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

The Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act, at sections 76-1401 to 76-1449, limits security to one month's periodic rent and requires an itemized accounting of a security deposit within fourteen days after a tenancy ends, but it says nothing about money collected before a tenancy begins. There is no reusable screening report law, no holding deposit rule, and no rental fee-transparency requirement. A 2025 bill, LB 17, would have limited application fees and added notice duties about consumer reports; it was indefinitely postponed in April 2026 and is not law.

Nebraska application fees at a glance

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

Notes and caveats

• Widely repeated claims trace to a bill that failed — Descriptions of a Nebraska rule capping application fees at the cost of a credit report, requiring refunds within ten days, or requiring denial notices within twenty days come from LB 17. That bill was indefinitely postponed on April 17, 2026 and never took effect.
• The one-month limit is about security, not application money — Section 76-1416(1) limits security, however it is named, to one month's periodic rent, with a pet deposit of up to one quarter of a month's rent on top. It is framed around money held during a tenancy and settled after it ends, and it does not answer what may be charged to apply.
• Holding deposits are an open question — Nebraska law does not say whether the one-month security limit reaches a deposit taken to hold a unit from someone who has not yet signed a rental agreement. Applicants and landlords should look to the written terms of the holding arrangement.
• Federal law still applies to screening decisions — Nebraska adds nothing to the notice duties that federal law places on a landlord who denies an applicant based on a consumer report. Nebraska's own consumer reporting provision, section 20-149, obliges the reporting agency rather than the landlord to give a consumer a copy of a report on request.
• Some tenancies are outside the act entirely — Section 76-1408 excludes several arrangements from the Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act, including transient occupancy in a hotel or motel, occupancy tied to employment on the premises, occupancy by a condominium owner or cooperative proprietary lessee, agricultural tenancies, and leases of residential land for five years or more.
• Manufactured-home communities have their own act — Lot tenancies in mobile home parks are governed by a separate Nebraska act at sections 76-1450 and following, which is not covered here.
• No local rules are set by state law — Nebraska's landlord and tenant act neither authorizes nor forbids city or village rules on rental application fees, so no state-created local variation exists for this topic.
• About the application fee rule — Nebraska law sets no limit on what a landlord may charge a person to apply for a residential rental. The Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act's only limit on money is section 76-1416(1), which caps security, however it is named, at one month's periodic rent, and which is written around money the landlord holds and settles up at the end of a tenancy. The amount of an application fee is left to the terms the landlord and the applicant agree to.
• How the cost limit works — No Nebraska statute ties an application or screening charge to what the landlord actually spends on a credit, background, or eviction report. The Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act contains no provision on the cost of screening a rental applicant, and the charge is governed by the parties' agreement.
• Screening charges — Nebraska places no conditions on charging a rental applicant for screening. No statute limits who may collect the charge, limits it to one charge per applicant, requires that a report actually be obtained or used, requires a written agreement before money is taken, or requires that a unit be available. Practice is set by the landlord's own policy and the application the applicant signs.
• What the receipt duty covers — No Nebraska statute requires a receipt for money paid to apply for a rental. The only written accounting the Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act requires is the itemization of a security deposit, which section 76-1416(2) directs the landlord to deliver or mail within fourteen days after a tenancy ends. Whether an applicant gets a receipt is a matter of the landlord's practice.
• When money must come back — Nebraska law names no circumstance in which an application or screening charge must be returned. Section 76-1416(2) governs the return of security after a tenancy ends and does not reach money paid to apply. Any refund depends on what the application or the landlord's policy promises.
• Refunds — There is no statutory refund deadline or formula for application money in Nebraska. The Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act says nothing about returning the part of a charge that exceeds the cost of screening, about an applicant who is never screened, about a unit that is filled or withdrawn, or about an applicant who withdraws. The terms of the application control.
• What must be disclosed up front — Nebraska requires no disclosure before an applicant pays. The only disclosure duty in the Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act is section 76-1417(1), which requires the landlord to give a 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. It covers names and addresses only, it runs to a tenant rather than to an applicant, and it says nothing about screening criteria, how a fee is calculated, or an applicant's rights.
• Denial notices — Nebraska imposes no state denial-notice duty on landlords. No statute requires a landlord to tell a rejected applicant the decision, the reason, or the source of the information, or to hand over a copy of a report. Federal law supplies whatever duty applies when a consumer report is used in the decision. Separately, section 20-149 requires a consumer reporting agency doing business in Nebraska to give a consumer a copy of a report it holds on request and at a reasonable charge, with a Class IV misdemeanor for violation; that duty falls on the reporting agency, not on the landlord.
• Reusable screening reports — Nebraska has no portable or reusable tenant screening report law. No statute requires a landlord to accept a report an applicant already paid for, limits charging a fee when such a report is used, or sets how long one stays valid. Whether a landlord accepts an applicant's existing report is the landlord's choice.
• Money to hold a unit — No Nebraska statute addresses money taken to hold a unit while a lease is prepared. The Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act limits security, however it is named, to one month's periodic rent under section 76-1416(1), but that limit is written around the relationship between a landlord and a tenant and the settling up that follows a tenancy, and the act does not say whether it reaches a deposit taken from someone who has not yet signed a rental agreement. What happens to a holding deposit therefore turns on the written terms the parties agree to.
• Advertising and fee transparency — Nebraska has no rental fee-transparency law. Nothing requires a rental advertisement to show an all-in price, itemize mandatory fees, or name application-stage charges up front. The general provision closest to the subject is the Uniform Deceptive Trade Practices Act at section 87-302(a)(10), which reaches a person who advertises goods or services with intent not to sell them as advertised or advertises the price in a way calculated or tending to mislead; its terms are goods and services, and neither that act nor the Consumer Protection Act, whose reach is defined at section 59-1601(2) as the sale of assets or services, states that it applies to residential rental advertising. The Attorney General has adopted no advertising or price-disclosure rule reaching dwellings offered for rent; the office's only title in the state administrative code is its model rules of agency procedure.
• Penalties — No Nebraska penalty attaches to application or screening charges, because no statutory duty attaches to them. Section 76-1405(2) makes a right or obligation enforceable by action only where the Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act itself declares it, and the act declares none at the application stage. The act's money penalties sit elsewhere: section 76-1416(3) allows a tenant whose landlord willfully violates the security deposit rules in bad faith to recover one month's periodic rent or twice the deposit, whichever is less, and section 76-1415(2) allows actual damages and reasonable attorney's fees where a landlord deliberately uses a lease containing a prohibited clause.

