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

No statutory cap on application fees.

Does an application fee have to be refunded in Texas?

Yes — in Texas at least one circumstance requires application-stage money to be returned. Rejection without the required selection-criteria notice returns both the application fee and any application deposit; an application deposit is refundable on rejection; an applicant is treated as rejected if no notice of acceptance is given by the seventh day.

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

No statutory receipt duty for application money.

Does Texas have a reusable tenant screening report law?

No statute on reusable screening reports.

Can a landlord charge a holding deposit in Texas?

Money given with a rental application is an application deposit, refundable if the applicant is rejected, and it sits outside the security deposit rules; Texas sets no cap on it and does not regulate money taken after acceptance to hold a unit until signing.

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

Verified August 26, 2026 All Texas topics →

Measures that did not become law. The following recent proposals failed and are not law — noted here because failed bills are sometimes still described as if enacted:

S.B. 340 (89th Legislature, 2025) — Would have required the printed tenant selection criteria notice to be made available before an application fee is accepted, required that notice to tell the applicant they may submit evidence of inaccuracies in their criminal history, of rehabilitation, or of other mitigating factors, and added a penalty of $500 plus reasonable attorney's fees for any violation of the notice section.Status: Referred to the Senate Business and Commerce Committee on February 3, 2025, and left there; the regular session it was filed in adjourned on June 2, 2025 and the next regular session begins in January 2027. (checked 2026-08-26).
H.B. 3198 (89th Legislature, 2025) — Identical companion to S.B. 340, carrying the same changes to the tenant selection criteria notice and the same $500 penalty.Status: Referred to the House Trade, Workforce and Economic Development Committee on March 20, 2025, and left there; the regular session it was filed in adjourned on June 2, 2025. (checked 2026-08-26).
H.B. 4305 (89th Legislature, 2025) — Would have required fixed recurring fees to be disclosed alongside the rent in any lease quote, rental application, advertisement or listing, required a rental application to itemize nonrefundable application-stage charges including application fees, hold fees and processing fees, and given a prospective tenant a written demand for return of all money paid where the application did not comply, payable within five business days.Status: Referred to the House Trade, Workforce and Economic Development Committee on April 1, 2025, and left there; the regular session it was filed in adjourned on June 2, 2025. (checked 2026-08-26).

Texas puts no dollar limit on a residential rental application fee and instead regulates the paperwork around it.

Cited to Tex. Prop. Code § 92.351 (1-a) and 24 more Texas statutes · Verified August 26, 2026

The landlord must make the tenant selection criteria available in printed form when the application is handed over, and must return the application fee and any application deposit if the applicant is rejected without that notice having been made available. An application deposit is refundable when the applicant is rejected, and an applicant counts as rejected if the landlord gives no notice of acceptance by the seventh day after the completed application is submitted or the deposit is taken. A landlord who in bad faith keeps money that should have been refunded owes $100, three times the amount kept, and the applicant's attorney's fees. Texas does not require a receipt, does not tie the fee to the cost of screening, has no portable screening report law, sets no state denial-notice duty beyond federal law, and has no rental fee-transparency statute.

Texas application 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	Yes
Refund rules	Rejection without the required selection-criteria notice returns both the application fee and any application deposit; an application deposit is refundable on rejection; an applicant is treated as rejected if no notice of acceptance is given by the seventh day. An applicant is deemed rejected if the landlord gives no notice of acceptance on or before the seventh day after the applicant submits a completed application on the landlord's form, or after the landlord accepts an application deposit where no form was furnished. Rejection of one co-applicant is rejection of all. A landlord is presumed to have given notice of acceptance or rejection by telephone to the applicant, a co-applicant, or a person living with either on or before the required date, or by United States mail postmarked on or before that date. If the applicant asks for the money to be mailed, the refund check must go to the address the applicant furnished. Where the required date falls on a Saturday, Sunday, or state or federal holiday, it extends to the end of the next day. An application fee is nonrefundable where the notice was made available, and the statutory acknowledgment wording tells the applicant so.
Disclosure before collecting	At the time the applicant is given a rental application, the landlord must make available a printed notice of the tenant selection criteria and the grounds on which the application may be denied, and the applicant signs an acknowledgment that it was made available. The notice must cover the applicant's criminal history, previous rental history, current income, credit history, and failure to give accurate or complete information on the application form. If the acknowledgment is not signed there is a rebuttable presumption the notice was not made available. The acknowledgment must carry wording substantively equivalent to the statutory paragraph, which tells the applicant that the criteria may include those factors and that an application may be rejected and the application fee kept. The acknowledgment may sit inside the rental application itself if the notice is underlined or in bold print. Texas requires no disclosure of the fee amount or its basis, and sets no duty to re-notice when criteria change.
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	Money given with a rental application is an application deposit, refundable if the applicant is rejected, and it sits outside the security deposit rules; Texas sets no cap on it and does not regulate money taken after acceptance to hold a unit until signing. An application deposit is a sum given to the landlord in connection with a rental application that is refundable to the applicant if the applicant is rejected. The security deposit definition expressly excludes a rental application deposit, so the accounting and thirty-day refund rules for security deposits do not reach it. The seven-day deemed-rejection clock, the notice and mailing mechanics, and the bad-faith penalty for failing to refund all apply. There is no statutory cap on the amount, no written-statement duty, and no rule on money collected after an applicant is accepted to hold the unit pending a signed lease.
Rental fee-transparency rules	No rental fee-transparency statute
Penalty for violation	A landlord who in bad faith fails to refund an application fee or deposit owes $100, three times the amount wrongfully retained, and the applicant's reasonable attorney's fees. The penalty attaches to the refund duties of the rental application subchapter and requires bad faith. The selection-criteria notice duty carries no separate money penalty of its own; its consequence is that the fee and any deposit must be returned when the applicant is rejected, and withholding that refund in bad faith then triggers the penalty. A provision of a rental application that purports to waive a right or exempt a party from a liability or duty under the subchapter is void.

