How much can a landlord charge for a rental application fee in Arizona?

No statutory cap on application fees.

Does an application fee have to be refunded in Arizona?

Yes — in Arizona at least one circumstance requires application-stage money to be returned. A fee or deposit is refundable unless the landlord designated it nonrefundable and stated its purpose in writing. No deadline or method of return is set for application-stage money.

Does a landlord have to give a receipt for an application fee in Arizona?

No statutory receipt duty for application money.

Does Arizona have a reusable tenant screening report law?

No statute on reusable screening reports.

Can a landlord charge a holding deposit in Arizona?

No holding-deposit-specific statute and no cap. The general rule applies: the purpose of a nonrefundable deposit must be stated in writing, and a deposit not designated nonrefundable is refundable.

What can a landlord charge for a rental application in Arizona?

Verified August 26, 2026 All Arizona topics →

Legislative changes ahead — not yet in force. The rules on this page reflect the law in force today. The following measures would change it:

HB 2244 (2026), Ch. 194 — Already CHAPTERED but not yet effective: on September 12, 2026, ARS 12-1567 and 22-247 gain a tenant remedy after an eviction judgment is paid — if the tenant files a motion to compel satisfaction of the judgment and the landlord does not respond within 15 days, the filing fee is waived, no hearing is held, the judgment is deemed satisfied on the tenant's proof of payment, and the court may seal records of the eviction action under ARS 33-1379.Status: Approved 2026-06-19; effective 2026-09-12 (the session's general effective date; the chapter carries no effective-date clause of its own). The answers shown do not yet reflect it. (checked 2026-08-12).
SB 1426 (2026), Ch. 69 — Already CHAPTERED but not yet effective: on September 12, 2026, ARS 12-1173 gains a separate forcible-detainer track for unauthorized occupants of residential property. The act states it 'does not apply to or modify the rights and remedies available to landlords and tenants pursuant to title 33, chapter 10,' so the tenant eviction rules on this page are unchanged by it.Status: Approved 2026-05-29; effective 2026-09-12 (general effective date). No figure on this page changes. (checked 2026-08-12).

Measure that did not become law. The following recent proposal failed and is not law — noted here because failed bills are sometimes still described as if enacted:

SB 1580 (57th Legislature, 1st Regular Session, 2025) — Would have added a new section capping a residential application fee at the reasonable administrative cost of reviewing the application, allowing only one application fee per prospective tenant, and requiring a landlord to disclose additional fees and costs in any advertisement stating the rental rate.Status: Held in the Senate committees it was assigned to, Regulatory Affairs and Government Efficiency and Rules; last recorded action was the Senate second reading on February 11, 2025. It passed neither chamber and the session it was introduced in has ended. (checked 2026-08-26).

Arizona does not regulate what a landlord may charge a person to apply for a home: there is no application fee cap, no actual-cost limit, no rule about charging for credit or background reports, and no state denial-notice duty.

Cited to A.R.S. § 33-1321 (A) and 21 more Arizona statutes · Verified August 26, 2026

The one rule that does reach application-stage money is a labeling rule in the Residential Landlord and Tenant Act: a landlord must state the purpose of any nonrefundable fee or deposit in writing, and a fee or deposit not designated as nonrefundable is refundable. The same rule is the state's only answer on holding deposits, and separately security and prepaid rent together may not exceed one and one-half month's rent. Arizona has no fee-transparency law for rental advertising and no portable screening report law, and the legislature's 2025 attempt at an application fee cap did not pass.

Arizona application fees at a glance

Application fee cap	No statutory cap on application fees
Fee limited to actual screening cost	No statute ties the fee to screening cost
Screening charge rules	No statute governs screening charges separately
Receipt required	No statutory receipt duty for application money
Refund required in some circumstances	Yes
Refund rules	A fee or deposit is refundable unless the landlord designated it nonrefundable and stated its purpose in writing. No deadline or method of return is set for application-stage money. The refundability rule turns entirely on the written designation, not on whether the unit was rented or a report was pulled. Arizona sets no deadline, no itemization duty, and no delivery method for returning an application fee. The fourteen-day itemized-list-and-return timetable in the same section is a different duty, tied to money held as security and prepaid rent after a tenancy ends.
Disclosure before collecting	The landlord must state in writing the purpose of any nonrefundable fee or deposit. Nothing else must be disclosed before money is taken. Arizona's only fee-basis disclosure is the written statement of the purpose of a nonrefundable fee or deposit, and the statute sets no time by which the statement must be given. The state does not require a landlord to publish screening criteria, break down what an application fee pays for, re-notice a change in criteria, or tell an applicant their rights. The Act's separate disclosure section reaches only the identity of the person authorized to manage the premises and of the owner or the owner's agent for service of process, plus written notice that the Act is available on the Arizona Department of Housing's website.
Denial-notice duties (state law)	No state statute — federal fair-credit duties still apply
Reusable screening reports	No statute on reusable screening reports
Holding deposits	No holding-deposit-specific statute and no cap. The general rule applies: the purpose of a nonrefundable deposit must be stated in writing, and a deposit not designated nonrefundable is refundable. Arizona does not name holding deposits in its statutes, so money taken to hold a unit while a lease is prepared falls under the same fee-and-deposit rule as any other charge: state the purpose of a nonrefundable deposit in writing, or the deposit is refundable. No statute sets a ceiling on a holding deposit, a deadline for its return, or what happens on each outcome. Separately, security and prepaid rent together may not exceed one and one-half month's rent. As with the refund rule, the Act's duties run between a landlord and a tenant.
Rental fee-transparency rules	No rental fee-transparency statute
Penalty for violation	No specific statutory penalty

