What can a landlord charge for a rental application in Massachusetts?
Massachusetts does not allow a rental application fee: before a tenancy begins a landlord or the landlord's agent may require only rent for the first full month, rent for the last full month, a security deposit of no more than one month's rent, and the cost of a key and lock.
Cited to MGL c. 186 s. 15B (1)(b) and 15 more Massachusetts statutes · Verified August 25, 2026
Screening costs and holding deposits fall outside that list, and since August 1, 2025 a licensed broker's fee is paid only by the party that engaged the broker, so a broker hired by the landlord looks to the landlord. Separately, the Attorney General's fee-transparency regulation requires rental advertising to disclose the total price — monthly rent may be shown so long as the lease period is disclosed with it — with every mandatory fee's nature, purpose, and amount stated; a violation is an unfair or deceptive practice under the consumer protection statute. Beyond that, the state adds little at the application stage: no receipt or refund duty for applicant money, no duty to publish screening criteria before collecting anything, no state denial-notice duty on top of federal law, no reusable screening report regime, and no damages clause tied to the payment limit itself.
Massachusetts application fees at a glance
| Application fee cap | No application fee is permitted. At or before the start of a tenancy a landlord or the landlord's agent may require only four payments: rent for the first full month, rent for the last full month at the same rate, a security deposit of no more than one month's rent, and the purchase and installation cost of a key and lock. Massachusetts answers the application-fee question by listing the only payments that may be required rather than by capping a fee. An application charge, a credit-check charge, and any other pre-tenancy payment fall outside the list. Since August 1, 2025 the limit binds the landlord's agent as well as the landlord, and it is written as a bar on requiring payment to the landlord or to an agent of the landlord. A separate rule for licensed brokers, in force the same day, provides that a broker's fee is paid only by the party that engaged the broker, so a broker working for the landlord looks to the landlord for payment. |
|---|---|
| Fee limited to actual screening cost | No statute ties the fee to screening cost |
| Screening charge rules | Credit, background, and eviction-report costs may not be required from an applicant by a landlord or the landlord's agent, because they are not among the four payments the statute allows. A licensed broker or salesperson may be paid only by the party that engaged the broker. No Massachusetts statute uses the term tenant screening or sets conditions such as one charge per applicant or a duty to actually run the report. The rule that governs is the list of permitted pre-tenancy payments, which reaches screening costs by leaving them out. The limit is drafted as a bar on requiring payment to the landlord or to an agent of the landlord; a charge collected directly by an unrelated party is not addressed by that wording. |
| 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 | A landlord or the landlord's agent may not require a holding deposit, reservation fee, or any other payment to hold a unit before the tenancy begins; only the four listed payments may be required. The statute does not use the term holding deposit, but its limit is written to cover any amount required at or prior to the commencement of a tenancy, which is exactly when a holding deposit is taken. Because such a payment is outside the four permitted items, it may not be required, and a lease term to the contrary is void and unenforceable. |
| Rental fee-transparency rules | The Attorney General's unfair and deceptive fees regulation requires the total price of a rental — including all fees, charges, and other expenses a renter must pay — to be disclosed clearly and conspicuously from the first presentation of a price onward, displayed more prominently than any other pricing information, with the nature, purpose, and amount of each fee stated and optional fees identified with instructions for avoiding them. The regulation applies to acts and practices from September 2, 2025. The regulation defines the products it covers to include dwelling units available for rent or lease, and defines a sale to include a lease or rental. For a rental, the total price may be advertised as the periodic amount — such as the monthly rent — so long as the full period covered by the lease is also disclosed clearly and conspicuously. The total price must also be disclosed before a consumer is required to hand over personal information, subject to narrow exceptions, and no fee may be misrepresented as required by law. A violation is an unfair or deceptive practice under the state consumer protection statute. The General Laws themselves contain no rental fee-transparency provision; the duty comes from this regulation, issued under the consumer protection statute's rulemaking authority. |
| Penalty for violation | No damages clause attaches to the pre-tenancy payment limit itself: the statute's treble-damages remedy is tied to the security deposit duties, and the only stated consequence for the payment limit is that a conflicting lease provision or waiver is void and unenforceable. A violation of the fee-transparency regulation is an unfair or deceptive practice under the consumer protection statute, which lets an injured consumer recover actual damages or twenty-five dollars, whichever is greater — doubled or trebled for a willful or knowing violation — plus reasonable attorney's fees. The consumer protection remedy attaches to the Attorney General's fee-transparency regulation because that regulation defines its violations as unfair or deceptive practices under the statute; the Attorney General may also enforce the statute directly. The broker fee rule carries no fine of its own, the broker penalty section reaches unlicensed practice rather than fee allocation, and the license-discipline grounds cover a range of sections that stops short of the fee rule. |
Cite this page: "Landlord Atlas, Massachusetts Application & Screening Fee Laws (verified August 25, 2026), landlordatlas.com/laws/application-fees/massachusetts/" — free to cite and quote with a link (how these records are verified). Every figure above is cited to the Massachusetts statute in the citations section below.
Notes and caveats
- A ceiling, not a menu — The four permitted payments are the most a landlord may require before a tenancy, not amounts a landlord must charge. A landlord may ask for less.
- Who the limit binds — Since August 1, 2025 the limit applies to the landlord's agent as well as the landlord, and it bars requiring payment to either of them. A charge collected directly by an unrelated party is not addressed by the statute's wording.
- Broker fees — A licensed broker or salesperson may contract with a prospective tenant or with a landlord, and the fee is paid by the party that engaged the broker. A tenant who hires a broker to search on their behalf still pays that broker.