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

Notes and caveats

Two different pots of money — Texas distinguishes an application fee, which is nonrefundable by definition, from an application deposit, which is refundable if the applicant is rejected. Which label applies turns on the statutory definitions rather than on what a form calls the payment.
The notice is the lever — Almost every applicant-side right at this stage runs through the printed tenant selection criteria notice. Where it was made available and the acknowledgment signed, the fee stays with the landlord; where it was not, rejection returns both the fee and any deposit.
Silence counts as a rejection — There is no duty to say no. If the seventh day passes with no notice of acceptance, the applicant is treated as rejected, which is what starts the refund obligation for an application deposit.
What the fee rules do not reach — No cap, no cost-based limit, no receipt duty, no cap or separate rules for money taken after acceptance to hold a unit until the lease is signed, and no requirement to accept a screening report the applicant already paid for.
Advertised prices — Texas has no statute requiring an all-in advertised rent or an itemization of mandatory fees in a listing. The state's general consumer statute reaches leases of real property and addresses misleading conduct, but it sets no fee-disclosure standard for rental advertising.
Local rules — This record covers state law only. Two Texas statutes, one in the Property Code and one in the Business and Commerce Code, both added in 2023, bar a municipality or county from regulating in a field the respective code occupies.
2025 session — The 89th Legislature amended chapter 92 in five places in 2025, none of them in the rental application subchapter, which has stood unchanged since January 1, 2008. Three 2025 bills that would have changed application-stage rules were left in committee.
Where the text is published — The chapter is published by the Texas Legislative Council and is also readable through the state's statute site at statutes.capitol.texas.gov.
About the application fee rule — Texas sets no maximum on a residential rental application fee. The rental application subchapter defines the fee as a nonrefundable sum given to the landlord to offset the costs of screening an applicant, and then regulates notice and refund rather than amount. The amount is left to the lease market, subject to the general consumer statute where an advertised or quoted charge is misleading.
How the cost limit works — No Texas statute ties the application fee to the amount the landlord actually spends on screening. The phrase in the definition, that the fee offsets the costs of screening an applicant, states the fee's purpose; no section caps the fee at cost, requires an itemized cost basis, or requires any surplus over cost to be returned.
Screening charges — The rental application subchapter places no conditions on the screening charge itself. It does not say who may charge it, does not limit a household to one charge, does not require the landlord to order or use a report, and sets no vacancy or written-agreement prerequisite. The duties Texas does impose at the application stage are the selection-criteria notice and the refund triggers, each recorded in its own entry.
What the receipt duty covers — No Texas statute requires a receipt or payment record for application or screening money. Chapter 92 does require a written receipt and a record-book entry, but only for a cash rent payment from a sitting tenant. The signed acknowledgment the application subchapter requires confirms that the selection-criteria notice was made available, not that money was paid.
When money must come back — Two circumstances force return of money. If the landlord rejects an applicant and had not made the printed tenant selection criteria notice available, the landlord must return the application fee and any application deposit. Separately, an application deposit is by definition refundable to an applicant who is rejected.
Denial notices — Texas places no state duty on a landlord to give reasons for a denial, to hand over a copy of a screening report, or to name the agency that supplied it. The section that would carry such a duty instead treats silence as a denial, deeming an applicant rejected when no notice of acceptance arrives by the seventh day. The state consumer reporting chapter regulates reporting agencies rather than landlords, and its adverse-action clause only bars an agency from stopping a user from showing the report to the person it describes. The federal Fair Credit Reporting Act supplies the denial-notice duty in Texas.
Reusable screening reports — Texas has no portable or reusable tenant screening report statute. No section requires a landlord to accept a report an applicant already paid for, bars a fee where one is used, or sets a validity window. The rental application subchapter is where such a rule would sit, and it does not appear there or anywhere else in the Property Code.
Advertising and fee transparency — No Texas statute requires an all-in advertised rent for a dwelling, an itemization of mandatory fees in a listing, or disclosure of application-stage charges before payment. What governs instead is the general consumer statute, the Deceptive Trade Practices-Consumer Protection Act, which reaches leases of real property because its definition of goods covers real property purchased or leased for use. That act addresses false, misleading and deceptive acts generally rather than setting a fee-transparency standard for rental listings.

