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

No fee may be charged for processing, reviewing or accepting a rental application. The only money that may be taken at the application stage is a tenant screening report fee, capped at $50 plus an adjustment for any increase in the consumer price index for urban consumers determined each year by the Commissioner of Housing.

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

Yes — Connecticut requires a receipt for application-stage money.

Does Connecticut have a reusable tenant screening report law?

No statute on reusable screening reports.

Can a landlord charge a holding deposit in Connecticut?

A deposit to hold a unit while a lease is prepared may not be taken. The statute names the only payments that may be demanded before or at the beginning of the tenancy, and a unit-reservation payment is not among them.

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

Verified August 26, 2026 All Connecticut topics →

Check your municipality. Connecticut does not preempt local rent regulation — city or county ordinances may impose rent caps, notice rules, and fee limits that are stricter than the state-level rules on this page and are not covered here. Verify your municipality's ordinances before relying on any figure below. Verified local pages: Connecticut municipalities , Stamford .

What the state record says

Connecticut has no statewide rent cap or stabilization formula. It instead mandates local rent oversight: every municipality of 15,000 or more must maintain a fair rent commission, and those commissions can roll a rent back to a fair and equitable level when it is harsh and unconscionable. The mandate is Conn. Gen. Stat. 7-148b, as amended by Nov. Sp. Sess. P.A. 25-1, eff. 2026-01-01: every municipality with a population of 15,000 or more MUST maintain a fair rent commission (or join a joint or regional one), and any smaller municipality MAY create one. Commissions receive complaints about rents and 'rental charges' (including any fee on top of rent), and may roll a rent back to a fair and equitable level if, weighing the 13 factors in 7-148c (comparable rents, condition, services, repairs, taxes and debt service, code compliance, tenant income, amount and frequency of increases, reinvestment), it is 'so excessive ... as to be harsh and unconscionable' (7-148c, 7-148d). They can also suspend rent into escrow for health/safety violations and order landlords to stop retaliating against complainants; violations of commission orders draw fines of $25-$100 per offense, with each day beyond five a fresh offense (7-148d, 7-148f). Newly covered municipalities (15,000-24,999) have until January 1, 2028 to adopt the ordinance; commissions existing before 2026 cannot be abolished before then. The original mandate (25,000+, deadline July 1, 2023) came from P.A. 22-30. Separately, using rent-setting algorithms that compute on nonpublic competitor data is an unfair trade practice as of January 1, 2026 (47a-4f).

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

SB 218 (2026) — Public Act 26-79, Section 3 — Enacted but NOT yet effective. Amends Conn. Gen. Stat. 47a-21(j)(1) so that the Banking Commissioner, on finding a security-deposit violation within the commissioner's jurisdiction (deposit-amount cap, return/itemization duties, escrow duties, or interest duties), may order the landlord to PAY A CIVIL PENALTY under Conn. Gen. Stat. 36a-50 (up to $100,000 per violation) in addition to the existing cease-and-desist and compliance orders. Adds real administrative teeth to the deposit rules. The penalty figures shown for security deposits do not yet reflect it.Status: Passed Senate 2026-04-15 and House 2026-05-05, signed by the governor 2026-05-27 as Public Act 26-79; Section 3 effective October 1, 2026. (checked 2026-07-10).

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

Substitute House Bill 5359 (2026), An Act Concerning Provisions in Residential Rental Agreements — Would have required a landlord to offer at least one rent payment method carrying no additional fee, barred lease terms raising charges after a breach or after the term expires, and required the Department of Housing to issue an updated standardized rental terms summary form disclosing the late charge a tenant faces. It made no change to application or screening fees.Status: Reported favorably by the Housing Committee on March 10, 2026 and given File No. 143; recorded as favorable report, tabled for the calendar in the House on March 24, 2026. No floor vote was taken before the session adjourned on May 6, 2026. (checked 2026-08-26).
Substitute House Bill 5360 (2026), An Act Concerning Domestic Violence and Tenant Screening — Chiefly a bill about screening decisions, restricting denial of an application on credit history where the applicant is a protected person under a restraining or protective order. Its remedy touched application-stage money: a landlord in violation would owe the applicant actual damages and attorney's fees, with damages including any application fee or deposit the applicant had paid.Status: Reported favorably by the Housing Committee on March 5, 2026 and given File No. 112; recorded as favorable report, tabled for the calendar in the House on March 23, 2026. No floor vote was taken before the session adjourned on May 6, 2026. (checked 2026-08-26).

