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

No statutory cap on application fees.

Does an application fee have to be refunded in Minnesota?

Yes — in Minnesota at least one circumstance requires application-stage money to be returned. The full fee must be returned if the applicant is rejected for any reason not listed in the required written criteria disclosure, or if a prior applicant is offered the unit and agrees to enter into a rental agreement. If the landlord does not perform a personal reference check or does not obtain a consumer credit report or tenant screening report, any amount of the fee not used for those purposes must be returned.

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

Yes — Minnesota requires a receipt for application-stage money.

Does Minnesota have a reusable tenant screening report law?

No statute on reusable screening reports.

Can a landlord charge a holding deposit in Minnesota?

Money given to a landlord by a prospective tenant before a rental agreement is signed is a prelease deposit, and it may be accepted only under a conspicuous written agreement stating the circumstances in which it will be returned and stating that the landlord must return it within seven days of such a circumstance.

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

Verified August 25, 2026 All Minnesota topics →

Check your municipality. Minnesota does not preempt local rent regulation — city or county ordinances may impose rent caps, notice rules, and fee limits that are stricter than the state-level rules on this page and are not covered here. Verify your municipality's ordinances before relying on any figure below. Verified local pages: St. Paul .

What the state record says

Local rent control is not flatly barred. Minn. Stat. 471.9996 subd. 1 stops any city, county, or town from adopting or renewing rent control on private residential property, but subd. 2 expressly permits it where the ordinance, charter amendment, or law is approved in a GENERAL ELECTION. The exception is live, not theoretical: St. Paul voters approved a 3% annual rent-stabilization cap in November 2021 (effective May 2022), which the city council has since narrowed — most recently on 2025-05-07 (4-3 vote, changes effective 2025-06-13) to permanently exempt units first receiving a certificate of occupancy after 2004-12-31. Minneapolis voters in 2021 authorized their council to draft a rent-stabilization ordinance, but none has been enacted.

Minnesota sets no cap on rental application or tenant screening fees, but it does regulate when a landlord may charge one, what the applicant must be told before paying, and when the money has to come back.

Cited to Minn. Stat. § 504B.173 subd. 1 and 22 more Minnesota statutes · Verified August 25, 2026

Before accepting a screening fee, a landlord must disclose in writing which tenant screening service will be used and the criteria the rental decision will be based on, and must give a written receipt if the applicant asks for one. A fee may not be charged when the landlord knows no unit is or will be available within a reasonable time, and it may not be used, cashed, or deposited until every earlier applicant has been screened and rejected or has turned the unit down. The fee must be returned if the applicant is rejected for a reason outside the disclosed criteria or if an earlier applicant takes the unit, and a rejected applicant must be told within 14 days which criteria they failed to meet. Money taken before a lease is signed is treated separately as a prelease deposit and requires a conspicuous written agreement with a seven-day return promise.

