What can a landlord charge for a rental application in South Dakota?

The state's lease chapter, SDCL 43-32, treats any deposit that secures performance of a residential rental agreement as a security deposit, caps that at one month's rent, and requires the deposit back or a written statement of reasons within twenty-one days after a tenancy ends, but it says nothing about money collected before a tenancy begins. South Dakota does require hotels, motels, campsites, and other lodging accommodations to disclose mandatory fees at reservation, and that duty does not extend to residential rentals. There is no reusable screening report law and no holding deposit rule.

South Dakota application fees at a glance

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

Notes and caveats

• The mandatory-fee rule is about lodging, not homes — Section 37-24-6(15) requires disclosure of mandatory fees, including resort and parking fees, when a guest reserves a hotel, motel, campsite, or other lodging accommodation. It is written for transient lodging and does not apply to a dwelling rented under a residential tenancy.
• The one-month limit is about deposits, not application money — Section 43-32-6.1 deems any deposit whose function is to secure performance of a residential rental agreement to be a security deposit and limits it to one month's rent, with a larger deposit allowed by agreement where special conditions pose a danger to maintenance of the premises. It does not answer what may be charged to apply.
• Holding deposits are an open question — South Dakota law does not say whether the security deposit definition reaches money 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.
• The security deposit deadline changed in 2026 — Senate Bill 4 of 2026 replaced the older return deadline with twenty-one days after the tenancy ends and the tenant's mailing address or delivery instructions are received, and added an itemized accounting within forty-five days on the tenant's request. It took effect July 1, 2026. Older guidance describing a two-week deadline is out of date.
• Federal law still applies to screening decisions — South Dakota adds nothing to the notice duties that federal law places on a landlord who denies an applicant based on a consumer report. The state's own credit-report chapter governs security freezes and places its duties on reporting agencies.
• No local rules are set by state law — South Dakota's lease chapter neither authorizes nor forbids city or county rules on rental application fees, so no state-created local variation exists for this topic.
• One chapter covers residential leases — SDCL chapter 43-32 is South Dakota's only chapter on the lease of real property, and it covers residential, agricultural, and commercial tenancies together, with a handful of sections written for residential premises specifically.
• About the application fee rule — South Dakota law sets no limit on what a landlord may charge a person to apply for a residential rental. The only limit on money in the state's lease chapter is section 43-32-6.1, which deems any deposit whose function is to secure performance of a residential rental agreement to be a security deposit and caps it at one month's rent, with a larger deposit allowed by agreement where special conditions pose a danger to maintenance of the premises. The amount of an application fee is left to the terms the landlord and the applicant agree to, and the state's consumer office describes the fee as something a landlord may require to cover the cost of checking references.
• How the cost limit works — No South Dakota statute ties an application or screening charge to what the landlord actually spends on a credit, background, or eviction report. The state's lease chapter contains no provision on the cost of screening a rental applicant, and the charge is governed by the parties' agreement.
• Screening charges — South Dakota 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 or notice before money is taken, or requires that a unit be available. What happens is set by the landlord's own policy and the application the applicant signs.
• What the receipt duty covers — No South Dakota statute requires a receipt for money paid to apply for a rental. The only written accounting the lease chapter requires is for a security deposit after a tenancy ends, under section 43-32-24. The state's consumer office advises applicants to ask for a receipt, which is guidance rather than a duty on the landlord.
• When money must come back — South Dakota law names no circumstance in which an application or screening charge must be returned. Section 43-32-24 governs the return of a security deposit 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 South Dakota. Nothing addresses returning the part of a charge that exceeds the cost of screening, an applicant who is never screened, a unit that is filled or taken off the market, or an applicant who withdraws. The chapter is specific where it does set deadlines, requiring return of a security deposit or a written statement of reasons within twenty-one days after a tenancy ends and an itemized accounting within forty-five days on the tenant's request, but nothing comparable applies at the application stage.
• What must be disclosed up front — South Dakota requires no disclosure before an applicant pays. Nothing requires a landlord to publish screening criteria, explain how a fee is calculated, or state an applicant's rights. The disclosure duties in the lease chapter address other subjects entirely: contact information under section 43-32-19.2, knowledge of prior methamphetamine manufacturing on the premises under section 43-32-30, and notice of an intent to enter under section 43-32-32.
• Denial notices — South Dakota 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. The state's own consumer-report chapter, chapter 54-15, governs security freezes and places its duties on consumer reporting agencies rather than on landlords.
• Reusable screening reports — South Dakota 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 South Dakota statute addresses money taken to hold a unit while a lease is prepared, and none sets a cap, a written-statement duty, or what happens to the money on each outcome. One nearby provision matters: section 43-32-6.1 deems any deposit of money whose function is to secure the performance of a residential rental agreement, or any part of one, to be a security deposit, which carries the one-month limit and the return duties of section 43-32-24 with it. Whether that reaches money taken before any rental agreement exists is not answered by the text, so the written terms of the holding arrangement are what govern.
• Advertising and fee transparency — South Dakota has a mandatory-fee disclosure duty, but it does not reach residential rentals. Section 37-24-6(15) makes it a deceptive act or practice to knowingly fail to disclose the amount of any mandatory fee when a future guest makes reservations at a hotel, motel, campsite, or other lodging accommodations, and it names resort fees and parking fees as examples. The surrounding subdivisions on advertised rates and charges are written for the same lodging settings. Nothing requires an all-in advertised price, an itemization of mandatory fees, or up-front naming of application-stage charges for a dwelling offered for rent under a residential tenancy. The general deceptive-practice provision at section 37-24-6(1) reaches deception in connection with the sale or advertisement of merchandise, and neither its text nor any state material applies it to residential rental advertising. The Attorney General has adopted no advertising or price-disclosure rule; the office's articles in the state administrative rules cover law enforcement, criminal records and investigation, emergency telecommunicators, the sobriety program, county coroners, and a grant program.
• Penalties — No South Dakota penalty attaches to application or screening charges, because no statutory duty attaches to them. The lease chapter's penalties sit on other duties: a lessor who fails to comply with the security deposit rules in section 43-32-24 forfeits all rights to withhold any part of the deposit, and bad-faith retention or a bad-faith failure to give the written statement or itemized accounting exposes the lessor to punitive damages of up to two hundred dollars; section 43-32-6 gives a residential tenant unlawfully removed or excluded damages equal to two months' rent plus return of advance rent and deposit; and section 43-32-28 allows reasonable attorney's fees for retaliatory conduct. Section 43-32-29 preserves other rights and remedies available under other law. No rental fee statute or rule declares its violation a deceptive practice, so the deceptive trade practices remedies apply only if a deceptive act is separately shown; in that case section 37-24-31 allows a person adversely affected to recover actual damages and section 37-24-27 allows the attorney general to recover a civil penalty of up to two thousand dollars for an intentional violation.