Common questions: Nebraska 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 Nebraska?

No statutory cap on application fees.

Does an application fee have to be refunded in Nebraska?

No statutory refund duty.

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

No statutory receipt duty for application money.

Does Nebraska have a reusable tenant screening report law?

No statute on reusable screening reports.

Can a landlord charge a holding deposit in Nebraska?

No statute on holding deposits.

Statute citations

• Neb. Rev. Stat. § 76-1416 (1) (verified 2026) Official source
• Neb. Rev. Stat. §§ 76-1401 to 76-1449 (verified 2026) Official source
• Neb. Rev. Stat. § 76-1416 (2) (verified 2026) Official source
• Neb. Rev. Stat. § 76-1417 (1) (verified 2026) Official source
• Neb. Rev. Stat. § 20-149 (verified 2026) Official source
• Neb. Rev. Stat. § 87-302 (a)(10) (verified 2026) Official source
• Neb. Rev. Stat. § 59-1601 (2) (verified 2026) Official source
• Neb. Rev. Stat. § 59-1602 (verified 2026) Official source
• Neb. Rev. Stat. § 76-1405 (2) (verified 2026) Official source
• Neb. Rev. Stat. § 76-1416 (3) (verified 2026) Official source
• Neb. Rev. Stat. § 76-1415 (2) (verified 2026) Official source
• Neb. Rev. Stat. §§ 76-1401 to 76-1449 (Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act) (verified 2026) Official source

How this record was verified: Direct read of the Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act, Neb. Rev. Stat. sections 76-1401 to 76-1449, end to end on nebraskalegislature.gov (whole-act text page plus the individual pages for 76-1401, 76-1405, 76-1408, 76-1410, 76-1414, 76-1415, 76-1416 and 76-1417), together with sections 20-149, 59-1601, 59-1602, 87-301, 87-302, 76-2417, 76-2418 and 18-1758; term searches on the legislature's own statute search for tenant screening, screening fee, prospective tenant, reusable tenant screening report and consumer report; a check of the Attorney General's titles in the Nebraska Administrative Code and the Attorney General consumer program site for an advertised-price rule reaching dwellings offered for rent; and a 2025 and 2026 session sweep on the legislature's bill pages, which established that LB 17 of the 109th Legislature was indefinitely postponed on April 17, 2026.