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

No statutory cap on application fees.

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

No statutory receipt duty for application money.

Does Indiana have a reusable tenant screening report law?

No statute on reusable screening reports.

Can a landlord charge a holding deposit in Indiana?

No statute on holding deposits.

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

Verified August 26, 2026 All Indiana topics →

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:

SB 50 (2026) — Would have added a new chapter to the landlord-tenant article barring a landlord from making a hard inquiry to a consumer reporting agency for a rental applicant's report, and from obtaining or using a tenant screening report containing information gathered through such an inquiry. A breach would have been a deceptive act actionable by the applicant and by the Attorney General. It is the only measure in either session of this General Assembly that would have created a state tenant-screening rule.Status: Read first time and referred to the Committee on Local Government in December 2025; no further action was taken and the General Assembly's own index marks the bill dead. (checked 2026-08-26).
SB 537 (2025) — The same measure in the previous session, addressing hard credit inquiries by landlords in connection with a rental application.Status: Did not advance; marked dead in the General Assembly's index for the 2025 session. (checked 2026-08-26).
SB 162 (2025) — Would have barred a landlord from selling, offering, including, or bundling insurance with a rental agreement, with a private civil action and Attorney General enforcement. Fee-adjacent rather than application-stage.Status: Read first time and referred to the Committee on Insurance and Financial Institutions in January 2025; did not advance and is marked dead. (checked 2026-08-26).

Indiana does not regulate residential rental application or tenant-screening charges at any point: no statute caps them, ties them to the cost of screening, requires a receipt or a refund, requires anything to be disclosed before an applicant pays, or sets a denial-notice duty.

Cited to Ind. Code 32-31-3-9 (a) and 20 more Indiana statutes · Verified August 26, 2026

There is no portable screening report law and no rule on money taken to hold a unit before a lease is signed. Indiana goes further than silence in one respect: state law forbids cities, towns and counties from regulating the screening process a landlord uses, lease applications, or any fees a landlord charges, so the gap is not filled locally either, except for privately owned housing that receives government funds to provide reduced rents. What remains is the parties' own agreement, together with the Deceptive Consumer Sales Act, which covers the lease of a home and bars unfair, abusive, or deceptive conduct without setting any rule about the size or handling of a charge. That Act gives an applicant no damages claim of their own in a real property transaction, leaving enforcement to the Attorney General.

Indiana 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	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	No statute on holding deposits
Rental fee-transparency rules	No rental fee-transparency statute
Penalty for violation	No specific statutory penalty

