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

No statutory cap on application fees.

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

No statutory receipt duty for application money.

Does Kansas have a reusable tenant screening report law?

No statute on reusable screening reports.

Can a landlord charge a holding deposit in Kansas?

No statute on holding deposits.

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

Verified August 26, 2026 All Kansas 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 369 (2026, Kansas Legislature, 2025-2026 biennium) — Would have required a landlord, before accepting an application fee or any other payment from a prospective tenant, to disclose in writing a good faith estimate of the rent and of each fixed non-rent expense, the type of each use-based non-rent expense, the date the unit is scheduled to be available, and the criteria the landlord will use to judge the applicant, including criteria about criminal history, credit, income, employment and rental history. A landlord who broke that rule would have had to release the applicant from any signed rental agreement without penalty, return every payment made, including any application fee, security deposit or rent, and pay the applicant a further amount equal to everything paid. The bill also proposed a cap on late-rent fees.Status: Introduced and referred to committee; the bill page marks the committee stage cancelled and shows the bill as died. (checked 2026-08-26).
HB 2666 (2026, Kansas Legislature, 2025-2026 biennium) — The House companion to SB 369, carrying the same title: certain disclosures to prospective tenants and restrictions on fees for the late payment of rent under the residential landlord and tenant act.Status: Introduced and referred to committee; the bill page marks the committee stage cancelled and shows the bill as died. (checked 2026-08-26).
SB 415 (2026, Kansas Legislature, 2025-2026 biennium) — Would have made certain violations of the residential landlord and tenant act subject to the remedies and enforcement provisions of the Kansas consumer protection act, which would have brought that act's civil penalty and attorney fee provisions to bear on landlord duties.Status: Passed the Senate after committee and floor action, then failed to advance in the House; the bill page shows the bill as died. (checked 2026-08-26).

Kansas does not cap or otherwise regulate rental application or tenant-screening fees, and no state law requires a receipt, a refund, or any disclosure before an applicant hands over the money.

Cited to K.S.A. 58-2550 (a) and 21 more Kansas statutes · Verified August 26, 2026

The only money the residential landlord and tenant act limits is the security deposit, capped at one month's rent for an unfurnished home, one and a half months where the landlord's furniture is included, and half a month more where pets are allowed. Kansas has its own fair credit reporting act, but its denial-notice duty covers credit, insurance and employment only, so a landlord who turns down an applicant over a report answers to federal law rather than to a Kansas rule. Local governments may not control rent, and a 2026 law also bars them from limiting security deposits or restricting how landlords use credit reports and rental histories.

