Rental Application Fee Laws by State

No Alabama statute regulates rental application or tenant-screening fees in any form – no cap, no actual-cost limit, no receipt/itemization duty, no refund duty, no portable-report rule.

— Ala. Code §§ 35-9A-101 to 35-9A-603 (Alabama Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act) – all 48 sections examined; the only money-in-advance rule is § 35-9A-201 (security deposits)

Alaska’s URLTA contains no rental-application or screening-fee provision of any kind.

— AS 34.03.010 to 34.03.380 (Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act) – all 43 sections examined, silent

Arizona’s residential landlord-tenant act does not regulate application or screening fees; the nearest provision, A.R.S. § 33-1321(B), governs nonrefundable fees UNDER A RENTAL AGREEMENT, not fees taken from an applicant before tenancy.

— A.R.S. tit. 33, ch. 10, §§ 33-1301 to 33-1381 (Arizona Residential Landlord and Tenant Act) – 51 live sections examined

Arkansas has no statutory regulation of rental application or screening fees; the Residential Landlord-Tenant Act of 2007 as enacted contains no such provision.

— Ark. Code Ann. §§ 18-17-101 to 18-17-913 (Arkansas Residential Landlord-Tenant Act of 2007), enacted by Acts 2007, No. 1004 (HB 2540)

Application screening fee capped at actual out-of-pocket cost AND at a hard ceiling of thirty dollars ($30 (Cal. Civil Code § 1950.6)) per applicant, CPI-adjustable annually since 1 Jan 1998 (so the real 2026 ceiling is materially above $30); itemized receipt required; no fee where no unit is or will be available; and since AB 2493 the landlord must either refund the entire fee to every applicant not selected, or run a first-qualified-applicant process — a process with several statutory conditions, including considering completed applications in the order received, giving the applicant the screening criteria in writing with the application form, approving the first applicant who meets those criteria, and not charging the fee unless and until the application is actually considered. Separately, where no reference check or credit report is actually performed, any unused part of the fee must be returned.

Rental application fee regulated – actual-cost limit, equal-fee rule, disclosure and refund duties.

— C.R.S. §§ 38-12-903 / 904 / 905

Landlord may not charge a processing/application fee; a tenant screening fee is permitted but capped at $50 (Conn. Gen. Stat. § 47a-4d) adjusted for CPI (ban on application fees plus a capped screening fee).

DOLLAR CAP: a landlord may charge a creditworthiness application fee not exceeding THE GREATER OF 10 percent of the monthly rent or $50, (25 Del. C. § 5514(d); 25 Del. C. § 5310 (assurance money); see also § 5311 (no nonrefundable fee as a condition of occupancy)) must furnish a receipt on receipt of the fee, must keep complete records of all application fees for at least 2 years, and overcharging entitles the tenant to DOUBLE the amount charged. Separately, a prospective landlord may not charge more than the SPECIFIC COST of any credit or other investigation, may not take ‘assurance money’, and must retain each application record for 6 months (Consumer Protection Unit enforcement). The operative ceiling on any given application is the LOWER of the two limits.

$50 (D.C. Code § 42-3505.10 (‘Tenant screening’)) application fee cap (CPI-adjustable annually from 1 Jan 2024), no other fee before lease signing, only ONE application fee where the same provider’s units are applied for within 30 days unless more than one screening is actually required, and a refund of the ENTIRE fee within 14 days where no screening is conducted for any reason, and an extensive pre-fee written disclosure duty (fees, screening criteria, automatic-denial criteria, unit availability, response time, dispute and complaint rights).

NO statewide regulation of a landlord’s application or screening fee – and Florida expressly PREEMPTS local governments from imposing one. BUT where a CONDOMINIUM association must approve a lease its approval fee ‘may not exceed $150 (F.S. § 83.425 (preemption); F.S. § 718.112(2)(k) (condo approval fee cap); F.S. § 719.106(1)(i) (co-op cap); F.S. § 83.683 (servicemember application-processing deadline – a timing duty, not a fee rule)) per applicant’ (CPI-adjusted every 5 years), and for a COOPERATIVE the ceiling is ‘$100 per applicant’, with no charge at all on renewal with the same lessee. Do not conflate the two.