Minnesota application fees at a glance

Application fee cap	No statutory cap on application fees
Fee limited to actual screening cost	No
Screening charge rules	A landlord may not charge a screening fee when the landlord knows or should have known that no rental unit is available or will be available within a reasonable future time; may not collect or hold the fee without giving the applicant a written receipt on request; and may not use, cash, or deposit the fee until every prior applicant has been screened and rejected or has been offered the unit and declined to enter into a rental agreement. These three limits sit together in the first subdivision of the applicant screening fee section and apply to each fee a landlord takes. The one-at-a-time rule works on the money rather than on the application: a landlord may accept fees from several applicants, but may not put an applicant's fee to use while an earlier applicant is still in line. The receipt may be built into the application form. Landlord is defined broadly for the chapter and includes an agent or other person directly or indirectly in control of the rental property, so a management company charging the fee is inside these rules.
Receipt required	Yes
Refund required in some circumstances	Yes
Refund rules	The full fee must be returned if the applicant is rejected for any reason not listed in the required written criteria disclosure, or if a prior applicant is offered the unit and agrees to enter into a rental agreement. If the landlord does not perform a personal reference check or does not obtain a consumer credit report or tenant screening report, any amount of the fee not used for those purposes must be returned. The statute sets the mechanics but no deadline: the fee may be returned by mail, may be destroyed at the applicant's request if it was paid by check, or may be made available for the applicant to retrieve. That is a lighter timing rule than the one for money taken to hold a unit, which must be returned within seven days. Because the first refund trigger is keyed to the disclosed criteria, the written criteria a landlord gives out before taking the fee also set the boundary of when the landlord may keep it.
Disclosure before collecting	Before accepting an applicant screening fee, a landlord must disclose in writing the name, address, and telephone number of the tenant screening service the landlord will use, unless no screening service is used, and the criteria on which the decision to rent will be based. Both items must be in writing and must come before the money is taken. The criteria disclosure carries weight beyond the disclosure itself, because rejecting an applicant for a reason not on the disclosed list obliges the landlord to return the fee. The statute does not say how detailed the criteria must be and does not require a landlord to give fresh notice if the criteria change during a search.
Denial-notice duties (state law)	A landlord that rejects a rental application must notify the applicant within 14 days, identifying the criteria the applicant failed to meet. The notice must name the criteria, which ties it back to the written criteria disclosed before the fee was taken. A second state duty falls on the screening service rather than the landlord: if information in a residential tenant report was used within the past 30 days to deny a rental or to increase the security deposit or rent, the screening service must disclose the individual's file to that person at no charge. Federal fair credit reporting duties on adverse action apply alongside these state rules and are separate from them.
Reusable screening reports	No statute on reusable screening reports
Holding deposits	Money given to a landlord by a prospective tenant before a rental agreement is signed is a prelease deposit, and it may be accepted only under a conspicuous written agreement stating the circumstances in which it will be returned and stating that the landlord must return it within seven days of such a circumstance. Return means postmarked within seven days, except that at the prospective tenant's request the landlord may destroy the payment or hold it for the tenant to retrieve instead of mailing it. If the parties do sign a rental agreement, the prelease deposit must be applied to that tenant's security deposit or rent. A reasonable applicant screening fee used to run a background check is expressly outside the definition, so the seven-day rule does not reach the screening fee. Minnesota does not use the words holding deposit or holding fee; this section is the state's rule for that money.
Rental fee-transparency rules	A unit advertised for a residential tenancy must show the nonoptional fees together with the total amount for rent in any advertisement or posting; the lease must disclose all nonoptional fees and list the sum of rent and all nonoptional fees as the Total Monthly Payment on its first page; and both the lease disclosure and the advertisement must state whether utilities are included in the rent. This is a rental-specific pricing rule, added by the 2023 housing provisions and in force since January 1, 2024 for leases signed on or after that date. It reaches recurring nonoptional charges and rental advertising rather than the application fee itself, so an application or screening fee is governed by the applicant screening fee section instead. Minnesota also has a general pricing law requiring an advertised price for goods or services to include all mandatory fees, but neither its text nor the Attorney General's published guidance applies it to residential rental housing by name.
Penalty for violation	For a violation of the applicant screening fee section, the landlord is liable to the applicant for the screening fee plus a civil penalty of up to $100, civil court filing costs, and reasonable attorney fees. For a violation of the prelease deposit section, the landlord is liable to the payor for the amount of the deposit plus one-half of that amount as a penalty. For a violation of the nonoptional fee disclosure section, the landlord is liable to the residential tenant for treble damages and the court may award reasonable attorney fees. A fourth remedy covers the tenant report rules: a person injured by a violation of the screening-service disclosure and correction duties may recover the greater of $1,000 or actual damages, together with costs and disbursements including investigation costs and reasonable attorney fees, plus equitable relief, and the attorney general may investigate and prosecute those violations. The applicant screening fee section also runs the other way: a prospective tenant who gives materially false information on an application or omits material information requested is liable to the landlord for damages plus a civil penalty of up to $500, filing costs, and reasonable attorney fees. A landlord who has entered into a rental agreement is not liable under the prelease deposit section unless it failed to apply the deposit to the security deposit or rent.