Common questions: Texas 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 Texas?: No statutory cap on application fees.
Does an application fee have to be refunded in Texas?: Yes — in Texas at least one circumstance requires application-stage money to be returned. Rejection without the required selection-criteria notice returns both the application fee and any application deposit; an application deposit is refundable on rejection; an applicant is treated as rejected if no notice of acceptance is given by the seventh day.
Does a landlord have to give a receipt for an application fee in Texas?: No statutory receipt duty for application money.
Does Texas have a reusable tenant screening report law?: No statute on reusable screening reports.
Can a landlord charge a holding deposit in Texas?: Money given with a rental application is an application deposit, refundable if the applicant is rejected, and it sits outside the security deposit rules; Texas sets no cap on it and does not regulate money taken after acceptance to hold a unit until signing.

Statute citations

Tex. Prop. Code § 92.351 (1-a) (verified 2026) Official source
Tex. Prop. Code § 92.002 (verified 2026) Official source
Tex. Prop. Code § 92.351 (verified 2026) Official source
Tex. Prop. Code § 92.3515 (verified 2026) Official source
Tex. Prop. Code § 92.3515 (b) (verified 2026) Official source
Tex. Prop. Code § 92.011 (b) (verified 2026) Official source
Tex. Prop. Code § 92.3515 (e) (verified 2026) Official source
Tex. Prop. Code § 92.351 (1) (verified 2026) Official source
Tex. Prop. Code § 92.352 (a), (b) (verified 2026) Official source
Tex. Prop. Code § 92.353 (a)-(c) (verified 2026) Official source
Tex. Prop. Code § 92.3515 (e), (f) (verified 2026) Official source
Tex. Prop. Code § 92.351 (1), (1-a), (6) (verified 2026) Official source
Tex. Prop. Code § 92.3515 (a)-(d) (verified 2026) Official source
Tex. Prop. Code § 92.352 (a) (verified 2026) Official source
Tex. Bus. & Com. Code § 20.02 (b) (verified 2026) Official source
Tex. Prop. Code §§ 92.351-92.355 (verified 2026) Official source
Tex. Bus. & Com. Code § 20.22 (a)(3)(D) (verified 2026) Official source
Tex. Prop. Code § 92.102 (verified 2026) Official source
Tex. Prop. Code § 92.354 (verified 2026) Official source
Tex. Bus. & Com. Code § 17.45 (1) (verified 2026) Official source
Tex. Bus. & Com. Code § 17.46 (b) (verified 2026) Official source
Tex. Prop. Code § 92.355 (verified 2026) Official source
Tex. Prop. Code §§ 92.351-92.355 (Rental Application) (verified 2026) Official source
Tex. Prop. Code § 92.3515 (a)-(f) (verified 2026) Official source
Tex. Prop. Code § 1.004 (a) (verified 2026) Official source

How this record was verified: Direct read of Texas Property Code chapter 92 in full, in particular subchapter I (sections 92.351, 92.3515, 92.352, 92.353, 92.354 and 92.355), together with Property Code section 1.004 and Business and Commerce Code sections 1.109, 17.45, 17.46, 17.50, 20.02 and 20.22, on the Texas Legislative Council document host that serves the state's statute site. Backed by a term search of all 93 retrievable Property Code chapters and all 120 retrievable Business and Commerce Code chapters for application fee, screening, credit report, holding deposit, reusable, portable, advertising and related terms, and by a sweep of the 2025 session of the 89th Legislature, whose amendments to chapter 92 were read section by section. Bills read on the legislature's own bill pages: S.B. 340, H.B. 3198 and H.B. 4305 of the 89th Legislature.