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

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

Does Delaware have a reusable tenant screening report law?

No statute on reusable screening reports.

Can a landlord charge a holding deposit in Delaware?

A deposit reserving the unit for a prospective tenant for a time certain is one of the few payments a prospective landlord may take, but the statute sets no cap, no written-statement duty, and no rule on what happens to the money.

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

Verified August 25, 2026 All Delaware 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:

SS 1 for SB 116 (153rd GA, 2026), 85 Del. Laws c. 436 — Already SIGNED but not yet effective: on September 1, 2026 the nonpayment track changes. The 25 Del. C. § 5502(a) pay-or-quit demand period rises from not less than 5 days to not less than 7 days after the notice is given or sent, and the notice warns that the landlord may file a court action to terminate (rather than that the agreement 'shall be terminated'); because § 5112 excludes weekends and holidays only from periods of less than 7 days, the new 7-day period counts calendar days on its face. A rent-only action requires a proper demand and the lapse of the notice period (§ 5502(b)). Payment of all rent due by the tenant, or by anyone on the tenant's behalf, before filing bars a nonpayment possession action and after filing bars maintaining it — the old condition that the landlord accept the payment 'without a written reservation of rights' is deleted; the landlord may not refuse rent payments, may limit methods to those the lease accepts before judgment, and may require certified check or money order after judgment (§ 5502(c)-(d)). New § 5716A gives the tenant a right of redemption in any nonpayment summary-possession case (rental unit or manufactured-home lot): paying all past-due amounts as determined by the court, including all rent due under the lease plus court-awarded costs and fees, at any time before the writ is actually executed stays and then vacates the judgment of possession (minimum 5-day stay for filings; a stay request must be filed if payment comes after the writ is posted; the landlord may ask the court to wait for checks to clear); charitable and government checks count as the tenant's payment; the right is unavailable to a tenant with two nonpayment judgments of possession in the prior 18 months (vacated judgments count). The same act rewrites the manufactured-home-community 7-day notice language in § 7016(b)(3) and adds the same payment-before/after-filing rules for lot tenancies. The figures on this page state the law in force before September 1, 2026.Status: Signed by the Governor August 18, 2026 (85 Del. Laws c. 436, Governor's Advisory No. 54); section 4 makes the act effective September 1, 2026. Not incorporated until effective; the 5-day figure and the reservation-of-rights cure rule shown here remain the law through August 31, 2026. (checked 2026-08-23).
SB 292 (153rd GA, 2026) — 'Grace Peterson Act' — Amends the Residential Landlord-Tenant Code to (1) close the 25 Del. C. § 5102 exclusion loophole that let unlicensed or uncertified residential operators claim exemption from the Code, including eviction procedure, and (2) add § 5512A duties when a tenant's rent is paid from a state reentry-services fund (landlord must assist with a discharge plan and notify the fund administrator and agencies before terminating; noncompliance brings one-year debarment from state funds; affected tenants may stay on without fund payments or terminate on 30-60 days' notice). Takes effect 6 months after enactment.Status: Passed both chambers 2026-06-24. As of 2026-07-26 the General Assembly's bill record (LegislationId 143172) still showed 'Ready for Governor'; the post-adjournment window under Del. Const. art. III, § 18 runs roughly to the end of July 2026. Not law as of 2026-08-04. If enacted it changes Code-applicability notes (§ 5102) and adds § 5512A pre-termination duties for reentry-fund tenancies; it changes no figure shown here. (checked 2026-08-04).
SB 235 (153rd GA, 2026) — Manufactured-home communities only (25 Del. C. ch. 70): repeals the sunset on the Rent Justification Act pilot calculations, making the § 7052A/§ 7052B CPI-linked justified-rent-increase calculations permanently replace the § 7052 grounds for lot-rent increases. Does not touch apartment/site-built rentals under chs. 51-59.Status: Passed both chambers 2026-06-30; awaiting the Governor's action as of 2026-07-11. It reaches lot tenancies only, so it is outside the scope of the answers on this page; it appears here because the rent-increase notes reference ch. 70. (checked 2026-07-11).
House Bill 311 (153rd General Assembly; 85 Del. Laws, c. 277) — Creates a statewide rights and responsibilities guide for landlords and tenants, drafted and published by the Delaware Real Estate Commission, and requires a landlord or real estate service provider to give the guide to a prospective tenant before the rental agreement is entered and again at each renewal of a year or more, with an acknowledgment of receipt. It makes no change to application or screening fees.Status: Signed by the Governor on June 10, 2026. The guide duty begins on the earlier of June 10, 2027 or a notice from the Director of the Division of Professional Regulation published in the Register of Regulations that the required report has gone to the General Assembly and the guide has been published; the provisions making a failure an unlawful practice begin 180 days after that. (checked 2026-08-25).