Georgia imposes no cap, cost limit, refund duty or disclosure duty on rental application or screening fees; the state’s own housing agency handbook describes them as ordinarily non-refundable even on denial.

— O.C.G.A. tit. 44, ch. 7 (Landlord and Tenant) – a free official unannotated Code exists but only as a session-bound application with no citable URL, so the quoted text is Release 86 (Nov 2022), public domain, as transformed and posted by Public.Resource.Org

Cost-recovery only (no flat cap): fee limited to actual cost; the applicant must be 18 or older OR an emancipated minor; a receipt and itemized breakdown are owed UPON REQUEST by the applicant; and the 30-day refund clock runs from when the landlord submitted the screening requests, not from application or payment.

— HRS § 521-46

Idaho does not regulate rental application or screening fees; its only fee statute, I.C. § 55-305, requires that fees be ‘reasonable’ and be stated in the rental agreement, and by its terms runs to ‘a residential TENANT’ / ‘the TENANT of a rental property’, not to an applicant who has not yet rented.

— I.C. § 55-305 (Limitation on fees for tenants of a rental property); I.C. §§ 6-301 to 6-324 and §§ 55-301 to 55-315 examined in full; § 55-306 (local preemption)

TWO DISTINCT PROVISIONS AND THE SPLIT MATTERS.

IN FORCE NOW: if a prospective tenant supplies a qualifying reusable tenant screening report (prepared within the previous 30 days by a consumer credit reporting agency at the applicant’s request and expense, available to the landlord at no cost, covering the landlord’s consistently-used criteria), the landlord MAY NOT CHARGE a fee to access it OR an application screening fee at all; the landlord may still run its own additional report but not charge for it.

ENACTED BUT NOT YET IN FORCE: from 1 January 2027, a $50 (765 ILCS 705/30 (Reusable tenant screening report) – IN FORCE; 765 ILCS 705/35 (Rental fee transparency and limitations) – DELAYED) cap on any rental application fee including background checks, exceeded only where a third-party check actually costs more AND the landlord fronts the cost AND bills the applicant with receipts within 14 days (otherwise the fee is waived), plus an anti-renaming clause, a private right of action, and an exemption for owner-occupied premises of 6 units or fewer.

No Indiana statute regulates application or screening fees, AND Indiana expressly VOIDS any local ordinance regulating the screening process, lease applications, or ‘any fees charged by a landlord’.

— IC 32-31 (Landlord-Tenant Relations) – examined, silent; IC 32-31-1-20(c) is the preemption clause

Nothing in Iowa’s Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Law regulates application or screening fees.

— Iowa Code ch. 562A (Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Law) – examined in full, silent; ch. 562B (manufactured home communities) also checked

Nothing in the Kansas Residential Landlord and Tenant Act or the general landlord-tenant sections regulates application or screening fees.

— K.S.A. ch. 58 art. 25, comprising §§ 58-2501 to 58-2534 (general landlord-tenant) and the Kansas Residential Landlord and Tenant Act, §§ 58-2540 to 58-2573 (plus 58-2574) – all 74 live sections examined, silent

No Kentucky statute regulates application or screening fees; the opt-in URLTA text itself contains no fee provision, and since 2024 localities may not adopt conflicting landlord-tenant ordinances.

— KRS ch. 383 (Rental of Property; FED; URLTA at KRS 383.500-383.715) – all 96 sections examined, silent. Related but not a fee rule: KRS 383.198 (2024) barring conflicting local ordinances; KRS 383.500 authorising cities/counties to enact URLTA ‘in their entirety and without amendment’.

Regulated WITHOUT a dollar cap and WITHOUT a remedy: a lessor may not require payment of an application fee unless, BEFORE accepting it, the lessor gives written notice of (1) the amount of the fee, (2) whether it considers credit scores, employment history, criminal history or eviction records, and (3) that the applicant may share a statement of 200 words or less explaining financial hardship from a declared disaster or emergency and its effect on their credit, employment or rental history, with that notice referencing the COVID-19 pandemic and hurricanes. No cap, no refund duty. Exempts owner-occupied buildings of no more than four units, and subsection D grants lessors and their agents blanket IMMUNITY from all causes of action for violations.

