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

Cost-based ceiling rather than a dollar cap. An applicant screening charge may not be greater than the landlord's average actual cost of screening applicants, or the customary amount charged by tenant screening companies or consumer credit reporting agencies for a comparable level of screening. Apart from that charge and a deposit taken after approval to secure signing of a rental agreement, a landlord may not charge an applicant a deposit or fee of any name.

Does an application fee have to be refunded in Oregon?

Yes — in Oregon at least one circumstance requires application-stage money to be returned. The charge must be refunded within 30 days if the landlord fills the vacant unit before screening the applicant, or if the landlord has not conducted or ordered any screening before the applicant withdraws the application in writing. An applicant who turns down an offer from the landlord to rent the unit may not recover the charge.

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

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

Does Oregon have a reusable tenant screening report law?

No statute on reusable screening reports.

Can a landlord charge a holding deposit in Oregon?

A landlord may take a deposit to secure the signing of a rental agreement only after approving the application and before the agreement is entered into. Before receiving it, the landlord must give the applicant a written statement of the rent, fees and deposits the landlord will require, the terms of the agreement to sign, and the conditions for refunding or keeping the deposit. Once the agreement is signed the deposit must either be applied to the money due under it or returned at once.

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

Verified August 25, 2026 All Oregon topics →

Oregon regulates the rental application stage closely: an applicant screening charge may not exceed the landlord's average actual cost of screening or the customary market charge for comparable screening, only one charge may be required from an applicant in any 60-day period, and no charge may be taken until the landlord has adopted written screening criteria and given the applicant a detailed written notice.

Cited to ORS 90.295 (2) and 25 more Oregon statutes · Verified August 25, 2026

The landlord must give a receipt, must confirm each screening with a copy of the screening company's receipt, and must refund within 30 days if the unit is filled before the applicant is screened or if no screening was conducted or ordered before the applicant withdraws in writing. A denied applicant is owed a written statement of reasons within 14 days, and criminal-history denials require an individualized assessment first. Money to hold a unit is allowed only after approval and only with a written statement of the terms. Oregon sets no flat dollar cap, has no portable screening report law, and has no rental fee-transparency statute.