Cite this page: "Landlord Atlas, Arizona Application & Screening Fee Laws (verified August 26, 2026), landlordatlas.com/laws/application-fees/arizona/" — free to cite and quote with a link (how these records are verified). Every figure above is cited to the Arizona statute in the citations section below.

Notes and caveats

Where the one rule lives — The written-purpose rule sits in the section headed Security deposits, A.R.S. § 33-1321(B), which is why it is easy to miss. It is written broadly enough to cover any fee or deposit a landlord takes, not only move-in money.
How far it reaches an applicant — The Residential Landlord and Tenant Act defines a tenant as someone already entitled under a rental agreement to occupy a dwelling unit, and its remedies run between landlord and tenant. The statutes do not say what a person whose application was declined can do about a fee, and that question is left open here.
No screening-fee rules of any kind — Arizona does not cap screening charges, require that a report actually be obtained, limit a landlord to one charge per applicant, or require that screening criteria be published before money is collected.
Denial notices are federal only — Arizona's fair credit reporting article puts its denial-disclosure duty on creditors, not landlords. Any notice an applicant receives after a screening-based denial comes from federal law, not state law.
No fee-transparency statute — Arizona has no all-in advertised pricing or mandatory fee itemization rule for rental listings, in either its statutes or its administrative code. General consumer-protection enforcement by the attorney general is the only backdrop.
Manufactured-home communities are separate — Lot tenancies in mobile home parks are governed by a different act in Title 33, chapter 11, and are not covered by this topic.
Recent legislative attempts — A 2025 Senate bill would have capped application fees at the reasonable administrative cost of reviewing an application and required fee disclosure in rental advertising. It was held in committee. A companion effort aimed at mobile home parks also failed. No 2025 or 2026 session law changed application or screening fee law.
About the application fee rule — Arizona sets no dollar cap, no actual-cost limit, and no other ceiling on what a landlord may charge a person applying for a residential tenancy, and it does not route application charges through a list of permitted fees. The Residential Landlord and Tenant Act's one fee-and-deposit section limits only security and prepaid rent, to no more than one and one-half month's rent. What an applicant pays to apply is left to the parties.
How the cost limit works — No Arizona statute ties an application or screening charge to what the landlord actually spends on a credit, background, or eviction report. The Act's fee-and-deposit section addresses security, prepaid rent, and the labeling of nonrefundable fees, and says nothing about the cost of screening.
Screening charges — Arizona places no conditions on charging an applicant for tenant screening. There is no rule on who may charge, no one-charge-per-applicant limit, no requirement that the landlord actually obtain a report, and no written-agreement or vacancy prerequisite. Arizona's fair credit reporting article speaks to the reporting agency instead: it may furnish a consumer report only to a person it has reason to believe has a legitimate business need for it in connection with a business transaction involving the consumer.
What the receipt duty covers — No Arizona statute requires a landlord to give an applicant a receipt for application or screening money. The Act's itemization duty runs the other way in time: it applies to money held as security and prepaid rent when the tenancy ends. A licensed real estate broker holding money entrusted to the broker must place it in a trust fund account and document each deposit, but that is a recordkeeping duty under the real estate license law rather than a receipt owed to the applicant.
When money must come back — One statutory circumstance forces money back: a fee or deposit that the landlord did not designate as nonrefundable is refundable. The Residential Landlord and Tenant Act requires the landlord to state the purpose of all nonrefundable fees or deposits in writing, and provides that any fee or deposit not so designated is refundable. The Act's duties run between a landlord and a tenant, so how far this reaches a person whose application was turned down is not settled by the statutory text.
Denial notices — Arizona imposes no state denial-notice duty on a landlord who turns down a rental application. The state's fair credit reporting article places its only denial-disclosure duty on creditors: a creditor who denies credit must tell the consumer the name and address of any consumer reporting agency that furnished a report the creditor considered. A landlord declining an applicant is not denying credit. Federal law supplies whatever notice duties apply.
Reusable screening reports — Arizona has no portable or reusable tenant screening report law. A landlord is not required to accept a screening report an applicant already obtained, no rule bars a second charge when one is used, and no validity window is set. Neither the Residential Landlord and Tenant Act nor the state's fair credit reporting article contains such a regime.
Advertising and fee transparency — Arizona has no statute or state regulation requiring an all-in advertised rental price, itemization of mandatory rental fees, or disclosure of application-stage charges in listings. The Consumer Fraud Act is a general ban on deception and material omission in the sale or advertisement of merchandise, enforced by the attorney general; its definition of a covered sale reaches leases and rentals of real estate only where the property carries a deed restriction imposed as part of an earlier sale. The attorney general's rules in the Arizona Administrative Code cover fair housing, and the Act's rulemaking grant is limited to subpoenas and hearings, so no state rule fills the gap.
Penalties — No damages award, civil penalty, or fee forfeiture attaches to the written-purpose rule for nonrefundable fees and deposits. The Act's money remedies belong to other duties: a landlord who fails to give a departing tenant the itemized list of deductions and the money due owes twice the amount wrongfully withheld, and a landlord who knowingly uses a rental-agreement provision the Act prohibits owes actual damages plus up to two months' rent. Because no rental fee rule is defined as an unfair practice under the Consumer Fraud Act, that act's civil penalty of up to ten thousand dollars per willful violation does not reach application-stage charges.