Delaware caps the rental application fee at the greater of 10% of one month's rent or $50, and separately forbids charging an applicant more than the specific cost of the credit or other investigation, so the lower of the two figures governs any given application.

Cited to 25 Del. C. § 5514 (d) and 15 more Delaware statutes · Verified August 25, 2026

A receipt must be furnished the moment the money is paid, application-fee records must be kept for at least 2 years and application records for 6 months, and a landlord who demands more than the allowable fee owes the applicant double the amount charged. Delaware also limits what else may be collected before a lease is signed: an application fee, a security deposit, a surety bond fee or premium, a pet deposit, and a deposit reserving the unit for a time certain are the only permitted payments, and anything else is prohibited assurance money that the Attorney General's Consumer Protection Unit can investigate. What the state does not do is require any advance disclosure of screening criteria or of what the fee pays for, set any circumstance in which the fee must be returned, impose a denial-notice duty of its own, recognize reusable screening reports, or require rental advertising to show an all-in price.

Delaware application fees at a glance

Application fee cap	The greater of 10% of one month's rent or $50, and in no case more than the specific cost of the credit or other investigation, so the lower of the two figures controls. Two limits apply to the same charge. A landlord may charge an application fee not to exceed the greater of either 10 percent of the monthly rent for the rental unit or $50, to determine a tenant's creditworthiness, and any fee a tenant is required to pay to determine creditworthiness is an application fee. Separately, a prospective landlord may not charge a prospective tenant, as a fee for any credit or other type of investigation, more than the specific cost of that investigation. On a $1,500 unit the dollar ceiling is $150, but a report that costs the landlord $35 holds the charge to $35. The cap is fixed in the statute and is not indexed or republished annually.
Fee limited to actual screening cost	Yes
Screening charge rules	Any fee an applicant must pay to determine creditworthiness counts as an application fee and is subject to the cap; the charge for a credit or other investigation is limited to what that investigation cost; and no other payment may be requested or received at the application stage. The statute closes the relabeling route: a fee a tenant is required to pay to determine the tenant's creditworthiness is an application fee, whatever it is called. A prospective landlord may not ask for or receive any payment that is not an application fee, a security deposit, a surety bond fee or premium, a pet deposit, or a similar deposit reserving the unit for a time certain. Two record duties run alongside: the landlord must keep the records of each application made by any prospective tenant for 6 months, and complete records of all application fees charged and amounts received for at least 2 years. The Consumer Protection Unit of the Attorney General's office investigates complaints and may inspect application records from the preceding 6 months under a search warrant. Delaware does not require the landlord to actually obtain a report, does not limit charges to one per applicant or per household, and sets no written-agreement or vacancy prerequisite beyond the receipt duty.
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 reserving the unit for a prospective tenant for a time certain is one of the few payments a prospective landlord may take, but the statute sets no cap, no written-statement duty, and no rule on what happens to the money. In every transaction where a prospective tenant applies to lease a dwelling unit, the prospective landlord may not ask for or receive any payment other than an application fee, a security deposit, a surety bond fee or premium, a pet deposit, or a similar deposit reserving the dwelling unit for the prospective tenant for a time certain. Anything outside that list is assurance money and is prohibited. The permission carries a condition — the deposit must reserve the unit for a stated period — but the statute is silent on how large it may be, what must be put in writing, and how it is handled if the lease is signed, the applicant withdraws, or the landlord rents to someone else.
Rental fee-transparency rules	Delaware limits which charges may be made rather than how they are advertised: a landlord may not charge a tenant any nonrefundable fee as a condition for occupancy except an optional service fee for actual services rendered, and a prospective landlord may take no application-stage payment outside a short statutory list. There is no all-in advertised price rule and no mandatory-fee itemization rule. The fee section names a pool fee and a tennis court fee as examples of the optional service fees that survive the ban, and preserves a tenant's choice to buy an optional surety bond instead of or alongside a security deposit. At the application stage, the enumerated-payments rule does the same work by naming the only payments that may be requested or received. Delaware's general deception statute reaches this market — an unlawful practice includes the concealment, suppression, or omission of a material fact in connection with the sale, lease, receipt, or advertisement of merchandise, and merchandise is defined to include real estate — but it imposes no pricing-display or fee-breakdown requirement of its own. No Delaware statute requires a rental advertisement to state a total price inclusive of mandatory fees.
Penalty for violation	Double the amount charged, payable to the tenant, where a landlord unlawfully demands more than the allowable application fee; Attorney General investigation and cease-and-desist orders for taking prohibited application-stage money; and a general right of action for any violation of the Code. The double-damages remedy attaches specifically to demanding more than the allowable application fee. The enumerated-payments rule is enforced administratively: on a complaint, the Consumer Protection Unit of the Attorney General's office investigates, interviews the landlord's tenants and, under an appropriate search warrant, may examine all records of applications made in the preceding 6 months; where the investigation shows good cause to believe the section was violated, the Attorney General's office may issue cease and desist orders under Chapter 25 of Title 29. Separately, for any violation of the rental agreement or the Code by either party, the injured party may bring a cause of action in any court of competent civil jurisdiction. Once the rights-and-responsibilities guide duty begins, failing to provide the guide will be an unlawful practice under the state's consumer fraud statute, but that penalty starts 180 days after the guide duty itself starts.