Common questions: South Dakota 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 South Dakota?

No statutory cap on application fees.

Does an application fee have to be refunded in South Dakota?

No statutory refund duty.

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

No statutory receipt duty for application money.

Does South Dakota have a reusable tenant screening report law?

No statute on reusable screening reports.

Can a landlord charge a holding deposit in South Dakota?

No statute on holding deposits.

Statute citations

• SDCL 43-32-6.1 (verified 2026) Official source
• SDCL ch. 43-32 (verified 2026) Official source
• SDCL 43-32-24 (verified 2026) Official source
• SDCL ch. 43-32 43-32-19.2, 43-32-30, 43-32-32 (verified 2026) Official source
• SDCL ch. 54-15 (verified 2026) Official source
• SDCL 37-24-6 (15) (verified 2026) Official source
• SDCL 37-24-1 (6), (7) (verified 2026) Official source
• SDCL 43-32-29 43-32-29 (verified 2026) Official source
• SDCL 37-24-31 37-24-31 (verified 2026) Official source
• SDCL 37-24-27 37-24-27 (verified 2026) Official source
• SDCL ch. 43-32 (Lease of Real Property) (verified 2026) Official source

How this record was verified: Direct read of SDCL chapter 43-32 (Lease of Real Property) end to end on sdlegislature.gov, taking the chapter's own text rather than a summary, plus the individual section pages for 43-32-6.1 and 43-32-24; direct read of SDCL chapter 37-24 (Deceptive Trade Practices and Consumer Protection), including sections 37-24-1, 37-24-5.2, 37-24-6, 37-24-26, 37-24-27 and 37-24-31, and of SDCL chapter 54-15; a check of the South Dakota Administrative Rules article index for an Attorney General advertising or price-disclosure rule reaching dwellings offered for rent; and a title-by-title review of every bill in the 2025 regular session, the 2025 special session and the 2026 regular session, which produced one enacted landlord and tenant money bill, Senate Bill 4 of 2026, whose enrolled text and full action history were read on the legislature's own pages.