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

No statutory cap on application fees.

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

No statutory receipt duty for application money.

Does Kentucky have a reusable tenant screening report law?

No statute on reusable screening reports.

Can a landlord charge a holding deposit in Kentucky?

No statute on holding deposits.

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

Verified August 26, 2026 All Kentucky 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:

HB 340 (2026 RS) — 'AN ACT relating to termination of residential leases' — Would have created early-termination rights (new sections of KRS ch. 383) for 'medically fragile' tenants (30 days' notice plus medical documentation), tenants 60+ or disabled on the death of a spouse or cotenant (60 days' notice), and tenants facing unabated lead hazards. Does not touch deposits, entry, late fees, or rent-increase rules, but it was the session's principal landlord-tenant bill and a likely refile.Status: Dead. Referred to House Judiciary 2026-01-21 with no further action; the 2026 Regular Session adjourned sine die 2026-04-15. No 2026 bill amending KRS 383.500-383.715, 383.195, or 65.875 was found; the perennial statewide-URLTA bills (2017 HB 510, 2018 HB 550, 2021 HB 595) were not refiled in 2026 — a future statewide-URLTA enactment would rescope every topic on this page and is the top KY watch item. (checked 2026-07-09).
HB 295 (2026 Regular Session) — Would have added three sections to the landlord and tenant chapter. A landlord could not require payment of an applicant screening charge until giving the applicant written notice of a good-faith estimate of comparable units, their rents, when they are expected to become available, and how many applications are already under consideration, along with the rent and any deposit for the unit sought and any required renter's liability insurance amount. Before accepting an application or any payment the landlord would have to adopt written screening or admission criteria and give written notice of the charge amount, the criteria, the screening process, the right to dispute information, any appeal right, and nondiscrimination policy. Charging when no unit is available or expected soon would be barred unless the applicant agreed in writing, and an applicant could recover the charge plus $150 for noncompliance or for a failure to refund where no screening was done. A denied applicant would receive a written statement of reasons within fourteen days, naming any screening company or credit reporting agency relied on, with $100 recoverable for noncompliance.Status: Introduced in the House on January 9, 2026 and referred to the House Judiciary Committee on January 16, 2026; no further action was taken before the 2026 regular session adjourned on April 15, 2026. (checked 2026-08-26).
HB 517 (2025 Regular Session) — Indexed by the Legislative Record under application fee requirements. It was withdrawn early in the session and never received a committee hearing.Status: Withdrawn on February 14, 2025, which is the bill record's last recorded action. (checked 2026-08-26).

Kentucky does not regulate rental application or tenant screening fees anywhere in state law: no statute caps the fee, ties it to what a report costs, or requires a receipt, a refund, or any disclosure before an applicant pays.

Cited to KRS 383.565 (1) and 17 more Kentucky statutes · Verified August 26, 2026

Kentucky is also unusual in that its residential landlord and tenant act is local-option, governing only in the cities and counties that have adopted it, and the answer on application fees is the same either way because neither the adopted act nor the general chapter mentions them. There is no state denial-notice duty beyond federal law, no reusable screening report law, no holding deposit statute, and no all-in advertised price rule for rental listings. A 2026 bill would have required written notice of screening criteria and charges, barred charging when no unit was available, and set a fourteen-day denial notice, but it died in committee.