Cite this page: "Landlord Atlas, Delaware Application & Screening Fee Laws (verified August 25, 2026), landlordatlas.com/laws/application-fees/delaware/" — free to cite and quote with a link (how these records are verified). Every figure above is cited to the Delaware statute in the citations section below.

Notes and caveats

Two ceilings, not one — The dollar formula and the actual-cost limit sit in different chapters and apply to the same charge, so the lower figure is the practical ceiling. On a $1,200 unit the formula allows $120, but a $30 report cost holds the charge to $30.
Where the rules live — There is no section of the Delaware Code titled for application fees. The cap, receipt and damages rule is a subsection of the security deposit section, and the rule on what else may be collected is in the section on assurance money in a different chapter.
Two record clocks — Records of each application must be kept for 6 months; complete records of application fees charged and amounts received must be kept for at least 2 years.
No refund rule — Nothing in the statute requires an application fee to be returned in any circumstance, and nothing requires the landlord to actually order a report before charging for one. Those points are left to the parties' agreement.
Where complaints go — The Consumer Protection Unit of the Attorney General's office is named in the statute as the body that investigates prohibited application-stage payments, with authority to examine a landlord's application records from the preceding 6 months.
A new pre-lease disclosure is coming — A statewide rights and responsibilities guide must be given to prospective tenants once the duty starts, on the earlier of June 10, 2027 or a published notice from the Director of the Division of Professional Regulation. The guide's required contents do not include application fees or screening.
What the Code covers — These rules apply to residential rental agreements under the Residential Landlord-Tenant Code. Hotels and motels, institutional residences, certified recovery houses and certain short-term rentals fall outside it, and lot tenancies in manufactured home communities are governed by a separate chapter.
The figures are fixed — The $50 floor and the 10% formula are written into the statute. Neither is indexed to inflation, and no state agency publishes an updated figure.
How the cost limit works — A prospective landlord may not charge a prospective tenant, as a fee for any credit or other type of investigation, more than the specific cost of that investigation. The same section describes the permitted payment as reimbursing the specific sums the landlord spent on credit or other investigations, so the applicant's charge is tied to what the landlord actually paid rather than to a standard fee.
What the receipt duty covers — On receiving any money paid as an application fee, the landlord must furnish the tenant a receipt for the full amount paid. The duty attaches at the moment of payment and is not conditioned on the applicant asking for a receipt.
When money must come back — The provision that carries the application fee sets a cap, a receipt duty, a record duty and a damages remedy, and stops there — no circumstance in it obliges the landlord to return the money. The separate actual-cost rule limits what may be charged rather than requiring repayment of an excess. The Code's ban on nonrefundable fees is aimed at fees charged to a tenant as a condition for occupancy of the rental unit, while the application fee is one of the payments a prospective landlord is expressly permitted to take. Whether an application fee comes back is left to what the parties agree.
Refunds — Reading the application-fee provision and the application-stage payment provision end to end turns up none of the usual triggers — the applicant was not screened, the unit was filled or withdrawn, the applicant withdrew, or the charge exceeded what the report cost. Chapters 51 through 55 contain no return mechanism and no deadline. What happens to the money is governed by the parties' agreement.
What must be disclosed up front — The two provisions that govern application-stage money require a receipt when the money is paid and records afterward, and require nothing in advance. The Code's disclosure section concerns the owner's or agent's name and business address on a written rental agreement, and the Attorney General's summary of the Code is furnished at the start of the rental term. A separate duty signed into law on June 10, 2026 will require a landlord or real estate service provider to give a prospective tenant the state rights-and-responsibilities guide before the prospective tenant enters into the rental agreement, with the prospective tenant acknowledging receipt in paper or electronic form. That duty is not in operation yet: it begins on the earlier of June 10, 2027 or a notice from the Director of the Division of Professional Regulation published in the Register of Regulations stating that the required report has gone to the General Assembly and the Delaware Real Estate Commission has published the guide. The guide's mandated contents cover flood insurance, legal representation, the eviction diversion program, lead-based paint, local licensing and inspection, bed bugs, fair housing, detectors, local ordinances and homeowner association rules, and school feeder patterns — application fees and screening are not among them.
Denial notices — The two application-stage provisions in the Residential Landlord-Tenant Code say nothing about telling an applicant why an application was refused, and nothing elsewhere in chapters 51 through 55 supplies such a duty. Delaware's credit-reporting chapter runs to a short title, definitions, security freezes, identity-theft police reports, and freezes for minors and protected persons; its only reference to tenant screening is an exemption from the security-freeze rules for databases used solely for tenant screening. Landlords who deny an applicant on the strength of a consumer report are therefore working from the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act, which is context here rather than a Delaware rule.
Reusable screening reports — Delaware's application-stage money rules are built around a report the landlord orders: one section describes the permitted charge as reimbursing the specific sums the landlord spent on credit or other investigations, and the other describes the fee as one the landlord charges to determine a tenant's creditworthiness. Neither contemplates an applicant-supplied report, and chapters 51 through 55 set no acceptance duty, no validity window, and no rule barring a fee when such a report is used.

