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

No statutory cap on application fees.

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

No statutory receipt duty for application money.

Does Michigan have a reusable tenant screening report law?

No statute on reusable screening reports.

Can a landlord charge a holding deposit in Michigan?

No statute on holding deposits.

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

Verified August 26, 2026 Updated September 27, 2026 All Michigan topics →

Legislative changes ahead — not yet in force. This page reflects the law in force today. The following measures would change Michigan's landlord-tenant law:

SB 372 (2025-2026) — Would amend the landlord-tenant act to let a prospective tenant supply a consumer report obtained in the previous 45 days, bar an application fee where the landlord accepts one, cap the fee at $25.00 including the cost of the report where the landlord declines one, require written notice before an application is accepted of what will be screened and what can cause a denial, require a copy of the report and a chance to respond on denial with a decision within 7 days, and allow damages up to $1,000.00 plus attorney fees and costs. Status: Reported from the Housing and Human Services committee on September 10, 2025 and from the Committee of the Whole on March 3, 2026, and placed on the Senate's order of third reading. No floor vote has been taken in either chamber. (checked September 27, 2026).
HB 4770 (2025-2026) — Would add a section to the landlord-tenant act barring pre-tenancy fees such as wait-list, redecoration, pet-application, unit-touring, and holding fees; permit a rental application fee of not more than $50.00; require the fee to be disclosed in any advertisement or posting for the unit or on the landlord's website; require a refund within 60 days after a denial; and set civil fines of not more than $500.00 for a first violation and not less than $1,000.00 afterward, with attorney fees and costs. Status: Introduced August 14, 2025 and referred to the House Committee on Regulatory Reform, where it remains. (checked September 27, 2026).
HB 5355 (2025-2026) — Would create a Michigan fair chance access to housing act governing the use of criminal history in tenant selection. Its main subject is screening criteria rather than fees, but it would also require a landlord that withdraws a conditional offer to return any application fee or holding deposit collected from the applicant. Status: Introduced December 11, 2025 and referred to the House Committee on Regulatory Reform, where it remains. (checked September 27, 2026).

Michigan does not regulate what a landlord charges someone to apply for a rental home: no statute caps an application or screening fee, requires a receipt or a refund, sets what must be told an applicant before the money is taken, or governs a deposit to hold a unit.

Cited to MCL 554.601 (d) and 19 more cited sources · Verified August 26, 2026

State law reaches the security deposit instead, capping it at one and one-half months' rent and defining it as money paid by a tenant and held during the tenancy, which leaves application-stage charges to the terms the landlord sets and to the general Michigan Consumer Protection Act. Michigan also has no reusable screening report statute and no fee-transparency rule for rental advertising. Since September 21, 2026, a lease that allows more than one way to pay rent must leave at least one of them free of an added charge or fee, a rule about paying rent rather than about applying. Bills that would cap the fee at $25.00 or $50.00 and add disclosure, refund, and denial-notice duties are before the Legislature but none has become law.

Michigan application & screening 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	Michigan has no rule on advertised rent or on itemizing fees in a rental listing, but since September 21, 2026 it limits fees for paying rent through the lease. A rental agreement may not impose an additional charge or fee on every method of paying rent the agreement allows, and where it allows more than one method it must contain a provision letting the tenant use at least one of them without an additional charge or fee. A provision that breaks this rule is void (MCL 554.633(1)(o), (3)).
Penalty for violation	No specific statutory penalty

