 does is attach a condition: the selection criteria and grounds for denial must be made available at the time the application is given, with a signed acknowledgment. A landlord that skips that step and then rejects the applicant loses the fee and any application deposit. The effect is to make transparency the price of keeping the money, which is a different lever from a ceiling and arguably a more useful one.
Watch: Free Texas Rental Application explained
Texas rental application at a glance
Dollar cap
None
The condition
Selection criteria made available, with signed acknowledgment
If not, and you are rejected
Fee and application deposit returned
Bad-faith retention
$100 plus three times the amount, plus fees
A note on how current this is
This page’s source for the Texas provisions is the enrolled text of the Act that created subchapter I — H.B. 3101 of the 80th Legislature, effective 1 January 2008 — rather than a codified current-text service. The reason is specific and worth stating: the state’s own statute host fails a bogus-URL control. Asked for a fabricated chapter it returns content indistinguishable from a real one, which makes it unusable as a source for any state and any code, because a fetch from it cannot be distinguished from a fabrication. So the substance below is sound as enacted, and its currency is an inference rather than a verified fact. Check the current codified text before relying on a detail.
How to use a Texas rental application
Ask for the tenant selection criteria when you are given the application
That is when § 92.3515 requires them to be made available — not later.
Read the grounds for denial before you pay
They must be made available too, and they tell you whether applying is worth the fee.
Note whether you signed an acknowledgment
§ 92.3515(b) requires the applicant to sign one. If no acknowledgment was signed there is a rebuttable presumption that the notice was never made available, so the absence of your signature works in your favour, not the landlord’s.
If rejected, ask whether the criteria were provided
If they were not, the fee and any application deposit must be returned.
Do not accept a waiver clause
The right is non-waivable, so a clause in the application purporting to give it up does not do so.
About the Texas rental application
A rental application creates no tenancy; it identifies an applicant and records their consent to be screened. Texas is the state where the application document itself is closest to being part of the legal mechanism: the selection criteria have to be made available at the moment the application is handed over, and § 92.3515(b) requires the applicant to sign an acknowledgment that they were. A form that does not prompt for either is missing the step the landlord’s right to keep the fee depends on. The generator above asks directly whether the criteria were made available, because that single fact decides the refund question.
What a Texas application should record
- 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
- The application fee, and any separate application deposit
- Whether the tenant selection criteria were made available at the time
- Whether the grounds for denial were made available
- Whether a signed acknowledgment was taken
- Written consent to obtain a consumer report, signed and dated
- An address for any adverse-action notice if the application is declined
Common Texas mistakes
- Assuming “no cap” means nothing constrains the fee. § 92.3515 conditions the right to keep it on having made the selection criteria available.
- Providing the criteria after the application. The section requires them at the time the application is given — supplying them with the rejection is too late.
- Forgetting the application deposit. Where the condition is not met and the applicant is rejected, the deposit comes back as well as the fee.
- Relying on a waiver clause. The right is non-waivable; a clause purporting to give it up does not achieve that.
- Underestimating bad-faith retention. It exposes the landlord to $100 plus three times the amount wrongfully retained plus attorney’s fees under the same subchapter.
Does Texas cap rental application fees?
No — it conditions them instead. Tex. Prop. Code § 92.351(1-a) defines an application fee as a non-refundable sum given to a landlord to offset the cost of screening an applicant, and no provision limits the amount.
What subchapter I does instead is attach a duty to the moment the application is handed over, and make the landlord’s right to keep the money depend on having performed it.
The condition: selection criteria, at the time
At the time the applicant is given a rental application, the landlord must make available a printed notice of its tenant selection criteria and the grounds for denial, and take a signed acknowledgment that the notice was made available.
If the landlord then rejects the applicant without having done that, it must return the application fee and any application deposit.
Why this is a better lever than a ceiling
A cap limits what a rejected applicant loses. This limits whether they lose it at all, and it does so by requiring the one thing that would have let them decide not to apply in the first place. An applicant who can read the criteria before paying can see that they fall short of a stated income multiple or have a disqualifying record, and keep their money. That is worth more than capping the fee they would otherwise have wasted.
What bad faith costs
The subchapter does not leave the duty unenforced. A landlord that retains an application fee in bad faith is liable for $100 plus three times the amount wrongfully retained plus attorney’s fees.
Set that against the size of a typical application fee and the ratio is deliberate: a remedy equal to the amount would not be worth pursuing, so the statute makes it worth pursuing.
The right cannot be waived
This matters because application forms are drafted by landlords, and a clause purporting to waive the refund right is exactly what one would expect to appear. It does not work: the right is non-waivable.
So an applicant who signed an application containing such a clause has not given anything up, and a landlord relying on one has not protected itself.
Application fee and application deposit are different things
Texas distinguishes them, and the distinction survives into the refund rule. The fee offsets screening costs and is defined as non-refundable in the ordinary case. An application deposit is a different sum with a different purpose.
Where the condition is not met and the applicant is rejected, both must be returned. An applicant asking for their money back should therefore be clear about what they paid and under which label, which is why the generator above records them separately.
What the application itself should capture
In Texas the decisive field is whether the tenant selection criteria were made available at the time the application was given, because that single fact determines the refund question. A signed acknowledgment is required by § 92.3515(b), and if none was signed the section raises a rebuttable presumption that the notice was never made available — so whether one was taken is worth recording, and its absence is evidence rather than a gap.
Beyond that, the consent to obtain a consumer report is what makes screening lawful, and 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. Our guide to how to screen tenants covers the landlord’s side.
An application is not a lease
Signing one binds nobody to a tenancy. A tenancy begins only if the landlord accepts the application and the parties sign a rental agreement, and the terms that then govern come from that agreement and the law behind it.
Where the application sits in Texas law
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 Texas 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. Texas 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 Texas landlord tenant laws.
Bottom line
No cap on the amount — a condition on keeping it. Under Tex. Prop. Code § 92.3515 the landlord must make its tenant selection criteria and grounds for denial available when it hands you the application; reject you without having done so and the fee and any application deposit come back. Bad faith costs $100 plus three times the amount wrongfully retained plus attorney’s fees, and the right is NON-WAIVABLE.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Texas cap rental application fees?
No. Tex. Prop. Code § 92.351(1-a) defines the fee as a non-refundable sum offsetting the cost of screening, and nothing limits the amount. What is regulated is the landlord’s right to keep it.
When must the landlord give me its selection criteria?
At the time you are given the rental application. § 92.3515 requires a printed notice of the tenant selection criteria and the grounds for denial to be made available then, with a signed acknowledgment.
What if they reject me without providing them?
The landlord must return the application fee and any application deposit.
What if they keep it anyway?
Bad-faith retention exposes the landlord to $100 plus three times the amount wrongfully retained plus attorney’s fees.
Can I sign away that right?
No. The right is non-waivable, so a clause in an application purporting to waive it does not achieve that.
Is an application deposit the same as an application fee?
No. They are distinct in Texas, and where the condition is not met and the applicant is rejected, both must be returned.
How current is this?
The substance comes from the enrolled text of H.B. 3101 (80th Legislature), which took effect on 1 January 2008. The state’s own statute host fails a bogus-URL control and is unusable as a source, so the currency of the codified text is an inference here rather than a verified fact — check the current text before relying on a detail.
Does signing an application commit me to renting?
No. An application creates no tenancy. One begins only if the landlord accepts it and the parties sign a rental agreement.
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