— La. R.S. 9:3258.1 (‘Residential lease application requirements’)

Application fee is banned; landlord may charge one actual-cost screening check, must give the applicant a copy, and may charge only one such fee per 12-month period.

— 14 M.R.S. § 6030-H

De-facto $25 (Md. Code, Real Property § 8-213) non-refundable ceiling: any fee other than a security deposit that EXCEEDS $25 must be returned within 15 days of occupancy or of a decision that no tenancy will occur, less only the portion actually expended on a credit check or other application expenses; failure means liability for TWICE the fees. The lease application must itself explain this. EXEMPT: landlords offering four or fewer units at one location, and seasonal and condominium rentals.

Effective ban: at or prior to commencement of a tenancy a lessor or the lessor’s agent may require only (i) first month’s rent, (ii) last month’s rent, (iii) a security deposit up to one month’s rent, and (iv) the cost of a key and lock – an application or screening fee is not on the exhaustive list and so may not be required. The section does not reach a lease, rental or tenancy of one hundred days or less for a vacation or recreational purpose, which falls outside it entirely.

— M.G.L. c. 186 § 15B(1)(b)

Michigan law does not regulate rental application fees or tenant screening/credit-check fees – no cap, no actual-cost limit, no refund, receipt, disclosure or portable-report duty. Michigan’s only fee-to-applicant rule is the SECURITY DEPOSIT cap, which is a different subject.

— 1972 PA 348, MCL 554.601-554.616 (Landlord and Tenant Relationships / security deposits) and the Truth in Renting Act, 1978 PA 454, MCL 554.631-554.641 – examined, silent

Regulated WITHOUT a dollar cap: no screening fee where the landlord knows no unit is or will be available; a written receipt on request; the fee may not be used, cashed or deposited until prior applicants are resolved; the fee must be RETURNED if the applicant is rejected for a reason not disclosed or if a prior applicant takes the unit, and any unused portion must be returned if no reference check or report was actually obtained; the screening service and the rental criteria must be disclosed in writing BEFORE the fee is accepted; rejection notice within 14 days; landlord liable for the fee plus a civil penalty up to $100 (Minn. Stat. § 504B.173).

Nothing in the Mississippi Residential Landlord and Tenant Act regulates application or screening fees; the deposit statute expressly CARVES OUT payments ‘made to secure the execution of a rental agreement’.

— Miss. Code Ann. §§ 89-8-1 to 89-8-45 (Residential Landlord and Tenant Act), all 23 sections – examined, silent; § 89-8-21(1) is the carve-out

No Missouri statute regulates application or screening fees; a 2025 act instead PREEMPTS local ordinances restricting a landlord’s use of credit reports, criminal or eviction history, or limiting security deposits.

— RSMo ch. 441 (Landlord and Tenant) and ch. 535 (Landlord-Tenant Actions) – all 95 sections examined, silent. Related but not a fee rule: § 441.043.2(2) and (3).

Montana law does not regulate rental application fees or tenant screening/credit-check fees at all – no cap, no actual-cost limit, no refund duty, no receipt duty, no criteria-disclosure duty, no portable-report duty.

— MCA tit. 70 ch. 24 pts. 1-4 (Residential Landlord and Tenant Act of 1977, §§ 70-24-101 to 70-24-442) and MCA tit. 70 ch. 25 pts. 1-2 (Residential Tenants’ Security Deposits, §§ 70-25-101 to 70-25-206) – examined, silent

No Nebraska statute regulates rental application or tenant-screening fees – the URLTA is silent (no cap, no cost limit, no receipt duty, no refund duty).

— Neb. Rev. Stat. §§ 76-1401 to 76-14,110 (Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act) – examined, silent

Regulated WITHOUT a dollar cap: a landlord must refund any application, credit-report or background-