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

Notes and caveats

What the security deposit rules do and do not cover — Michigan's landlord-tenant act caps a security deposit at one and one-half months' rent and sets notice, inventory, and itemization duties. Those duties attach to money held during the tenancy. The act defines a security deposit to include a required prepayment of rent other than the first full rental period, so money labeled otherwise can still be a deposit once a tenancy begins, but the act says nothing about money paid to apply.
The Truth in Renting Act governs the lease, not the application — That act controls what a written rental agreement may and may not contain, and it requires a plain notice in the agreement itself. It creates no duty that applies before an agreement is signed.
Denial notices come from federal law — When a landlord uses a credit or background report and turns an application down, the notice duty comes from the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act. Michigan adds nothing on top of it.
No rental advertising fee rule — Michigan has no statute or regulation requiring an advertised rent to include mandatory fees or requiring those fees to be itemized. The Attorney General's pricing and advertising rules cover sale-price advertising of retail consumer items and do not reach dwellings offered for rent.
Source-of-income rule sits next to the fee question — Since April 2, 2025, a landlord of five or more rental units in Michigan may not make a distinction in price, terms, conditions, fees, or privileges based on a prospective tenant's source of income. That is a rule about grounds for a decision rather than a limit on the amount of an application fee, and landlords with fewer than five units are outside it.
Proposed caps are not law — Figures of $25.00 and $50.00 circulate in connection with Michigan rental application fees. Both come from bills, not from enacted law. Neither cap is in force.
About the application fee rule — Michigan statute sets no cap on, and no conditions for, a residential rental application fee. The landlord-tenant act regulates only the security deposit, which it defines as money paid by a tenant and held for the term of the rental agreement, and caps that deposit at one and one-half months' rent. What an applicant is charged to apply is set by the landlord's own terms, subject to the general duties of the Michigan Consumer Protection Act.
How the cost limit works — No Michigan statute ties an application or screening charge to the actual cost of obtaining a report. The only actual-cost rule in the landlord-tenant act governs how a security deposit may be applied after the tenancy, not what may be charged to apply.
Screening charges — Michigan places no statutory conditions on credit, background, or eviction-report charges passed to an applicant: no one-charge-per-applicant rule, no requirement that a report actually be obtained, and no written-agreement or vacancy prerequisite. The Truth in Renting Act, which is the state's rule set on rental terms, governs the content of a written rental agreement and reaches no further.
What the receipt duty covers — No Michigan statute requires a receipt for application or screening money. The landlord-tenant act's written-notice duty is tied to the security deposit and runs from the date the tenant takes possession, so it does not reach money paid at the application stage.
When money must come back — No Michigan statute requires the return of an application or screening fee in any circumstance. The return machinery in the landlord-tenant act operates on the security deposit after the tenant moves out, and whether an application fee is refundable is left to the terms the landlord sets.
Refunds — Because no refund duty exists, Michigan sets no deadline, no excess-over-cost rule, and no rule for an applicant who withdraws or a unit that is already filled. Any refund term comes from the landlord's own application terms.
What must be disclosed up front — Michigan requires nothing to be disclosed before an application fee is collected. The state's two rental disclosure duties both attach at or after signing: a written rental agreement must carry the Truth in Renting Act notice, and a landlord requiring a security deposit must give the tenant a written notice within 14 days after possession begins.
Denial notices — Michigan adds no state denial-notice duty: no statute requires a reason, a copy of a screening report, or an opportunity to respond when an application is turned down. The one Michigan provision governing the decision itself bars a landlord of five or more rental units from denying a tenancy based on a prospective tenant's source of income, and it requires no notice. Where a consumer report is used, the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act supplies the adverse-action notice; that is federal law, not the Michigan rule.
Reusable screening reports — Michigan has no reusable or portable tenant screening report statute. No provision requires a landlord to accept a report an applicant already paid for, bars a fee where such a report is used, or sets a validity window. A bill on the Senate's order of third reading would create such a regime.
Money to hold a unit — Michigan does not regulate money taken to hold a unit while a lease is prepared. The landlord-tenant act's security-deposit definition is built around money paid by a tenant and held for the term of the rental agreement, and neither it nor any other section names a holding fee, a wait-list fee, or a unit-touring fee. Terms for such money come from the written agreement between the parties.
Advertising and fee transparency — Michigan has no fee-transparency statute for residential rental advertising: nothing requires an advertised rent to include mandatory fees or requires those fees to be itemized. The Michigan Consumer Protection Act does cover the advertising and leasing of property for household purposes, and the Truth in Renting Act bars a lease provision that violates that act, but the Consumer Protection Act creates only general duties against misleading statements and material omissions. The Attorney General's pricing and advertising rules in the Michigan Administrative Code address retail sale-price advertising of consumer items and do not reach dwellings offered for rent. The one rental fee rule Michigan does have is in the lease itself: since September 21, 2026, a lease that allows more than one way to pay rent must leave at least one of them free of an additional charge or fee (MCL 554.633(1)(o)).
Penalties — No Michigan penalty attaches to application-stage charges, because no Michigan statute creates a duty at that stage. Where a landlord's conduct amounts to a misleading statement or a material omission in trade or commerce, the Michigan Consumer Protection Act lets the person who suffered the loss recover actual damages or $250.00, whichever is greater, plus reasonable attorney fees. The penalties in the landlord-tenant act attach to security deposits, and those in the Truth in Renting Act attach to the content of a written rental agreement.

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

Changes since last full verification

The Verified date above (August 26, 2026) marks the last time every figure on this page was verified end-to-end against official sources. The changes below were published since then, each verified against the official source it names (what these dates mean).

Updated, September 27, 2026 — Michigan: 2026 Public Act 103 (SB 373), in force September 21, 2026, adds paragraph (o) to the prohibited-clause list in MCL 554.633: a lease may not impose an additional charge or fee on every method of paying rent it allows, and where it allows more than one method it must contain a provision letting the tenant use at least one without an additional charge or fee; a clause that breaks the rule is void. The void-clause list now carries fifteen enumerated prohibitions plus the catch-all; the application-fee page's fee-limit field states the rule.

Citations

MCL 554.601 · (d) (verified 2026) Official source
MCL 554.602 (verified 2026) Official source
MCL 554.607 · (a) (verified 2026) Official source
MCL 554.632 · (a) (verified 2026) Official source
MCL 554.633 · (1) (verified 2026) Official source
MCL 554.603 (verified 2026) Official source
MCL 554.607 (verified 2026) Official source
MCL 554.634 · (2) (verified 2026) Official source
MCL 554.601c · (1) (verified 2026) Official source
MCL 554.601 (verified 2026) Official source
MCL 445.902 · (1)(g) (verified 2026) Official source
MCL 445.903 · (1)(s), (1)(cc) (verified 2026) Official source
MCL 554.633 · (1)(m) (verified 2026) Official source
Mich. Admin. Code R 14.201 to R 14.211 · R 14.201, R 14.202 (verified 2026) Official source
MCL 445.911 · (2) (verified 2026) Official source
MCL 554.615 (verified 2026) Official source
MCL 554.636 · (1), (2) (verified 2026) Official source
MCL 554.634 (verified 2026) Official source
MCL 445.903 · (1) (verified 2026) Official source
MCL 554.633 · (1)(o), (3) (verified 2026) Official source

How this record was verified: Direct read of the Landlord and Tenant Relationships act, 1972 PA 348 (MCL 554.601, 554.601c, 554.602, 554.603, 554.607, 554.615) and the Truth in Renting Act, 1978 PA 454 (MCL 554.632, 554.633, 554.634, 554.636) on legislature.mi.gov, together with the Michigan Consumer Protection Act (MCL 445.902, 445.903, 445.911) and the Attorney General's pricing and advertising rules R 14.201 to R 14.211 in the Michigan Administrative Code, plus a review of the 2025 and 2026 session for enacted changes and for bills on application fees, screening reports, and rental fee disclosure.