- Short vacation lettings are outside the rule — The section does not apply to a lease, rental, occupancy or tenancy of one hundred days or less that is for a vacation or recreational purpose.
- Fee in place of a security deposit — A 2025 amendment allows the state housing agency to permit, by regulation, a landlord and tenant to agree to a fee instead of a security deposit, with the fee and any deposit together capped at one month's rent.
- Advertising of rents and fees — The Attorney General's unfair and deceptive fees regulation covers dwelling units offered for rent or lease. From its September 2, 2025 enforcement date, an advertised rental price must be the total price, disclosed more prominently than any other pricing information; a monthly figure is permitted so long as the lease period it covers is disclosed alongside it.
- Manufactured housing communities — Lot rentals in manufactured housing communities are governed by their own chapter and are covered separately.
- Federal law still applies — A denial based on a consumer report is governed by the federal fair credit reporting law, which is what supplies the notice a denied applicant receives.
- How the cost limit works — No provision ties an applicant charge to what a credit, background, or eviction report actually costs. The section that would carry such a rule sets out a fixed list of four permitted payments with no cost-based category, so the question of an actual-cost limit does not arise on the landlord's side.
- What the receipt duty covers — The landlord-tenant statute does require receipts, but only for a security deposit and for rent paid in advance for the last month of the tenancy. Nothing requires a receipt for application or screening money, which a landlord may not require in the first place.
- When money must come back — No circumstance in the statute forces the return of application or screening money. The return duties in the landlord-tenant statute run to security deposits and advance rent only. A lease term that conflicts with the section, and any waiver of the section by a tenant or prospective tenant, is void and unenforceable.
- Refunds — Because the statute permits no application or screening charge from the landlord's side, it sets no rules for giving one back when an applicant is turned down, withdraws, or the unit is taken by someone else. The refund machinery in the same section applies to security deposits and advance rent.
- What must be disclosed up front — The pre-tenancy disclosure duties in Massachusetts law sit elsewhere: a lead-paint notification to prospective tenants and a statement of the condition of the unit tied to the security deposit. Neither is an application-stage disclosure about fees or screening standards.
- Denial notices — The state's consumer credit reporting law does impose a written adverse-action notice within ten business days, but only where credit or insurance for personal, family or household purposes, or employment, is denied or terminated. Tenancy is not in that list. The same law names residential leases in one place only, to excuse the written permission a consumer report otherwise needs. Federal fair credit reporting duties continue to apply and are the source of any notice a denied applicant receives.
- Reusable screening reports — No statute requires a landlord to accept a screening report an applicant already paid for, sets a validity window for one, or limits charging when one is used. The two bodies of law that would carry such a regime are the landlord-tenant fee provisions and the state consumer credit reporting law, and neither contains one. The fee question a reuse statute usually answers also does not arise here, since a landlord may not require a screening charge at all.
Common questions: Massachusetts 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 Massachusetts?
- No application fee is permitted. At or before the start of a tenancy a landlord or the landlord's agent may require only four payments: rent for the first full month, rent for the last full month at the same rate, a security deposit of no more than one month's rent, and the purchase and installation cost of a key and lock.
- Does an application fee have to be refunded in Massachusetts?
- No statutory refund duty.
- Does a landlord have to give a receipt for an application fee in Massachusetts?
- No statutory receipt duty for application money.
- Does Massachusetts have a reusable tenant screening report law?
- No statute on reusable screening reports.
- Can a landlord charge a holding deposit in Massachusetts?
- A landlord or the landlord's agent may not require a holding deposit, reservation fee, or any other payment to hold a unit before the tenancy begins; only the four listed payments may be required.
Statute citations
- MGL c. 186 s. 15B (1)(b) (verified 2026) Official source
- MGL c. 112 s. 87DDD 1/2 (verified 2026) Official source
- MGL c. 186 s. 15B (2)(b) (verified 2026) Official source
- MGL c. 186 s. 15B (8) (verified 2026) Official source
- MGL c. 186 s. 15B (2) (verified 2026) Official source
- MGL c. 111 s. 197A (verified 2026) Official source
- MGL c. 93 s. 62 (verified 2026) Official source
- MGL c. 93 s. 51 (v) (verified 2026) Official source
- MGL c. 93 s. 51 (verified 2026) Official source
- 940 CMR 38.00 38.03, 38.04 (verified 2026) Official source
- MGL c. 93A s. 2 (verified 2026) Official source
- MGL c. 186 s. 15B (7), (8) (verified 2026) Official source
- MGL c. 93A s. 9 (1), (3) (verified 2026) Official source
- 940 CMR 38.00 38.04 (verified 2026) Official source
- MGL c. 112 s. 87CCC (verified 2026) Official source
- St. 2025, c. 9, ss. 43, 54, 55 (verified 2026) Official source
How this record was verified: Direct read of MGL c. 186 s. 15B in both of the versions the legislature displays (before and from August 1, 2025), MGL c. 112 ss. 87DDD 1/2, 87CCC and 87AAA, MGL c. 93 ss. 51 and 62, and MGL c. 93A s. 9, all on malegislature.gov, together with General Laws full-text searches on that site for application fee, tenant screening, holding deposit, reusable tenant, screening report and prospective tenant, the 2025 and 2026 session-law chapter lists, and the 194th General Court bill listings. The Attorney General's regulations at 940 CMR 38.00 (as published in Mass. Register No. 1543, March 14, 2025) and 940 CMR 3.17 were read in full from the state's own published copies on mass.gov.