Common questions: Arizona application fees

Each answer is the verified value from the table above, restated as a direct answer. Free to quote with a link to this page.

How much can a landlord charge for a rental application fee in Arizona?: No statutory cap on application fees.
Does an application fee have to be refunded in Arizona?: Yes — in Arizona at least one circumstance requires application-stage money to be returned. A fee or deposit is refundable unless the landlord designated it nonrefundable and stated its purpose in writing. No deadline or method of return is set for application-stage money.
Does a landlord have to give a receipt for an application fee in Arizona?: No statutory receipt duty for application money.
Does Arizona have a reusable tenant screening report law?: No statute on reusable screening reports.
Can a landlord charge a holding deposit in Arizona?: No holding-deposit-specific statute and no cap. The general rule applies: the purpose of a nonrefundable deposit must be stated in writing, and a deposit not designated nonrefundable is refundable.

Statute citations

A.R.S. § 33-1321 (A) (verified 2026) Official source
A.R.S. Title 33, ch. 10 (section index) (verified 2026) Official source
A.R.S. § 33-1321 (A)-(B) (verified 2026) Official source
A.R.S. § 33-1321 (A)-(H) (verified 2026) Official source
A.R.S. § 44-1692 (A)(3)(e) (verified 2026) Official source
A.R.S. § 33-1321 (D) (verified 2026) Official source
A.R.S. § 32-2151 (A), (B)(1) (verified 2026) Official source
A.R.S. § 33-1321 (B) (verified 2026) Official source
A.R.S. § 33-1321 (B), (D) (verified 2026) Official source
A.R.S. § 33-1322 (A), (B) (verified 2026) Official source
A.R.S. § 44-1693 (A)(1) (verified 2026) Official source
A.R.S. § 44-1692 (A) (verified 2026) Official source
A.R.S. § 33-1321 (verified 2026) Official source
A.R.S. § 44-1692 (verified 2026) Official source
A.R.S. § 33-1321 (B), (A) (verified 2026) Official source
A.R.S. § 44-1521 (1), (5), (7) (verified 2026) Official source
A.R.S. § 44-1522 (A) (verified 2026) Official source
A.R.S. § 33-1321 (D), (E) (verified 2026) Official source
A.R.S. § 33-1315 (verified 2026) Official source
A.R.S. § 44-1531 (A) (verified 2026) Official source
A.R.S. § 33-1321 (A), (B), (D), (E) (verified 2026) Official source
A.R.S. Title 33, ch. 10 (Arizona Residential Landlord and Tenant Act, section index) (verified 2026) Official source

How this record was verified: Direct read of the Arizona Residential Landlord and Tenant Act's fee and disclosure sections on azleg.gov (A.R.S. 33-1304, 33-1308, 33-1310, 33-1314, 33-1315, 33-1321, 33-1322) together with the Title 33 chapter index, the Consumer Fraud Act (44-1521, 44-1522, 44-1531) and the fair credit reporting article (44-1692, 44-1693), the real estate license law's trust-account section (32-2151), and a sweep of the 2025 and 2026 regular sessions on the legislature's own bill and session-law pages. Two claimed sections, 33-1320 and 33-1322.01, were checked on the statute host and do not exist.