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

Banned: a landlord or a landlord's agent may not charge an application fee to anyone applying to enter into a rental agreement for a residential dwelling unit. A fee to apply for commercial or nonresidential property is not covered by the ban.

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

No statutory receipt duty for application money.

Does Vermont have a reusable tenant screening report law?

No statute on reusable screening reports.

Can a landlord charge a holding deposit in Vermont?

No statute on holding deposits.

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

Verified August 25, 2026 All Vermont topics →

Legislative changes ahead — not yet in force. The rules on this page reflect the law in force today. The following measures would change it:

S.309 (2026) — Senate companion to H.772, carrying the same definition of an application fee, the same nominal credit-check allowance, and the same unfair-practice provision.Status: Read a first time on January 27, 2026 and referred to the Senate Committee on Judiciary; no committee meeting history recorded. (checked 2026-08-25).
H.399 (2025) — Broad tenant-rights bill whose stated purpose includes making the charging of a rental application fee an unfair commercial practice, alongside written-lease requirements, limits on no-cause evictions and rent increases, and a rental registry.Status: Read a first time on February 26, 2025 and referred to the House Committee on General and Housing, where it remains; the committee took a walkthrough on February 4, 2026. (checked 2026-08-25).
S.91 (2025) — Senate companion to H.399, with the same proposal to treat the charging of a rental application fee as an unfair commercial practice.Status: Read a first time on February 26, 2025 and referred to the Senate Committee on Economic Development, Housing and General Affairs, where it remains. (checked 2026-08-25).
H.946 (2026) — Short-form bill, operative text not printed. Its stated purpose is to require a landlord to advertise clearly and accurately the utilities and estimated costs a tenant is responsible for and those included in the rent, to document that information in the rental agreement, and to provide individual metering where possible.Status: Read a first time on March 20, 2026 and referred to the House Committee on General and Housing; no committee meeting history recorded. (checked 2026-08-25).

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

H.772 (2026) — Would have defined an application fee to include any fee or charge to submit a residential rental application or conduct a background check on an applicant, a third-party processing payment, and any other costs associated with an application, while allowing a nominal fee to conduct a credit check unless the applicant supplies one; would have made a violation of the application section an unfair practice in commerce; and would have capped security deposits at two months' rent.Status: Passed the House. On May 27, 2026 the Senate refused a third reading on a roll call of 15 yeas to 16 nays, needing 16 of 30 to pass, and the bill failed. (checked 2026-08-25).

Vermont bans residential rental application fees outright: a landlord or a landlord's agent may not charge anyone a fee to apply for a residential dwelling unit, and the state sets no cap, no receipt duty, no refund timetable, and no advance disclosure duty because there is no lawful fee to regulate.

Cited to 9 V.S.A. § 4456a (a) and 17 more Vermont statutes · Verified August 25, 2026

The one other application-stage rule is about identification: a landlord running a background or credit check must accept an unexpired government-issued identification, an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number, or a Social Security number, and may not require a Social Security number or reject an application for lack of one. The ban does not cover applications to rent commercial or nonresidential property, and the chapter it sits in does not apply to mobile home lot rentals or to transient hotel and motel stays. Vermont also requires a consumer's consent before anyone obtains that consumer's credit report, and a violation of that fair credit reporting law lets the consumer sue.

Vermont application fees at a glance

Application fee cap	Banned: a landlord or a landlord's agent may not charge an application fee to anyone applying to enter into a rental agreement for a residential dwelling unit. A fee to apply for commercial or nonresidential property is not covered by the ban. Vermont answers the application-fee question with a prohibition rather than a dollar cap. The ban has been in place since 1999 and reaches the landlord's agent as well as the landlord, so routing the charge through a property manager or leasing agent does not change the answer. The statute does not define what counts as an application fee and states no exception for the cost of a credit or background check. The residential rental agreements chapter does not apply to the tenancies its exclusions section lists, among them mobile home lot rentals, which are governed by their own chapter, and hotel, motel or lodging stays taxed as transient occupancy.
Fee limited to actual screening cost	No statute ties the fee to screening cost
Screening charge rules	The fee ban is the state's whole rule on charging an applicant for screening; the statute creates no separate screening charge and no exception for the cost of a credit or background check. A landlord who runs a background or credit check must accept an unexpired government-issued identification, an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number, or a Social Security number, and may not require a Social Security number to complete an application or refuse an application because none is supplied. A person may not obtain a consumer's credit report without that consumer's consent, and may use it only for the purpose consented to. The identification rules were added by the 2025 housing act and took effect on July 1, 2025. The consent requirement sits in the state's fair credit reporting law and applies to anyone obtaining a credit report, including a landlord considering an applicant; the same statute lists a small set of exemptions, none of which covers residential rental screening. Federal law imposes its own requirements on users of consumer reports and is not the source of these state duties.
Receipt required	No statutory receipt duty for application money
Refund required in some circumstances	No statutory refund duty
Refund rules	No statutory refund duty
Disclosure before collecting	No statutory disclosure duty
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	No statute on holding deposits
Rental fee-transparency rules	No rental fee-transparency statute
Penalty for violation	The residential rental agreements chapter sets no penalty for charging a banned application fee. A penalty does attach to the credit-report consent duty: a violation of the fair credit reporting law counts as a violation of the state's unfair-practices section, and the consumer may sue in Superior Court for damages, injunctive relief, punitive damages for a willful violation, and reasonable costs and attorney's fees, with an award of actual damages or $100, whichever is greater, where a credit reporting agency violates the law or any person does so willfully. Two further provisions bear on enforcement. A rental agreement term that circumvents the obligations and remedies of the residential rental agreements chapter is unenforceable and void. The general consumer protection chapter carries its own remedies for unfair or deceptive acts and practices in commerce, including a civil penalty of up to $10,000 for each violation of an injunction and a consumer action for damages, equitable relief, attorney's fees, and exemplary damages of up to three times the consideration given. A 2026 bill would have stated in the application section itself that a violation is an unfair practice in commerce; it did not become law.