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

Notes and caveats

The act is local-option — Kentucky's residential landlord and tenant act governs only where a city, county, or urban-county government has adopted it, and it must be adopted whole and unamended. Elsewhere the general provisions of the landlord and tenant chapter and the common law of leases apply. Neither body of law addresses application or screening fees, so the answer on this topic does not change with the jurisdiction.
What the act's money rules cover — The act defines only two kinds of payment: rent, meaning payments made under the rental agreement other than a security deposit, and a security deposit, meaning an escrow payment made under the rental agreement to secure the landlord against damage. Money paid before there is a rental agreement is neither.
Security deposit duties can start early — In an adopting jurisdiction, a landlord who requires a security deposit must hold it in a separate account, tell prospective tenants where that account is and its number, and present a listing of existing damage before the money is tendered. Those duties attach to deposit money, not to an application fee, and security deposits are covered by a separate record.
Federal law still applies — A landlord who obtains a credit, background, or eviction report is a user of consumer reports under the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act, which carries its own notice duties when a report contributes to a denial. Those are federal requirements, not Kentucky ones.
Consumer protection reaches advertising, not fee display — Kentucky's consumer protection act declares unfair, false, misleading, or deceptive practices in trade or commerce unlawful, and its definition of trade and commerce includes the advertising of real property. It does not prescribe how a rental price must be displayed or which fees must be itemized.
Local ordinances are limited — A city, county, charter county, urban-county, consolidated local, or unified local government may not adopt or enforce an ordinance on landlord or tenant law that conflicts with state law, and a jurisdiction adopting the residential landlord and tenant act may not enact other ordinances on the subjects the act covers.
What the 2026 bill would have changed — The screening bill introduced in the 2026 session would have created written notice duties before a screening charge, a bar on charging when no unit was available, a refund-backed penalty of the charge plus $150, and a fourteen-day written statement of reasons for a denial with $100 recoverable. It was referred to committee and went no further before the session ended.
About the application fee rule — No Kentucky statute caps or otherwise regulates what a landlord may charge a person to apply for a residential tenancy. The residential landlord and tenant act lets the parties set any terms not prohibited by the act or other law, and the only payments it defines are rent and security deposits, both of which are payments made under a rental agreement that does not yet exist when an applicant pays. What an applicant pays is set by the landlord and the market.
How the cost limit works — No Kentucky statute ties an application or screening charge to what the landlord actually spends on a credit, background, or eviction report. The residential landlord and tenant act contains no cost-based limit, and the term for a screening charge appears nowhere in the Kentucky Revised Statutes.
Screening charges — Kentucky sets no conditions on tenant screening charges: no rule on who may charge one, no limit of one charge per applicant, no requirement that the landlord actually obtain a report, and no written notice or agreement that must come first. The landlord duties in the adopted act concern maintenance, rules for the premises, and access, and none of them reaches a person who is only applying.
What the receipt duty covers — No Kentucky statute requires a landlord to give a receipt for application or screening money. The only money-handling duties in the adopted act attach to security deposits, which must be held in a separate account whose location and number are given to prospective tenants. Nothing in that section extends to an application fee.
When money must come back — No Kentucky statute forces the return of application or screening money in any circumstance. The return rules in the adopted act govern security deposits, including the landlord's loss of the right to retain any part of a deposit where the separate account and damage listings were not provided. Whether an application fee is refundable is left to the terms the parties agree on.
Refunds — Kentucky sets no timing or amount rules for returning application money, and no rule for the situations other states address: no report was obtained, the unit was already taken, the charge exceeded what the report cost, or the applicant withdrew. The deadlines in the adopted act, including the thirty-day and sixty-day periods, belong to the security deposit provisions and begin at the end of a tenancy.
What must be disclosed up front — Kentucky requires nothing to be disclosed to an applicant before an application fee is collected. No statute obliges a landlord to publish the standards used to decide an application, to break down what a fee pays for, or to state an applicant's rights in advance. The disclosure duty in the adopted act is limited to giving the tenant, in writing at or before the tenancy begins, the name and address of the person authorized to manage the premises and of an owner or the owner's agent for service of process and notices. The act's one duty owed before money changes hands, a listing of existing damage presented before a security deposit is tendered, belongs to the security deposit rules and is covered separately.
Denial notices — Kentucky imposes no state duty to tell a rejected applicant why an application was denied, to do so within a set time, or to hand over a copy of any report relied on. Neither the residential landlord and tenant act nor the state consumer protection act creates such a duty. Landlords who use consumer reports remain subject to the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act, which is federal law rather than a Kentucky rule.
Reusable screening reports — Kentucky has no reusable or portable tenant screening report law. No statute requires a landlord to accept a report an applicant already paid for, bars a fee when such a report is used, or sets how long one stays valid. Whether to accept an applicant-supplied report is left to the landlord.
Money to hold a unit — Kentucky has no statute on money paid to hold a unit while a lease is prepared: no cap, no written statement about what the payment secures, and no rule for what happens to it if the applicant withdraws or the unit goes to someone else. The security deposit rules define a deposit as an escrow payment made under the rental agreement to secure the landlord against damage. Where money collected before signing is itself a security deposit, the adopted act requires it to be held in a separate account and requires a listing of existing damage before it is tendered, but those are deposit duties rather than rules about holding a unit.
Advertising and fee transparency — Kentucky has no all-in advertised price rule, no mandatory-fee itemization requirement, and no hidden-fee ban written for residential rentals. The state consumer protection act declares unfair, false, misleading, or deceptive acts or practices in trade or commerce unlawful, and its definition of trade and commerce expressly covers advertising of real property, so rental advertising is within the act's subject matter. The act stops there: it prescribes no way of displaying a price and no list of fees that must be itemized. The Office of Consumer Protection regulations cover charitable solicitation, telemarketing, going-out-of-business sales, preneed funeral and cemetery forms, mold remediation, contact lens and visual aid sellers, and debt adjusters, and none of them reaches dwellings offered for rent.
Penalties — Because Kentucky sets no application or screening fee duties, no penalty attaches to them. The remedies in the residential landlord and tenant act are keyed to duties the act creates: a prohibited lease provision is unenforceable, and a landlord who fails to use a separate account or to provide the damage listings loses the right to retain any part of a security deposit. Separately, a person who leases for personal, family, or household purposes and suffers an ascertainable loss from a practice the consumer protection act declares unlawful may sue for actual damages, with equitable relief available and reasonable attorney's fees and costs available to the prevailing party, within one year after any Attorney General action ends or two years after the violation, whichever is later. No Kentucky provision defines an application fee practice as a violation.