Oregon application fees at a glance

Application fee cap	Cost-based ceiling rather than a dollar cap. An applicant screening charge may not be greater than the landlord's average actual cost of screening applicants, or the customary amount charged by tenant screening companies or consumer credit reporting agencies for a comparable level of screening. Apart from that charge and a deposit taken after approval to secure signing of a rental agreement, a landlord may not charge an applicant a deposit or fee of any name. Oregon sets no flat dollar limit. Actual costs may include what a tenant screening company or consumer credit reporting agency charges and the reasonable value of any time the landlord or the landlord's agents spend otherwise obtaining information on applicants. The statutes call the money an applicant screening charge, defined as a payment required of an applicant before a rental agreement whose purpose is to pay the cost of processing the application.
Fee limited to actual screening cost	Yes
Screening charge rules	A landlord may require a screening charge only to cover the cost of obtaining information about the applicant, and may require only a single charge from an applicant in any 60-day period no matter how many of that landlord's units the applicant applies for. Before accepting payment the landlord must have adopted written screening or admission criteria and must give the applicant the required written notice and an estimate of available units. A landlord may not require a charge when the landlord knows or should know that no units are available or will become available within a reasonable future time, unless the applicant agrees otherwise in writing. Screening is defined to include checking references and obtaining a consumer credit report or tenant screening report. The estimate must be given as actual notice and must state the approximate number of units of the type and in the area sought that are or soon will be available from that landlord, together with the approximate number of applications already accepted and still under consideration; a good faith error in that estimate is not itself a ground for damages. Screening charges sit outside the separate statute that governs fees during a tenancy.
Receipt required	Yes
Refund required in some circumstances	Yes
Refund rules	The charge must be refunded within 30 days if the landlord fills the vacant unit before screening the applicant, or if the landlord has not conducted or ordered any screening before the applicant withdraws the application in writing. An applicant who turns down an offer from the landlord to rent the unit may not recover the charge. There is no separate duty to return the difference between the charge and the actual cost of a screening that was performed; the cost ceiling is enforced through the limit on the amount rather than through a settle-up. If the landlord does not screen the applicant for any reason and fails to refund within 30 days, the applicant may recover damages set by statute.
Disclosure before collecting	Before accepting a screening charge the landlord must adopt written screening or admission criteria and give the applicant written notice of: the amount of the charge; the criteria; the process the landlord typically follows, including whether a screening company, credit reports, public records or criminal records are used or employers, landlords or other references are contacted; the applicant's rights to dispute the accuracy of information supplied by a screening company or credit reporting agency; any right to appeal a negative determination; the applicable nondiscrimination policies; the rent and deposits the landlord will require; whether renter's liability insurance is required and in what amount; and the applicant's refund and damages rights. The landlord must also give actual notice of an estimate of the units likely to be available and the applications already under consideration. Where a unit is subject to an affordability restriction, the landlord must additionally give the applicant or prospective tenant, before charging a screening charge or entering into a rental agreement, either the notice required of publicly supported housing owners or a written notice of the earliest date the affordability restriction could end, on a form set by the Housing and Community Services Department. The rent and deposit figures given at the notice stage may still change by agreement before a rental agreement is signed.
Denial-notice duties (state law)	If a landlord denies an application after applying screening or admission criteria, the landlord must give the applicant a written statement of one or more reasons for the denial within 14 days. The statement may be a form with reasons checked off, and it must include the name and address of any screening company or credit reporting agency whose report the denial rests on if not already disclosed, an account of any supplemental evidence the applicant provided and why it did not overcome the concerns, and any right to appeal. Before denying an application on the basis of criminal history, the landlord must give the applicant a chance to submit supplemental evidence explaining, justifying or countering the relevance of potentially negative information, and must make an individualized assessment that takes into account the nature and severity of the incidents, their number and type, how much time has passed, and the person's age at the time. Apart from naming the screening company or agency, the landlord need not hand over screening results that federal law does not require to be disclosed, though the landlord may give the applicant a copy of that applicant's consumer report. The federal Fair Credit Reporting Act imposes its own separate duties; the duties described here are state duties that sit alongside them.
Reusable screening reports	No statute on reusable screening reports
Holding deposits	A landlord may take a deposit to secure the signing of a rental agreement only after approving the application and before the agreement is entered into. Before receiving it, the landlord must give the applicant a written statement of the rent, fees and deposits the landlord will require, the terms of the agreement to sign, and the conditions for refunding or keeping the deposit. Once the agreement is signed the deposit must either be applied to the money due under it or returned at once. If the agreement is not signed because the applicant did not comply with the agreement to sign, the landlord may keep the deposit, unless the applicant rejected the agreement because of material defects in the habitability of the premises. If the agreement is not signed because the landlord did not comply, or because the applicant rejected it on those habitability grounds, the landlord has five business days to return the deposit, either by making it available at the landlord's usual place of business or by mailing it first class. The habitability exception and the five business day deadline came in with a 2025 act that applies to deposits received on or after January 1, 2026.
Rental fee-transparency rules	No rental fee-transparency statute
Penalty for violation	For the screening charge duties, an applicant may recover twice the amount of any screening charge paid plus $250 if the landlord fails to comply with the screening charge statute, or if the landlord does not screen the applicant for any reason and fails to refund within 30 days. For the denial notice duty, an applicant may recover $100. For deposits taken to secure signing, the applicant or tenant may recover the amount of any fee or deposit charged and, where repayment was late and not caused by an act of God, a penalty equal to the greater of the deposit or an amount the parties agreed to. An applicant who turns down an offer to rent the unit cannot recover the screening charge. A good faith error in the landlord's estimate of available units does not by itself support a damages claim. The separate penalty for unlawful tenancy fees does not reach screening charges, because those charges are carved out of the tenancy fee statute.

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

Notes and caveats

No dollar figure to look up — The ceiling is cost-based, so the lawful amount differs from landlord to landlord and from one screening product to another. No state agency publishes a figure.
The 60-day rule is per landlord — One charge in any 60-day period covers every unit that landlord owns or manages. It does not limit what a different landlord may charge the same applicant in the same period.
No portable report law — Nothing requires a landlord to accept a screening report an applicant already paid for. A 2025 proposal that would have capped the charge at $20 and allowed landlords to accept applicant-supplied reports did not pass.
Hold money is separate and comes later — Besides the screening charge, the only money a landlord may take before a lease is signed is a deposit to secure signing, and only after the application has been approved.
Publicly supported housing adds a notice — Where a unit carries an affordability restriction, the landlord must give notice of the earliest date that restriction could end before charging a screening charge. The form of the notice is set by Housing and Community Services Department rule.
Online application portals — Since June 5, 2026, a landlord who accepts applications through a tenant portal must post or supply a printable copy of the application and must process applications received outside the portal.
Tenancies the act does not cover — These rules sit in the Residential Landlord and Tenant Act, which does not govern transient occupancy in a hotel or motel, vacation occupancy, employee-conditional occupancy, or the other arrangements listed in ORS 90.110.
State law only — This record covers Oregon statutes. City and county requirements are not included, and rules for renting space in a manufactured dwelling park are treated separately.
How the cost limit works — The charge is tied by statute to the landlord's average actual cost of screening applicants, with an alternative ceiling at the customary amount that screening companies or credit reporting agencies charge for a comparable level of screening. The charge may be required solely to cover the costs of obtaining information about the applicant while the landlord processes the application.
What the receipt duty covers — The landlord must give the applicant a receipt for any applicant screening charge. Promptly after each screening carried out for the landlord by a tenant screening company or consumer credit reporting agency, the landlord must also give the applicant confirmation of the screening, including a copy of a receipt from that company or agency.
When money must come back — Two circumstances force a return of the screening charge: the landlord fills the vacant unit before screening the applicant, or the landlord has neither conducted nor ordered any screening before the applicant withdraws the application in writing. In each case the refund is due within 30 days.
Reusable screening reports — Oregon has no statute on portable or reusable tenant screening reports. The section that would carry such a rule is the applicant screening charge statute, which governs what a landlord may charge and how screening must be handled; it says nothing about accepting a report the applicant brings, waiving a charge when one is supplied, or a validity window, and no other section of the Residential Landlord and Tenant Act addresses the subject. What comes closest is the rule that a landlord may require only one screening charge from an applicant in any 60-day period, which applies to that one landlord's own units and does not carry across different landlords. Whether to accept an applicant-supplied report is therefore left to the landlord's own written screening criteria.
Advertising and fee transparency — Oregon has no rental fee-transparency statute. The fee and deposit sections of the Residential Landlord and Tenant Act limit what a landlord may charge and require that any tenancy fee be described in a written rental agreement, but they impose no advertising duty, no all-in advertised price and no itemization of mandatory fees at the application stage. The Unlawful Trade Practices Act reaches the rental of real estate obtained for personal, family or household purposes, and its list of unlawful practices covers false or misleading statements about offering price and other deceptive conduct, but it contains no requirement to advertise an all-in price or to itemize mandatory fees.