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

Notes and caveats

Silence is not permission — The residential landlord and tenant act simply does not address application or screening charges. State law neither caps them nor blesses them; what a landlord may charge, and whether it comes back, is a matter of the application terms and the lease.
What the security deposit limits do and do not cover — The one, one and a half, and additional half month limits apply to money specified in a rental agreement and deposited as a condition of occupancy. They do not reach a fee paid to apply, or money taken to hold a unit before there is a rental agreement. Housing authorities that are wholly or partly federally subsidized may instead use a schedule based on bedroom size.
A Kansas denial notice is a federal duty, not a state one — The Kansas fair credit reporting act lets a landlord obtain a screening report under its legitimate business need provision, but its notice duty applies only where credit, insurance or employment is denied. Rental applicants are outside it.
Local rules — Cities, counties and townships may not control rent for privately owned residential property. A 2026 law adds a bar on local ordinances limiting security deposits or restricting a landlord's use of credit scores, credit reports, eviction history, property damage history or criminal history. Application fees appear on neither list.
General consumer law still applies to renting — The Kansas consumer protection act defines a consumer transaction to include a lease, property to include real estate, and a supplier to include a lessor, so misleading statements about the cost of applying for or renting a home can be pursued under it. It sets no advertised-price format or fee-itemization requirement, and the Attorney General publishes no advertising regulations.
Manufactured-home lots are a separate regime — The act's definition of a dwelling unit leaves out real property used to accommodate a manufactured or mobile home unless the home itself is rented from the landlord. Mobile home park lot tenancies are governed by a separate Kansas act.
Brokers holding money — A licensed real estate broker must keep down payments, earnest money, advance listing fees and other trust funds in a designated trust account. That is a duty of the broker's license rather than a rule about what a landlord may take from an applicant.
Application-stage disclosure was proposed and failed — A 2026 bill would have required a written disclosure of rent, non-rent expenses, availability date and screening criteria before a landlord could accept an application fee, with a full refund and a matching penalty for non-compliance. It died in committee, as did its House companion.
About the application fee rule — Kansas statute does not cap or otherwise address what a landlord may charge someone to apply for a home. The amount is a matter for the landlord's own terms, and the residential landlord and tenant act expressly leaves the parties free to set terms the act does not prohibit. The only money the act limits is the security deposit: one month's periodic rent for an unfurnished unit, one and a half months where the tenant uses the landlord's furniture, plus up to half a month more where pets are allowed.
How the cost limit works — No Kansas statute ties an application-stage charge to what a credit, background or eviction report actually costs. The provision that would carry such a limit, the security deposit section, works from a multiple of the periodic rent rather than from cost.
Screening charges — Kansas sets no conditions on charging an applicant for screening: no limit of one charge per applicant, no requirement that the landlord actually obtain a report, and no written notice or vacancy prerequisite. The residential landlord and tenant act defines landlord, rent, rental agreement, security deposit and tenant and defines no application-stage charge at all, and its list of terms a rental agreement may not contain says nothing about money collected before a tenancy.
What the receipt duty covers — No Kansas statute requires a receipt for application or screening money. The two document-giving duties in the residential landlord and tenant act both arrive with the tenancy: a joint written inventory of the premises within five days of the initial date of occupancy, a copy of which goes to the tenant, and an itemized written notice of what is withheld from the security deposit at the end of the tenancy.
When money must come back — No Kansas statute forces the return of any part of an application or screening charge in any circumstance. Whether such money comes back depends on the landlord's own application terms. The one return-of-money duty in the act runs to the security deposit after the tenancy ends.
Refunds — Because no refund duty exists, Kansas sets no deadline, no mechanics and no triggering event such as the applicant withdrawing, the unit being filled, or the landlord never running a report. For comparison, the deadline the act does set applies to the security deposit: the balance is due within fourteen days after the landlord determines what is owed, and in no event more than thirty days after the tenancy ends, possession is delivered and the tenant demands it.
What must be disclosed up front — Kansas requires nothing to be told an applicant before application money is collected: not the screening criteria, not what the fee pays for, not the applicant's rights. The one written disclosure the act requires is the name and address of the person authorized to manage the premises and of the owner or the owner's agent for service of process, and it is due at or before the tenancy begins rather than at application.
Denial notices — Kansas has its own fair credit reporting act, but its duty on users of consumer reports is confined by its own words to denials of credit, insurance and employment. Turning down a rental applicant is none of those, so a Kansas landlord has no state denial-notice duty. The same act does contemplate rental screening: a reporting agency may furnish a report to a person with a legitimate business need for it in connection with a business transaction involving the consumer. A landlord who denies an applicant because of a consumer report follows the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act, which is federal law rather than Kansas law.
Reusable screening reports — Kansas has no portable or reusable tenant-screening-report law. A landlord is not required to accept a report an applicant already paid for, no validity window is set, and nothing bars charging a fee when such a report is used. The residential landlord and tenant act says nothing on the subject.
Money to hold a unit — Kansas does not regulate money taken to hold a unit between an accepted application and a signed lease: no cap, no written-statement duty, and no rule on what happens to the money if the tenancy does not go ahead. The security deposit limits do not answer for it, because the act defines a security deposit as a sum specified in a rental agreement and deposited as a condition of occupancy, which money paid before there is a rental agreement is not.
Advertising and fee transparency — Kansas has no fee-transparency law for residential rental advertising: no all-in advertised price, no itemization of mandatory charges, no hidden-fee rule, and no state regulation supplying one. What governs instead is the general Kansas consumer protection act, which reaches renting by its own definitions, since a consumer transaction includes a lease of property, property is defined to include real estate, and a supplier includes a lessor. That act makes the willful concealment, suppression or omission of a material fact a deceptive practice and reaches a transaction that is excessively one-sided in favor of the supplier, but it sets no rule about how a price or a fee must be advertised.
Penalties — Kansas attaches no penalty to application or screening charges because it imposes no duty on them. The money penalties nearby run elsewhere: a landlord who wrongfully withholds a security deposit owes the tenant that portion plus damages of one and a half times the amount wrongfully withheld, and a landlord who deliberately uses a rental agreement containing a prohibited provision owes the tenant actual damages. Separately, deception in advertising or renting a home can be pursued under the consumer protection act, which lets an aggrieved consumer recover the greater of damages or a civil penalty of up to ten thousand dollars for each violation, with attorney fees available to a prevailing consumer.

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

Statute citations

K.S.A. 58-2550 (a) (verified 2026) Official source
K.S.A. 58-2543 (m) (verified 2026) Official source
K.S.A. 58-2545 (a) (verified 2026) Official source
K.S.A. 58-2543 (verified 2026) Official source
K.S.A. 58-2547 (a) (verified 2026) Official source
K.S.A. 58-2548 (verified 2026) Official source
K.S.A. 58-2550 (b) (verified 2026) Official source
K.S.A. 58-2551 (a) (verified 2026) Official source
K.S.A. 50-714 (a) (verified 2026) Official source
K.S.A. 50-703 (c)(5) (verified 2026) Official source
K.S.A. 50-624 (c), (j) and (l) (verified 2026) Official source
K.S.A. 50-626 (b)(3) (verified 2026) Official source
K.S.A. 50-627 (b)(5) (verified 2026) Official source
K.S.A. 58-2550 (c) (verified 2026) Official source
K.S.A. 58-2547 (b) (verified 2026) Official source
K.S.A. 50-634 (b) and (e) (verified 2026) Official source
K.S.A. 50-636 (a) (verified 2026) Official source
K.S.A. 58-2550 (verified 2026) Official source
K.S.A. 58-2551 (verified 2026) Official source
K.S.A. 50-714 (verified 2026) Official source
K.S.A. 50-624 (verified 2026) Official source
K.S.A. 12-16,120 (verified 2026) Official source

How this record was verified: Direct read of every section of the residential landlord and tenant act, K.S.A. 58-2540 through 58-2573, on ksrevisor.gov, with each section's operative text searched for fee, application, screening, credit and consumer-report terms; direct read of K.S.A. 12-16,120 and 58-3061; direct read of the Kansas consumer protection act at K.S.A. 50-623, 50-624, 50-626, 50-627, 50-634 and 50-636 and of the Kansas fair credit reporting act at K.S.A. 50-702, 50-703, 50-714, 50-715 and 50-720, with the whole of that article's headings reviewed; a review of the Attorney General's Kansas Administrative Regulations, Agency 16, in the Secretary of State's published compilation; twelve full-index searches of the Kansas Statutes Annotated on the Legislature's own search; and a sweep of the 2025 and 2026 bill lists and the Legislature's bill text search, with each landlord-tenant bill's posture taken from its own bill page.