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

Statute citations

KRS 383.565 (1) (verified 2026) Official source
KRS 383.545 (10), (13) (verified 2026) Official source
KRS ch. 383 (verified 2026) Official source
KRS 383.580 (1) (verified 2026) Official source
KRS 383.585 (1) (verified 2026) Official source
KRS 383.580 (4)-(7) (verified 2026) Official source
KRS 383.580 (6)-(7) (verified 2026) Official source
KRS 383.580 (1)-(2) (verified 2026) Official source
KRS 367.170 (verified 2026) Official source
KRS 383.545 (13) (verified 2026) Official source
KRS 367.170 (1)-(2) (verified 2026) Official source
KRS 367.110 (2) (verified 2026) Official source
40 KAR ch. 2 (verified 2026) Official source
KRS 383.570 (2) (verified 2026) Official source
KRS 383.580 (4)-(5) (verified 2026) Official source
KRS 367.220 (1), (3), (5) (verified 2026) Official source
KRS 383.500 (verified 2026) Official source
KRS 383.580 (verified 2026) Official source

How this record was verified: Direct read of the official section text served for KRS 383.198, 383.199, 383.500, 383.535, 383.545, 383.565, 383.570, 383.580 and 383.585 on apps.legislature.ky.gov, together with the full table of contents of KRS ch. 383 and KRS 367.110, 367.170 and 367.220; plus the Office of Consumer Protection regulation list in KAR Title 040 Chapter 2, and a review of the 2025 and 2026 regular sessions using the Legislative Record's landlord and tenant index heading, consumer protection index heading, all-bills-with-title lists and enacted-law list, with the bill records for HB 295, HB 202, HB 319, HB 333 and HB 337 of 2026 and HB 517 of 2025 read individually and the text of HB 295 read in full.