Connecticut bans rental application fees outright and allows only one charge at the application stage: a tenant screening report fee of no more than $50, plus an inflation adjustment the Commissioner of Housing determines each year.

Cited to Public Act 26-68, Sec. 59 (rewriting Conn. Gen. Stat. Sec. 47a-4d) Sec. 59, new Sec. 47a-4d(b) and (c) and 26 more Connecticut statutes · Verified August 26, 2026

Before or at the beginning of a tenancy the only payments that may be demanded are a security deposit, advance first month's rent, a key or special equipment deposit, and that screening fee, so a holding deposit to reserve a unit is not permitted either, and move-in and move-out fees are barred. Whoever charges the screening fee must give the applicant a copy of the report, or information for obtaining it from the service that produced it, along with a copy of the screening company's receipt or invoice; since May 26, 2026 all of these limits also bind a third party acting for a landlord or for the state. Connecticut separately requires advertised rent to include every periodic fee prorated, with narrow exceptions for pet fees, actual-cost payment processing where a free option exists, variable or directly billed utilities, damage charges and one-off service calls, and it backs that rule with a civil penalty of one month's rent. What the state does not do is tie the screening fee to what the report cost, require advance notice of screening criteria or of what the fee pays for, name any circumstance in which the fee must be returned, add a denial-notice duty beyond federal law, or recognize reusable screening reports.

