{ "_meta": { "dataset": "Landlord Atlas 50-State Landlord-Tenant Law Dataset", "dataset_version": "1.19.0", "published_at": "2026-08-26T14:30:00Z", "license": "https://landlordatlas.com/data/license/", "attribution": "Landlord Atlas (https://landlordatlas.com) — cite by name, link the relevant page, and carry the record's verification date.", "disclaimer": "Landlord Atlas is not a law firm. This dataset provides general information about state landlord-tenant statutes for informational purposes only. It is not legal advice and is not a substitute for the advice of an attorney. Use of this data does not create an attorney-client relationship. Laws change: rely on the citations and verification dates carried in each record, and confirm against the cited statute before acting.", "schema": "https://landlordatlas.com/data/schema.json", "changelog": "https://landlordatlas.com/data/changelog.json", "version_manifest": "https://landlordatlas.com/data/version.json", "contact": "contact@landlordatlas.com" }, "current_version": "1.19.0", "published_at": "2026-08-26T14:30:00Z", "release": { "title": "Rental application and screening fee laws: twenty-four more states (36 of 50)", "summary": "Twenty-four more states join the rental application and screening fee topic, taking it to 36 of 50: Arizona, Connecticut, Florida, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, North Dakota, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, and Texas, each verified against its official statutes with citations and typed pending-legislation flags. The new states span the full range of approaches. New Jersey caps the total charged for one application at $50 (P.L.2025, c.405, in force since May 1, 2026, adjusted for inflation from January 1, 2027, with the applicable figure published by the Division of Consumer Affairs); fees labeled administrative or screening count toward the same $50. Connecticut bans application fees outright — the one permitted application-stage charge is a tenant screening report fee capped at $50 plus a consumer price index adjustment, and since May 26, 2026 the limits also bind third parties acting for a landlord. Rhode Island and Maine also ban application fees, each allowing only the actual cost of a screening check with the report handed to the applicant, and Maine allows only one such charge per applicant per 12 months. New Hampshire sets no dollar cap but requires written disclosure of the fee before collection and a refund of everything beyond documented check costs within 30 days when the applicant is not rented the unit. Montana requires a property manager of four or more units to refund an application fee, less pre-disclosed costs for services actually performed, when the applicant does not sign — a rule that sits in the property-manager licensing chapter rather than the landlord-tenant act. Texas sets no cap and instead ties refund duties to its printed tenant-selection-criteria notice, with a bad-faith penalty of $100 plus three times the amount wrongfully retained; the widely repeated claim that Texas caps fees at actual screening cost is not in the statute. Louisiana requires written notice of the fee amount and screening factors before any fee is taken, but the statute bars any private action for its violation. Arizona's one rule is that the purpose of a nonrefundable fee must be stated in writing, and a fee not designated nonrefundable is refundable — the circulating citation to an Arizona application-fee statute at § 33-1320 refers to a section that does not exist. Florida caps only the lease-approval fees of condominium and cooperative associations ($150 and $100 per applicant) and preempts local regulation of application fees. Illinois's reusable tenant screening report rule is in force now (no screening fee may be charged when a qualifying report is supplied), and its $50 application-fee cap with receipted third-party-cost exception, first-page-of-lease fee disclosure, and eleven-item fee ban takes effect January 1, 2027 for leases signed on or after that date. The remaining thirteen states — Iowa, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and South Dakota — currently regulate none of the twelve rules and are published as verified absences stating what governs instead, including the Indiana, Kansas, and Missouri statutes that preempt or void local rules in this area and the failed bills that still circulate as if enacted (Michigan's pending cap bills have passed no chamber; Nebraska's LB 17 was indefinitely postponed on April 17, 2026). Pennsylvania's HB 558, which would cap application fees at $20 and passed the House 148–53 on May 4, 2026, is flagged as pending in the Senate. Texas statute citations link to the Texas Legislative Council's text service at tcss.legis.texas.gov, which serves the full chapter text." }, "release_policy": "Versions are explicit and hand-cut, never build-computed. MAJOR = breaking change to export shape or schema; MINOR = substantive data change (law change encoded, correction, verification that moved a value); PATCH = presentation or citation-URL fixes with no change to any legal figure or claim. A release is published only after the deployed files are verified live.", "downloads": { "bulk": "https://landlordatlas.com/data/landlord-atlas.json", "per_state_pattern": "https://landlordatlas.com/data/states/{state_code}.json", "localities": "https://landlordatlas.com/data/localities.json", "metros": "https://landlordatlas.com/data/metros.json", "schema": "https://landlordatlas.com/data/schema.json", "schema_localities": "https://landlordatlas.com/data/schema-locality.json", "changelog": "https://landlordatlas.com/data/changelog.json" }, "state_count": 50, "locality_count": 44, "topics": [ "security_deposits", "rent_increase_notice", "late_fees", "entry_notice", "eviction_process", "mobile_home_parks", "application_screening_fees" ], "mobile_home_parks_state_count": 50, "application_screening_fees_state_count": 36 }