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

No dollar cap. A lessor may not require payment of an application fee unless, before accepting the payment, the lessor gives the applicant written notice of the fee amount and of the screening factors the lessor considers.

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

No statutory receipt duty for application money.

Does Louisiana have a reusable tenant screening report law?

No statute on reusable screening reports.

Can a landlord charge a holding deposit in Louisiana?

No statute on holding deposits.

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

Verified August 26, 2026 All Louisiana topics →

Louisiana regulates the notice that must come before a rental application fee rather than the amount of the fee.

Cited to La. R.S. 9:3258.1 (A), (A)(1), (C), (D) and 14 more Louisiana statutes · Verified August 26, 2026

A lessor may not require payment unless the applicant first receives written notice of the fee amount, of whether credit scores, employment history, criminal history, or eviction records are considered, and of the applicant's option to submit a short statement about financial hardship from a declared disaster or emergency. There is no cap on the fee, no actual-cost limit, no refund duty, no receipt duty, and no state denial-notice duty. The same statute states that no one has a cause of action against a lessor for violating it, so the notice duty carries no damages remedy, and owner-occupied buildings of no more than four units are outside it entirely. Louisiana also has no holding-deposit statute, no portable screening report law, and no fee-transparency rule for rental advertising.

Louisiana application fees at a glance

Application fee cap	No dollar cap. A lessor may not require payment of an application fee unless, before accepting the payment, the lessor gives the applicant written notice of the fee amount and of the screening factors the lessor considers. Louisiana regulates the moment before the fee is taken rather than the size of the fee. The application-requirements statute sets no ceiling, no formula, and no limit tied to what screening costs, but it conditions charging on a written notice given first. The statute applies to all lessors of property to be used as a lessee's primary residence, except owner-occupied buildings of no more than four units. It also states that no person has a cause of action against a lessor or the lessor's agents or employees for a violation of the section.
Fee limited to actual screening cost	No statute ties the fee to screening cost
Screening charge rules	A written notice must reach the applicant before any application fee is accepted, and it must state whether the lessor considers credit scores, employment history, criminal history, or eviction records in deciding whether to rent. The notice prerequisite is the whole of Louisiana's conditioning of screening charges. The state does not limit who may charge, does not restrict a lessor to one charge per applicant, does not require that a report actually be obtained, and sets no vacancy prerequisite. The requirement does not reach owner-occupied buildings of no more than four units.
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	Before accepting an application fee, the lessor must give written notice of four things: the amount of the fee; whether credit scores, employment history, criminal history, or eviction records are considered; that the applicant may share a good-faith statement of two hundred words or less describing financial hardship from a state or federally declared disaster or emergency and how it affected their credit, employment, or rental history; and, in the part about that hardship statement, a reference to the COVID-19 pandemic and hurricanes. This is the most detailed part of Louisiana's application-stage law and the reason the state counts as regulating this topic at all. The notice may be delivered, stored, and presented electronically if it meets the Louisiana Uniform Electronic Transactions Act. Nothing requires a breakdown of what the fee pays for beyond its amount, and nothing requires the lessor to re-notice an applicant when screening criteria change. Owner-occupied buildings of no more than four units are outside the requirement.
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	None for the application-notice duty. The statute states that no person has a cause of action against a lessor or the lessor's agents or employees for an alleged violation, and grants them immunity from all such actions. Louisiana states the application-stage notice duty and then removes the private remedy for breaching it, so an applicant who receives no notice has no damages claim under that section. The state's landlord-tenant money penalties attach to a different duty at the other end of a tenancy: a lessor who willfully fails to return a security deposit owes the wrongfully retained portion plus the greater of three hundred dollars or twice that portion, with failure to remit within thirty days after written demand treated as willful, and the court may award costs and attorney fees to the prevailing party.