Connecticut application fees at a glance

Application fee cap	No fee may be charged for processing, reviewing or accepting a rental application. The only money that may be taken at the application stage is a tenant screening report fee, capped at $50 plus an adjustment for any increase in the consumer price index for urban consumers determined each year by the Commissioner of Housing. Connecticut answers the application-fee question with a list rather than a ceiling. Before or at the beginning of the tenancy, the only payments that may be demanded from a prospective tenant are a security deposit under section 47a-21, advance payment of the first month's rent, a deposit for a key or any special equipment, and a fee for a tenant screening report. A charge for the processing, review or acceptance of a rental application is not on that list and may not be demanded at all. The screening report fee is the one application-stage charge with a price, and the statute sets it at $50 plus the yearly inflation adjustment. Since May 26, 2026 the same limits bind a third party acting on behalf of a landlord or on behalf of the state, not just the landlord. The Department of Housing does not post an adjusted amount, so $50 is the figure fixed in the statute and the only figure a reader can rely on today. A landlord also may not charge a tenant a move-in or move-out fee.
Fee limited to actual screening cost	No statute ties the fee to screening cost
Screening charge rules	The screening report fee is the only permitted application-stage charge; since May 26, 2026 the same rules bind a third party acting for a landlord or for the state; and whoever charges the fee must give the applicant the report, or the means to obtain it, together with the screening company's receipt or invoice. A tenant screening report is defined as a credit report, a criminal background report, an employment history report, a rental history report or any combination of them, used to determine the suitability of a prospective tenant. Anyone who charges for one must provide the prospective tenant with a copy of the report, or, where providing a copy is prohibited, with information that lets the applicant request the report from the service provider that produced it, and with a copy of the receipt or invoice from the entity that conducted the report. Public Act 26-68 extended the whole scheme to a third party acting on behalf of a landlord and to a third party acting on behalf of the state, closing the route of routing the charge through an agent. The statute sets no one-charge-per-household rule, no vacancy prerequisite, and no written agreement prerequisite, and the hand-over duties are the only conditions attached to the charge.
Receipt required	Yes
Refund required in some circumstances	No statutory refund duty
Refund rules	No statutory refund duty
Disclosure before collecting	No statutory disclosure duty
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	A deposit to hold a unit while a lease is prepared may not be taken. The statute names the only payments that may be demanded before or at the beginning of the tenancy, and a unit-reservation payment is not among them. The permitted list is a security deposit under section 47a-21, advance payment of the first month's rent, a deposit for a key or any special equipment, and a tenant screening report fee. Everything else is ruled out by the words that open the sentence, which bar demanding any other payment, fee or charge before or at the beginning of the tenancy. A holding deposit is not one of the four, and the closest item on the list, a key or special equipment deposit, is a charge for hardware rather than a payment to take a unit off the market. Because the payment is prohibited outright, the statute sets no cap, no written statement duty and no disposition rule for one. Since May 26, 2026 the prohibition binds a third party acting on behalf of a landlord or on behalf of the state as well as the landlord.
Rental fee-transparency rules	Advertised rent must be an all-in periodic figure: every fee, charge or cost the tenant will have to pay on a periodic basis must be prorated and built into the advertised, displayed or offered rent, with five listed exceptions. Since July 1, 2026 a separate statewide rule also bars any business from advertising a price for a good or service that leaves out a required fee. The rental rule reaches advertising, display and any other offer of a dwelling unit, and it captures a monthly charge imposed by default even where the tenant can opt out. Five categories may be left out of the advertised rent: a payment processing fee reflecting the actual cost of processing a payment, so long as a no-fee alternative is available; a fee or deposit for keeping a pet; the cost of utilities that are submetered under section 16-19ff or that the tenant pays a utility company directly and that vary month to month; a fee for damage beyond normal wear and tear; and a separate fee for performing a service such as responding to a lockout or replacing a key. The same section requires that a tenant's payments be applied first to rent and only then to other fees or charges. The general statewide rule, in force since July 1, 2026, bars a business from advertising a good or service at a price that excludes a required fee and from charging a fee that was not advertised in compliance with that rule; it reaches the rental or lease of a good or service in this state, and the business definition it uses covers any individual or entity through which commerce is conducted. Neither rule reaches an application fee, which is not a periodic charge and is prohibited outright in any event.
Penalty for violation	A landlord who breaks the all-in advertised rent rule, the rental terms summary form duty or the payment-application rule owes the tenant a civil penalty equal to one month's rent, and the court may add reasonable attorney's fees and costs. A breach of the general all-in pricing rule is an unfair or deceptive trade practice carrying the state consumer-protection remedies. The application-stage fee section carries no penalty of its own. The one month's rent penalty is written into the rental advertising section and attaches to any violation of that section, which covers the all-in advertised rent duty, the requirement that the standardized rental terms summary form be the first page of a written rental agreement, and the rule applying a tenant's payments to rent first. For the general all-in pricing rule, the act states that a violation is deemed an unfair or deceptive trade practice under the Connecticut Unfair Trade Practices Act. That act defines trade and commerce to include the advertising and the rent or lease of property, real or personal, so its remedies reach the rental market: a person suffering an ascertainable loss may sue for actual damages, the court may award costs and reasonable attorney's fees, and civil penalties run up to twenty-five thousand dollars for violating an injunction and up to five thousand dollars for each willful violation. By contrast, the section that bans application processing fees, caps the screening report fee and requires the report and invoice to be handed over sets out no damages figure, no forfeiture and no penalty.