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

Notes and caveats

Silence is not permission — That Indiana sets no limit does not make any charge lawful. The Deceptive Consumer Sales Act still reaches unfair, abusive, or deceptive conduct in connection with the lease of a home, and misstating what a charge is for can fall within it.
No local rules either — State law voids a city, town, or county ordinance that regulates the screening process, lease applications, or any fees charged by a landlord unless the General Assembly authorized it. The bar does not extend to privately owned property receiving government funds or benefits to provide reduced rents to low or moderate income tenants.
An applicant has no consumer damages claim here — The consumer statute's private damages action and class action both exclude consumer transactions in real property, apart from time shares and camping club memberships. For a residential lease, enforcement runs through the Attorney General, who may seek to stop patterns of incurable deceptive acts.
The security deposit rules start later — Indiana's deposit rules, including the 45-day itemization and return timetable, apply to money paid by a tenant and held during the lease term. Money paid at the application stage, before anyone occupies the unit, is outside them.
Denial notices come from federal law — Indiana imposes no state duty to explain a refused application or to provide a copy of a screening report, so the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act supplies the only such duties.
What the legislature has considered — Bills in both the 2025 and 2026 sessions would have restricted hard credit inquiries and the use of tenant screening reports built on them. Neither advanced, and Indiana bills do not carry over between sessions.
Some tenancies are outside these chapters entirely — The residential landlord-tenant chapters do not apply to hotel and other transient lodging, housing tied to employment, residence at institutions providing medical, educational, religious or similar care, occupancy by a condominium owner or cooperative lease holder, or property used mainly for agriculture.
About the application fee rule — No Indiana statute limits what a landlord may charge someone to apply for a residential tenancy. Indiana names its residential landlord-tenant statutes in a closed list of ten chapters, and none of them reaches money taken before a lease exists. The only chapter that regulates a landlord's holding of money, the security deposit chapter, is confined by its own definition to a deposit paid by a tenant and held for all or part of the lease term. What governs instead is the parties' agreement, with the Deceptive Consumer Sales Act reaching untrue or unfair statements about a charge but setting no limit on the charge itself.
How the cost limit works — Nothing in Indiana law ties an application or screening charge to what obtaining reports actually costs. The word screening appears only once in the entire landlord-tenant article, and it appears in the provision barring local regulation rather than in any duty owed by a landlord. No chapter in the closed list of residential landlord-tenant statutes addresses the cost basis of a charge.
Screening charges — Indiana sets no conditions on charging an applicant for credit, background, or eviction reports. There is no rule on who may charge, no limit of one charge per applicant, no requirement that the landlord actually run the screening, and no written notice or vacancy prerequisite. The state's only statutory reference to the screening process is the bar on cities, towns and counties regulating it. What governs instead is the parties' agreement, with the Deceptive Consumer Sales Act available against unfair, abusive, or deceptive conduct.
What the receipt duty covers — There is no statutory receipt duty for application or screening money in Indiana. The single paperwork duty the landlord-tenant article places at or before the start of a tenancy concerns identity, not money: the landlord must give the tenant in writing the names and addresses of the person authorized to manage the unit and the person authorized to receive notices and service of process. Nothing requires a written acknowledgment of money taken from an applicant.
When money must come back — No Indiana statute forces the return of application or screening money in any circumstance, whether the applicant is refused, withdraws, or the unit goes to someone else. The only return-of-money machinery in the landlord-tenant article is the security deposit itemization and remittance duty, and it is triggered by termination of occupancy by a tenant, defined as an individual who occupies a rental unit. An applicant who never takes occupancy falls outside it entirely.
Refunds — Because no return is required, Indiana law supplies no circumstances, amounts, deadlines, or mechanics for returning application money. The 45-day itemization and remittance timetable that applies to security deposits is keyed to the end of a tenancy and does not reach the application stage. What governs instead is the parties' agreement and general contract law.
What must be disclosed up front — Indiana requires nothing to be told an applicant before money changes hands: not the screening criteria, not the basis or breakdown of a charge, not the applicant's rights. The state's pre-tenancy disclosure duties are a short closed set and none is fee-related, covering the identity of the manager and the agent for service, location in a flood plain, and proximity to a military installation. Local governments may not add disclosure duties of their own.
Denial notices — Indiana places no state duty on a landlord to tell a refused applicant why, to give notice within any period, or to hand over a copy of a screening report. The phrase adverse action appears nowhere in the property title. The one chapter that uses the word applicant defines it as an individual who applies to a landlord to enter into a lease, and then bars refusal to lease on a single ground, that the applicant or a household member is a victim of certain crimes, without attaching any notice duty. Denial-notice obligations therefore come from the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act rather than from Indiana law.
Reusable screening reports — Indiana has no portable or reusable tenant screening report statute. A landlord is under no duty to accept a report an applicant already holds, there is no rule against charging when one is used, and no validity window is set. The phrase tenant screening does not appear anywhere in the Indiana Code, and none of the ten chapters in the closed list of residential landlord-tenant statutes addresses screening reports. A 2026 bill that would have introduced the term into a new chapter did not pass.
Money to hold a unit — No Indiana statute governs money taken to hold a unit between application and a signed lease: there is no cap, no written-statement duty, and no rule on what becomes of the money if the tenancy goes ahead, falls through, or the applicant changes their mind. The security deposit definition cannot reach it, because the money must be paid by a tenant, meaning someone who occupies the unit, and must be held for all or part of the lease term. The definition's own exclusions name only option-to-purchase payments and cooperative memberships. What governs instead is the parties' agreement.
Advertising and fee transparency — No Indiana rule requires an advertised rent to include mandatory charges, requires those charges to be broken out for an applicant, or bans undisclosed rental fees. The landlord-tenant article contains no advertising provision at all, and the trade regulation title contains no total-price or mandatory-fee duty. The Deceptive Consumer Sales Act does cover the lease of real property to a household and bars unfair, abusive, or deceptive acts, and it also makes it a deceptive act to claim a price advantage that does not exist, but it creates no affirmative duty to state a total price or itemize charges. Indiana also has no agency rule on the subject and can have none under this Act, which grants no rulemaking power.
Penalties — Indiana attaches no damages, civil penalty, or forfeiture to application-stage charges, because it imposes no application-stage duty. The landlord-tenant article's remedies reach other subjects, chiefly the security deposit rules, where a landlord who withholds improperly owes the amount withheld plus reasonable attorney's fees and court costs. The general consumer law does not fill the gap for a private claimant: its damages action and its class action both exclude a consumer transaction in real property, leaving only Attorney General enforcement, which for real property is limited to enjoining patterns of incurable deceptive acts. In such an action a court may impose a civil penalty of up to $5,000 for each knowing violation, and up to $15,000 for each breach of an injunction.