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

Notes and caveats

The notice is the rule — Louisiana's application-fee statute is a disclosure statute. It tells a lessor what an applicant must be told before money changes hands and leaves the amount of the fee entirely to the parties.
No remedy for the notice duty — The statute expressly provides that no person has a cause of action against a lessor or the lessor's agents or employees for an alleged violation, and grants them immunity from such actions. An applicant who is not given the notice has no damages claim under that section.
Small owner-occupied buildings are exempt — The notice requirement applies to lessors of property used as a lessee's primary residence, except owner-occupied buildings of no more than four units.
The hardship statement — The notice must tell the applicant they may share a good-faith statement of two hundred words or less about financial hardship from a state or federally declared disaster or emergency, and that part of the notice must reference the COVID-19 pandemic and hurricanes. The statute does not say what a lessor must do with such a statement.
Electronic notice is allowed — The notice may be delivered, stored, and presented electronically where it meets the Louisiana Uniform Electronic Transactions Act.
Security deposits are a separate subject — The one-month return timetable, the itemized statement, and the damages of three hundred dollars or twice the amount wrongfully retained all belong to the deposit statute and apply after a tenancy ends. A 2026 act changed the timing of the itemized statement; it did not touch application fees.
What Louisiana does not have — No fee cap, no actual-cost limit, no one-application-per-applicant rule, no refund or receipt duty, no holding-deposit rule, no portable screening report law, no state adverse-action duty for rental denials, and no all-in pricing or fee-itemization rule for rental advertising.
How the cost limit works — No Louisiana statute ties an application or screening charge to the lessor's actual expense on a credit, background, or eviction report. The application-requirements statute addresses only the notice that must precede the fee and says nothing about what the fee may cover or cost.
What the receipt duty covers — No Louisiana statute requires a lessor to give an applicant a receipt for application or screening money. The application-requirements statute imposes a notice duty that runs to the applicant before payment, not a receipt afterward, and the residential deposit statute's only accounting duty is the itemized statement owed after a tenancy ends.
When money must come back — No Louisiana statute forces the return of any part of an application or screening fee, whether or not the unit is filled, a report is obtained, or the applicant withdraws. The application-requirements statute is silent on refunds. The residential deposit statute reaches different money at a different moment: an advance or deposit furnished to secure performance of a lease, returnable within one month after the lease terminates.
Refunds — Because no refund is required, Louisiana sets no deadline, amount, or method for returning application money. The one-month return timetable and itemized-statement duty in the deposit statute apply to money securing performance of a lease once the tenancy ends, not to what an applicant pays to be considered.
Denial notices — Louisiana places no state denial-notice duty on a lessor who declines an applicant. The state's credit-reporting statute reaches denials of credit, insurance, or employment, not rentals, and even there the duty is to answer a request rather than to notify: a consumer denied on the basis of information from a credit reporting agency may obtain a free copy of the report by asking the agency in writing within sixty days, and the third party must, on the consumer's request, give the name of the agency that supplied the information. Federal law supplies whatever notice duties apply after a screening-based rental denial.
Reusable screening reports — Louisiana has no portable or reusable tenant screening report law. A lessor need not accept a screening report the applicant already obtained, no rule bars a charge when one is used, and no validity window is set. Neither the application-requirements statute nor the state's credit-reporting statute contains such a regime.
Money to hold a unit — Louisiana has no holding-deposit or holding-fee statute. Nothing caps such a deposit, requires a written statement about it, or sets what happens to it if the applicant or the lessor does not go through with the lease. The residential deposit statute is keyed to an advance or deposit furnished to secure performance of a lease and to the moment the lease terminates, so it does not answer what becomes of money taken before any lease exists.
Advertising and fee transparency — Louisiana has no all-in advertised price rule, no mandatory-fee itemization rule, and no hidden-fee ban for residential rental advertising, in either its statutes or a state rule. The general consumer statute is the Unfair Trade Practices and Consumer Protection Law, which declares unfair methods of competition and deceptive practices in trade or commerce unlawful and defines trade or commerce to include the advertising, offering for sale, sale, or distribution of property, immovable or movable. That is a general prohibition on deception enforced case by case, not a pricing-display rule.

Common questions: Louisiana 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 Louisiana?: No dollar cap. A lessor may not require payment of an application fee unless, before accepting the payment, the lessor gives the applicant written notice of the fee amount and of the screening factors the lessor considers.
Does an application fee have to be refunded in Louisiana?: No statutory refund duty.
Does a landlord have to give a receipt for an application fee in Louisiana?: No statutory receipt duty for application money.
Does Louisiana have a reusable tenant screening report law?: No statute on reusable screening reports.
Can a landlord charge a holding deposit in Louisiana?: No statute on holding deposits.

Statute citations

La. R.S. 9:3258.1 (A), (A)(1), (C), (D) (verified 2026) Official source
La. R.S. 9:3258.1 (A) (verified 2026) Official source
La. R.S. 9:3258.1 (A), (A)(2), (C) (verified 2026) Official source
La. R.S. 9:3251 (A) (verified 2026) Official source
La. R.S. 9:3258.1 (A)(1)-(4), (B), (C) (verified 2026) Official source
La. R.S. 9:3571.1 (D) (verified 2026) Official source
La. R.S. 9:3258.1 (verified 2026) Official source
La. R.S. 9:3571.1 (verified 2026) Official source
La. R.S. 51:1402 (10)(a), (3) (verified 2026) Official source
La. R.S. 51:1405 (verified 2026) Official source
La. R.S. 9:3258.1 (D) (verified 2026) Official source
La. R.S. 9:3252 (A) (verified 2026) Official source
La. R.S. 9:3253 (verified 2026) Official source
La. R.S. 9:3258.1 (A)-(D) (verified 2026) Official source
La. R.S. 51:1402 (10)(a) (verified 2026) Official source

How this record was verified: Direct read of La. R.S. 9:3258.1 (Residential lease application requirements) on legis.la.gov in both the standard and print views, plus the residential deposit sections R.S. 9:3251 through 9:3254 and the neighboring lease sections 9:3258, 9:3259, 9:3259.1 and 9:3261.1, the credit reporting section 9:3571.1, the Unfair Trade Practices definitions and prohibition at R.S. 51:1402 and 51:1405, and Civil Code article 2668. The 2025 and 2026 Regular Session act indexes were scanned on the legislature's own site and the one 2026 act touching the deposit statute was read in its enrolled form.