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

Notes and caveats

A ban, not a cap — The widely repeated description of a $50 Connecticut application fee cap is inaccurate. A fee for processing, reviewing or accepting an application may not be charged at all; the $50 figure is the ceiling on a separate tenant screening report fee.
The inflation adjustment has no published figure — The statute sets $50 plus an adjustment for any increase in the consumer price index for urban consumers, determined each year by the Commissioner of Housing. No adjusted amount is posted on the Department of Housing site, so the statutory $50 is the figure available to landlords and applicants today.
Agents are covered as of May 26, 2026 — Public Act 26-68 extended the application-stage payment ban, the fee ceiling and the report-and-invoice duties to a third party acting on behalf of a landlord and to a third party acting on behalf of the state.
The permitted-payments list is short — Only four payments may be demanded before or at the beginning of the tenancy. Anything else, including a payment to hold a unit while paperwork is prepared, falls outside the list.
Advertised rent is an all-in figure — Since October 1, 2025 a landlord advertising, displaying or offering a dwelling unit must build every periodic charge into the stated rent, prorated, even where a monthly default charge can be opted out of. Five categories are excepted.
A lease document, not an application one — The Department of Housing publishes a standardized rental terms summary form, and since April 1, 2026 it must be the first page of any written rental agreement. It is given at lease signing and is not an application-stage disclosure.
What the rules cover — These provisions sit in the landlord and tenant chapter and apply to residential rental agreements. Arrangements the chapter exempts, and lot tenancies in mobile manufactured home parks, which have their own chapter, are governed elsewhere.
How the cost limit works — The provision that prices the screening report fee sets a dollar ceiling and an inflation adjustment, and says nothing about what the report cost the landlord. Nothing elsewhere in the section, in chapter 830 or in chapter 831 ties the charge to the price the landlord paid a screening service. The dollar ceiling is the only limit, so a landlord whose report costs less than the ceiling is not obliged by statute to charge less.
What the receipt duty covers — Anyone who charges a prospective tenant for a tenant screening report must give that applicant a copy of the receipt or invoice from the entity that conducted the report. The duty is to hand over the screening company's own paperwork, which shows what the report cost, rather than to write out a receipt for the applicant's payment. Connecticut's other receipt duty sits in the rent payment section and runs to occupants rather than applicants: on receiving a cash payment from or on behalf of an occupant, a landlord must give a receipt stating the date, the amount and the purpose of the payment.
When money must come back — The section that governs application-stage money limits what may be demanded, prices the screening report fee and imposes two hand-over duties, and then stops. No subsection obliges anyone to return the money in any circumstance, including where no report is ever run, where the unit is filled or withdrawn, or where the applicant pulls out. Chapter 831, which governs security deposits and advance rental payments, does not reach the screening fee. Whether the fee comes back is left to what the parties agree.
Refunds — Reading the application-stage section end to end turns up none of the usual return triggers and no mechanics: no deadline, no method, no rule on excess over what the report cost, and no rule for an applicant who withdraws. The security deposit chapter supplies return rules for deposits held during a tenancy and does not extend to the screening report fee. Disposition of the fee is a matter for the parties' agreement.
What must be disclosed up front — Nothing must be told a prospective tenant before the screening fee is collected. The hand-over duties attach to the charge and run afterward, delivering the report and the screening company's invoice rather than advance notice of the criteria, the basis of the fee, or the applicant's rights. The two prospective-tenant notice sections in the landlord and tenant chapter concern other subjects, one on a dwelling unit located in a common interest community and one on an operative fire sprinkler system. Connecticut's newest disclosure is a lease-signing document, not an application-stage one: the Department of Housing publishes a standardized rental terms summary form, and since April 1, 2026 a landlord may not give a tenant a written rental agreement unless a completed copy of that form is its first page.
Denial notices — The provision that says what an applicant receives once a screening fee is charged requires the report and the screening company's invoice, and nothing else. It does not call for a statement of reasons, a denial notice, or any timing. No other section of the landlord and tenant chapter, whose sections run from the definitions through the foreclosure protections, imposes a denial-notice duty. A landlord who turns down an applicant on the strength of a consumer report is working from the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act, which is background here rather than a Connecticut rule.
Reusable screening reports — The Connecticut scheme is built around a report the landlord or its agent obtains. The definition describes a report used by a landlord to determine the suitability of a prospective tenant, the pricing rule lets the landlord or its agent charge for it, and the hand-over rule makes the charger deliver the report and the screening company's invoice. Nothing requires a landlord to accept a report an applicant brings, sets a period during which such a report stays good, or bars a fee when one is used.

Common questions: Connecticut 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 Connecticut?: No fee may be charged for processing, reviewing or accepting a rental application. The only money that may be taken at the application stage is a tenant screening report fee, capped at $50 plus an adjustment for any increase in the consumer price index for urban consumers determined each year by the Commissioner of Housing.
Does an application fee have to be refunded in Connecticut?: No statutory refund duty.
Does a landlord have to give a receipt for an application fee in Connecticut?: Yes — Connecticut requires a receipt for application-stage money.
Does Connecticut have a reusable tenant screening report law?: No statute on reusable screening reports.
Can a landlord charge a holding deposit in Connecticut?: A deposit to hold a unit while a lease is prepared may not be taken. The statute names the only payments that may be demanded before or at the beginning of the tenancy, and a unit-reservation payment is not among them.