Common questions: Delaware 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 Delaware?: The greater of 10% of one month's rent or $50, and in no case more than the specific cost of the credit or other investigation, so the lower of the two figures controls.
Does an application fee have to be refunded in Delaware?: No statutory refund duty.
Does a landlord have to give a receipt for an application fee in Delaware?: Yes — Delaware requires a receipt for application-stage money.
Does Delaware have a reusable tenant screening report law?: No statute on reusable screening reports.
Can a landlord charge a holding deposit in Delaware?: A deposit reserving the unit for a prospective tenant for a time certain is one of the few payments a prospective landlord may take, but the statute sets no cap, no written-statement duty, and no rule on what happens to the money.

Statute citations

25 Del. C. § 5514 (d) (verified 2026) Official source
25 Del. C. § 5310 second sentence (verified 2026) Official source
25 Del. C. § 5310 second and third sentences (verified 2026) Official source
25 Del. C. § 5310 (verified 2026) Official source
25 Del. C. § 5311 (verified 2026) Official source
25 Del. C. § 5124 (b), (c) (verified 2026) Official source
24 Del. C. § 2925A (verified 2026) Official source
6 Del. C. § 2203 (b)(14) (verified 2026) Official source
25 Del. C. § 5310 first and third sentences (verified 2026) Official source
25 Del. C. § 5310 first sentence (verified 2026) Official source
6 Del. C. § 2513 (a) (verified 2026) Official source
6 Del. C. § 2511 (6) (verified 2026) Official source
25 Del. C. § 5310 fifth and sixth sentences (verified 2026) Official source
25 Del. C. § 5117 (a) (verified 2026) Official source
25 Del. C. § 5124 (f) (verified 2026) Official source
25 Del. C. § 5124 (verified 2026) Official source

How this record was verified: Direct read of 25 Del. C. Sections 5310, 5311 and 5514 in full, together with the section lists and operative provisions of chapters 51, 53 and 55 of the Residential Landlord-Tenant Code (Sections 5101, 5102, 5105, 5117, 5118, 5124, 5141, 5301, 5312, 5514A) on Delaware Code Online, plus 24 Del. C. Section 2925A, 6 Del. C. Sections 2511 and 2513, and 6 Del. C. chapter 22. Every enacted-law claim was read on the Delaware General Assembly's own bill pages: House Bill 311 (85 Del. Laws, c. 277) detail page and full bill text, and Senate Substitute 1 for Senate Bill 116. The 2025 and 2026 session was reviewed for amendments to the application-stage provisions; the source notes printed with Sections 5310, 5311, 5514 and 5514A still end at 79 Del. Laws, c. 57, and the 153rd General Assembly adjourned sine die on June 30, 2026.