Common questions: Indiana 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 Indiana?: No statutory cap on application fees.
Does an application fee have to be refunded in Indiana?: No statutory refund duty.
Does a landlord have to give a receipt for an application fee in Indiana?: No statutory receipt duty for application money.
Does Indiana have a reusable tenant screening report law?: No statute on reusable screening reports.
Can a landlord charge a holding deposit in Indiana?: No statute on holding deposits.

Statute citations

Ind. Code 32-31-3-9 (a) (verified 2026) Official source
Ind. Code 32-31-2.9-2 (verified 2026) Official source
Ind. Code 32-31-1-20 (c)(1) (verified 2026) Official source
Ind. Code 24-5-0.5-3 (a) (verified 2026) Official source
Ind. Code 32-31-3-18 (a) (verified 2026) Official source
Ind. Code 32-31-3-10 (verified 2026) Official source
Ind. Code 32-31-3-12 (a) (verified 2026) Official source
Ind. Code 32-31-3-14 (verified 2026) Official source
Ind. Code 32-31-1-20 (c)(5) (verified 2026) Official source
Ind. Code 32-31-9-4 (verified 2026) Official source
Ind. Code 32-31-9-8 (a) (verified 2026) Official source
Ind. Code 32-31-3-9 (a), (b), (c) (verified 2026) Official source
Ind. Code 24-5-0.5-3 (a), (b)(6) (verified 2026) Official source
Ind. Code 24-5-0.5-2 (a)(1) (verified 2026) Official source
Ind. Code 24-5-0.5-4 (a), (b), (c), (f), (g) (verified 2026) Official source
Ind. Code 32-31-3-16 (verified 2026) Official source
Ind. Code 32-31 (Landlord-Tenant Relations) (verified 2026) Official source
Ind. Code 32-31-1-20 (a), (c) (verified 2026) Official source
Ind. Code 32-31-3-9 (verified 2026) Official source
Ind. Code 24-5-0.5 (Deceptive Consumer Sales Act) (verified 2026) Official source
Indiana Code, 2026 edition, Title 32 as published by the General Assembly (verified 2026) Official source

How this record was verified: Direct read of the whole of Indiana Code Article 32-31 (Landlord-Tenant Relations), all thirteen chapters and 123 sections, in the 2026 edition published by the Indiana General Assembly, together with the whole of the Deceptive Consumer Sales Act at IC 24-5-0.5 including all three printed versions of its deceptive-acts section and its remedies section. Backed by a term search of the General Assembly's complete published 2026 Code archive, all 37 title files, for application fee, screening fee, tenant screening, reusable, portable, holding deposit, credit report, consumer report, prospective tenant, rental application, adverse action, background check, total price, mandatory fee, junk fee, hidden fee and fee transparency; and by a title-by-title review of the legislature's own bill index for both sessions of the 124th General Assembly, with the digest of every on-topic bill read.