Cite this page: "Landlord Atlas, Minnesota Application & Screening Fee Laws (verified August 25, 2026), landlordatlas.com/laws/application-fees/minnesota/" — free to cite and quote with a link (how these records are verified). Every figure above is cited to the Minnesota statute in the citations section below.

Notes and caveats

No cap, but real conditions — The absence of a dollar limit is easy to misread. Minnesota regulates the screening fee heavily on timing, disclosure, and refunds while leaving the amount to the landlord's application terms.
The receipt is on request — The written receipt duty is triggered when the applicant asks for one, and the statute allows the receipt to be part of the application form rather than a separate document.
No deadline for returning a screening fee — The statute says when the fee must be returned and how, but sets no number of days. Money taken to hold a unit before signing is different: that must be returned within seven days of the agreed circumstance.
Fee transparency applies to newer leases — The rule requiring nonoptional fees in rental advertising and a Total Monthly Payment on the first page of the lease took effect January 1, 2024 and applies to leases signed on or after that date.
The general pricing law is not the rental rule — Minnesota's price transparency provision requires advertised prices for goods or services to include mandatory fees, and its exemptions do not name residential rentals. Neither the statute nor the Attorney General's published guidance on it addresses rental housing, so the rental-specific disclosure section is the operative rule here.
Related application-stage rules covered elsewhere — The same screening fee section bars denying an application based on a pending eviction action, a court file that is not public or has been expunged or destroyed, or an eviction that never produced a writ of recovery. A separate section requires rental applications to offer an individual taxpayer identification number as an alternative to a Social Security number and bars denial solely for using one. Both are screening-criteria rules rather than fee rules.
Agents are covered — The chapter defines landlord to include an agent or other person directly or indirectly in control of rental property, so a property manager collecting the fee is bound by the same duties.
Nothing on reusable reports or local fee rules — There is no requirement to accept a screening report an applicant already paid for, and the sections reviewed contain no provision authorizing or preempting local rules on application fees.
About the application fee rule — Minnesota Statutes section 504B.173 is the section that would carry a limit, and it does not set one. It governs when a landlord may charge an applicant screening fee, when the money may be cashed, what must be disclosed first, and when the fee must be returned, but it says nothing about the amount. The complete chapter was read for any dollar figure or cost ceiling attached to an application fee and none appears. Section 504B.175 refers to a reasonable applicant screening fee only to explain what a prelease deposit is not; that phrase does not set a ceiling. With the amount left unaddressed by statute, it is fixed by the landlord's own application terms and by market practice.
How the cost limit works — Minnesota does not require the fee to match what screening actually cost. It does require a partial refund in one situation: if the landlord does not perform a personal reference check or does not obtain a consumer credit report or tenant screening report, any part of the fee not used for those purposes must be returned. That duty is triggered by the landlord skipping one of those steps. Where the landlord performs the reference check and obtains the report, no provision caps the fee at the cost of the work.
What the receipt duty covers — A landlord may not collect or hold an applicant screening fee without giving the applicant a written receipt for the fee. The duty runs upon the applicant's request, and the statute allows the receipt to be incorporated into the application form. The separate cash-payment receipt rule for rent and other payments applies to tenants rather than to applicants, so the screening fee receipt duty comes from the applicant screening fee section.
When money must come back — The statute names three circumstances that force money back: rejection for a reason not listed in the written criteria disclosure, a prior applicant taking the unit, and the landlord not carrying out the reference check or not obtaining the credit or screening report the fee was meant to pay for.
Reusable screening reports — Neither the applicant screening fee section nor the residential tenant report sections, which run from 504B.235 through 504B.245, require a landlord to accept a screening report an applicant already paid for, bar charging a fee when such a report is offered, or set a validity window. The tenant report sections regulate what a screening service must disclose to a person and how it must correct disputed information; they impose no acceptance duty on landlords. Whether an applicant-supplied report is accepted is left to the landlord.