Statute citations

Public Act 26-68, Sec. 59 (rewriting Conn. Gen. Stat. Sec. 47a-4d) Sec. 59, new Sec. 47a-4d(b) and (c) (verified 2026) Official source
Conn. Gen. Stat. Sec. 47a-4d (b), (c) (verified 2026) Official source
Public Act 26-68, Sec. 59 (rewriting Conn. Gen. Stat. Sec. 47a-4d) Sec. 59, new Sec. 47a-4d(c) (verified 2026) Official source
Public Act 26-68, Sec. 59 (rewriting Conn. Gen. Stat. Sec. 47a-4d) Sec. 59, new Sec. 47a-4d(a), (c), (d) (verified 2026) Official source
Conn. Gen. Stat. Sec. 47a-4d (a), (d) (verified 2026) Official source
Public Act 26-68, Sec. 59 (rewriting Conn. Gen. Stat. Sec. 47a-4d) Sec. 59, new Sec. 47a-4d(d)(2) (verified 2026) Official source
Conn. Gen. Stat. Sec. 47a-3a (c) (verified 2026) Official source
Public Act 26-68, Sec. 59 (rewriting Conn. Gen. Stat. Sec. 47a-4d) Sec. 59, new Sec. 47a-4d(b), (c), (d) (verified 2026) Official source
Conn. Gen. Stat. Sec. 47a-21 (verified 2026) Official source
Public Act 26-68, Sec. 59 (rewriting Conn. Gen. Stat. Sec. 47a-4d) Sec. 59, new Sec. 47a-4d(d) (verified 2026) Official source
Conn. Gen. Stat. Sec. 47a-7d (c), (d) (verified 2026) Official source
Conn. Gen. Stat. Secs. 47a-3e and 47a-3f (verified 2026) Official source
Conn. Gen. Stat. chapter 830 (verified 2026) Official source
Public Act 26-68, Sec. 59 (rewriting Conn. Gen. Stat. Sec. 47a-4d) Sec. 59, new Sec. 47a-4d(b) (verified 2026) Official source
Conn. Gen. Stat. Sec. 47a-4d (b) (verified 2026) Official source
Conn. Gen. Stat. Sec. 47a-7d (a), (b), (e) (verified 2026) Official source
Public Act 25-44, Sec. 1 Sec. 1(b) (verified 2026) Official source
Public Act 25-44, Sec. 7 (Conn. Gen. Stat. Sec. 42-158ff) Sec. 7(a)(2) (verified 2026) Official source
Conn. Gen. Stat. Sec. 47a-7d (f) (verified 2026) Official source
Public Act 25-44, Sec. 1 Sec. 1(c) (verified 2026) Official source
Conn. Gen. Stat. Secs. 42-110a, 42-110g and 42-110o 42-110a(4), 42-110g(a), (d), 42-110o(a), (b) (verified 2026) Official source
Public Act 26-68, Sec. 59 (rewriting Conn. Gen. Stat. Sec. 47a-4d) Sec. 59 (verified 2026) Official source
Conn. Gen. Stat. Sec. 47a-4d (verified 2026) Official source
Conn. Gen. Stat. Sec. 47a-7d (verified 2026) Official source
Public Act 25-44, Secs. 1 and 9 (verified 2026) Official source
Conn. Gen. Stat. chapter 735a (Unfair Trade Practices) (verified 2026) Official source
Conn. Gen. Stat. chapter 831 (Security Deposits) (verified 2026) Official source

How this record was verified: Direct read of Conn. Gen. Stat. Sec. 47a-4d in the general statutes chapter pages on cga.ct.gov and of the rewritten text in Public Act 26-68, Sec. 59, on the General Assembly's own act page; direct read of Sec. 47a-7d, Sec. 47a-3a, Sec. 47a-4 and Sec. 47a-4f in the 2026 supplement to chapter 830, of the section list of chapter 830 and chapter 831, and of chapter 735a Sections 42-110a, 42-110b, 42-110g and 42-110o. The 2025 and 2026 session laws were swept using the Office of Legislative Research Acts Affecting Housing and Real Estate reports as an index, with every act named then read on its own act page: Public Act 25-44 (Sections 1, 7, 8 and 9), November Special Session Public Act 25-1, and Public Act 26-68. Bill status pages for 2026 House Bills 5359 and 5360 were read on the General Assembly's bill status system, and the Department of Housing mandatory landlord-tenant forms page was checked for the published rental terms summary form and for any published inflation adjustment to the screening fee ceiling.