Common questions: Oregon 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 Oregon?: Cost-based ceiling rather than a dollar cap. An applicant screening charge may not be greater than the landlord's average actual cost of screening applicants, or the customary amount charged by tenant screening companies or consumer credit reporting agencies for a comparable level of screening. Apart from that charge and a deposit taken after approval to secure signing of a rental agreement, a landlord may not charge an applicant a deposit or fee of any name.
Does an application fee have to be refunded in Oregon?: Yes — in Oregon at least one circumstance requires application-stage money to be returned. The charge must be refunded within 30 days if the landlord fills the vacant unit before screening the applicant, or if the landlord has not conducted or ordered any screening before the applicant withdraws the application in writing. An applicant who turns down an offer from the landlord to rent the unit may not recover the charge.
Does a landlord have to give a receipt for an application fee in Oregon?: Yes — Oregon requires a receipt for application-stage money.
Does Oregon have a reusable tenant screening report law?: No statute on reusable screening reports.
Can a landlord charge a holding deposit in Oregon?: A landlord may take a deposit to secure the signing of a rental agreement only after approving the application and before the agreement is entered into. Before receiving it, the landlord must give the applicant a written statement of the rent, fees and deposits the landlord will require, the terms of the agreement to sign, and the conditions for refunding or keeping the deposit. Once the agreement is signed the deposit must either be applied to the money due under it or returned at once.

Statute citations

ORS 90.295 (2) (verified 2026) Official source
ORS 90.297 (1) (verified 2026) Official source
ORS 90.100 (3) (verified 2026) Official source
ORS 90.295 (1)(a), (2) (verified 2026) Official source
ORS 90.295 (1)(a), (1)(b), (3), (4) (verified 2026) Official source
ORS 90.302 (7)(b) (verified 2026) Official source
ORS 90.295 (1)(a) (verified 2026) Official source
ORS 90.295 (5) (verified 2026) Official source
ORS 90.295 (5), (6)(a), (6)(b)(B) (verified 2026) Official source
ORS 90.295 (3)(a), (3)(b), (3)(c) (verified 2026) Official source
ORS 90.308 (verified 2026) Official source
ORS 90.304 (1), (2), (3), (4), (5) (verified 2026) Official source
ORS 90.295 (1)(b) (verified 2026) Official source
ORS 90.297 (2), (3), (4), (5) (verified 2026) Official source
Oregon Laws 2025, chapter 392, sections 1 and 2 (HB 3521) (verified 2026) Official source
ORS 90.302 (1) (verified 2026) Official source
ORS 646.605 (8) (verified 2026) Official source
ORS 646.608 (1)(i), (1)(s), (1)(u) (verified 2026) Official source
ORS 90.295 (6) (verified 2026) Official source
ORS 90.304 (6) (verified 2026) Official source
ORS 90.297 (6) (verified 2026) Official source
ORS 90.295 (verified 2026) Official source
ORS 90.297 (verified 2026) Official source
ORS 90.304 (verified 2026) Official source
Oregon Laws 2025, chapter 392 (HB 3521) (verified 2026) Official source
Oregon Laws 2026, chapter 23 (SB 1523) (verified 2026) Official source

How this record was verified: Direct read of ORS 90.100, 90.110, 90.295, 90.297, 90.300, 90.302, 90.303, 90.304 and 90.308 in the 2025 edition of the Oregon Revised Statutes published by the Oregon State Legislature, plus the enrolled texts of Oregon Laws 2025 chapters 141 and 392 and Oregon Laws 2026 chapters 23, 61 and 108; the 2025 and 2026 official tables of ORS sections amended, repealed or added to; the 2025 special session and 2026 regular session bill lists; the measure pages for HB 2967 (2025) and HB 3974 (2025); and the unlawful trade practices sections of ORS chapter 646.