Common questions: Minnesota 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 Minnesota?: No statutory cap on application fees.
Does an application fee have to be refunded in Minnesota?: Yes — in Minnesota at least one circumstance requires application-stage money to be returned. The full fee must be returned if the applicant is rejected for any reason not listed in the required written criteria disclosure, or if a prior applicant is offered the unit and agrees to enter into a rental agreement. If the landlord does not perform a personal reference check or does not obtain a consumer credit report or tenant screening report, any amount of the fee not used for those purposes must be returned.
Does a landlord have to give a receipt for an application fee in Minnesota?: Yes — Minnesota requires a receipt for application-stage money.
Does Minnesota have a reusable tenant screening report law?: No statute on reusable screening reports.
Can a landlord charge a holding deposit in Minnesota?: Money given to a landlord by a prospective tenant before a rental agreement is signed is a prelease deposit, and it may be accepted only under a conspicuous written agreement stating the circumstances in which it will be returned and stating that the landlord must return it within seven days of such a circumstance.

Statute citations

Minn. Stat. § 504B.173 subd. 1 (verified 2026) Official source
Minn. Stat. § 504B.175 subd. 1 (verified 2026) Official source
Minn. Stat. § 504B.173 subd. 2(b) (verified 2026) Official source
Minn. Stat. § 504B.173 subd. 1(1)-(3) (verified 2026) Official source
Minn. Stat. § 504B.001 subd. 7 (verified 2026) Official source
Minn. Stat. § 504B.173 subd. 1(2) (verified 2026) Official source
Minn. Stat. § 504B.173 subd. 2 (verified 2026) Official source
Minn. Stat. § 504B.173 subd. 2(a)-(c) (verified 2026) Official source
Minn. Stat. § 504B.173 subd. 3(1) (verified 2026) Official source
Minn. Stat. § 504B.173 subd. 3(2) (verified 2026) Official source
Minn. Stat. § 504B.241 subd. 1(b) (verified 2026) Official source
Minn. Stat. § 504B.173 (verified 2026) Official source
Minn. Stat. § 504B.235 subd. 1 (verified 2026) Official source
Minn. Stat. § 504B.241 (verified 2026) Official source
Minn. Stat. § 504B.175 subds. 1-3 (verified 2026) Official source
Minn. Stat. § 504B.120 subd. 1 (verified 2026) Official source
Laws 2023, ch. 52, art. 19, §§ 84, 90 art. 19, § 90 (verified 2026) Official source
Minn. Stat. § 504B.173 subd. 4 (verified 2026) Official source
Minn. Stat. § 504B.175 subd. 4 (verified 2026) Official source
Minn. Stat. § 504B.120 subd. 2 (verified 2026) Official source
Minn. Stat. § 504B.245 (verified 2026) Official source
Minn. Stat. § 504B.175 (verified 2026) Official source
Minn. Stat. § 504B.120 (verified 2026) Official source

How this record was verified: Direct read of the official Revisor of Statutes text of Minnesota Statutes sections 504B.001, 504B.117, 504B.118, 504B.120, 504B.173, 504B.175, 504B.235, 504B.241, and 504B.245 on revisor.mn.gov, in both the per-section pages and the official section PDFs, plus a term search of the complete official chapter 504B text for application-fee, screening, reusable-report, portable-report, actual-cost, and holding-deposit language. Enacting session laws were read on the legislature's own site at Laws 2023, chapter 52, article 19, sections 84 and 90, and Laws 2024, chapter 118, sections 12, 22, and 23, including their effective-date clauses. The 2025 and 2026 session-law tables of Minnesota Statutes new, amended, or repealed were reviewed for every chapter 504B, 325D, and 325F entry, and Laws 2026, chapter 81 was read for scope. Minnesota Statutes section 325D.44 and the Attorney General's price transparency guidance were read to test whether the general pricing law reaches residential rentals.