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

Notes and caveats

Commercial applications are outside the ban — The same subsection that bars residential application fees states that it does not prohibit charging a fee to apply to rent commercial or nonresidential property.
What the ban does not say — The statute does not define an application fee and states no express exception allowing a landlord to recover the cost of a credit or background check from the applicant. A 2026 bill that passed the House would have both defined the term to include background-check charges and allowed a nominal credit-check fee; it failed in the Senate on May 27, 2026.
Tenancies the chapter does not reach — The residential rental agreements chapter excludes, among others, mobile home lot rentals governed by their own chapter, transient hotel, motel and lodging stays taxed as such, occupancy under a contract of sale, condominium owners and cooperative proprietary lessees, campground stays, and certain institutional and health-care-funded placements.
Identification rules took effect July 1, 2025 — The requirement to accept a government-issued identification, an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number, or a Social Security number, and the bar on requiring a Social Security number, came from the 2025 housing act and have applied since July 1, 2025.
Consent before a credit report — State law bars obtaining a consumer's credit report without that consumer's consent and limits use to the purpose consented to, subject to a short list of exemptions that does not include residential rental screening.
Fee transparency stopped at event tickets — The total-price and resale disclosure law Vermont enacted in 2026 applies to tickets granting entry to a place of entertainment. No Vermont statute applies all-in pricing or mandatory-fee itemization to residential rental listings.
No annually published figure — Because the rule is a prohibition rather than an indexed cap, there is no state-published dollar amount to check each year.
Local rules — Vermont authorizes towns and municipalities to adopt security-deposit ordinances that supplement the state minimum, but gives no parallel local authority over application fees.
How the cost limit works — There is no actual-cost measure in Vermont law, because the state bars the fee rather than limiting it to what screening costs. The application section is where such a limit would sit, and it sets none: it neither defines an application fee nor allows a landlord to recover the price of a credit or background check from the applicant.
What the receipt duty covers — No statute requires a receipt for money taken at the application stage. The application section creates no receipt duty, and the chapter's one written-itemization duty belongs to security deposits and runs at the end of a tenancy rather than at application.
When money must come back — No statutory circumstance requires the return of an application fee, because Vermont does not permit the fee to be charged at all. The application section contains no refund mechanism, and the security deposit section governs deposits held during a tenancy rather than money taken from an applicant.
Refunds — Because no application fee may be charged, the statute sets no deadline for returning one, no rule about the amount above actual cost, and no separate treatment for an applicant who withdraws or a unit that is filled before the application is decided. General law governs money collected contrary to the ban.
What must be disclosed up front — The application section imposes no duty to publish screening criteria, explain a fee basis, or state applicant rights in advance. The only advance disclosure the residential rental agreements chapter requires is a written notice, in a form prescribed by the Department of Housing and Community Development, of whether any part of the premises sits in a federally mapped special flood hazard area, and that notice is due at or before signing the lease rather than at application.
Denial notices — Vermont sets no state-level rule about telling an applicant why an application was denied, when to say so, or whether to supply a copy of the report relied on. The residential rental agreements chapter says nothing about denials, and the state's own fair credit reporting law places its disclosure duties on credit reporting agencies rather than on the landlord who denies. Federal law governs adverse-action notices based on consumer reports and is the only source of such duties here.
Reusable screening reports — No statute requires a landlord to accept a screening or credit report the applicant already obtained, sets a period during which such a report stays valid, or addresses what may be charged when one is used. The residential rental agreements chapter mentions a background or credit check once, in the identification rules, and goes no further.
Money to hold a unit — Vermont's deposit statute defines a security deposit as any advance, deposit, or prepaid rent, however named, that is refundable at the termination or expiration of the tenancy, and its duties are end-of-tenancy duties: return with a written itemization within 14 days, 60 days for a seasonal unit that is not a primary residence. Nothing in the chapter caps or governs a payment taken between application and signing, and the chapter never uses the word holding.
Advertising and fee transparency — The fee-transparency law Vermont enacted in 2026 applies to event tickets, requiring the total price on the face of a ticket and disclosures on resale marketplaces; it is limited to admission to a place of entertainment and does not reach rental listings or application-stage charges. The state's general prohibition on unfair or deceptive acts and practices in commerce remains the background law, and no statute or state material applies it to residential rental advertising by its terms.

Common questions: Vermont 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 Vermont?: Banned: a landlord or a landlord's agent may not charge an application fee to anyone applying to enter into a rental agreement for a residential dwelling unit. A fee to apply for commercial or nonresidential property is not covered by the ban.
Does an application fee have to be refunded in Vermont?: No statutory refund duty.
Does a landlord have to give a receipt for an application fee in Vermont?: No statutory receipt duty for application money.
Does Vermont have a reusable tenant screening report law?: No statute on reusable screening reports.
Can a landlord charge a holding deposit in Vermont?: No statute on holding deposits.

Statute citations

9 V.S.A. § 4456a (a) (verified 2026) Official source
9 V.S.A. § 4452 (a) (verified 2026) Official source
2025 Acts and Resolves No. 69 (S.127), Sec. 10 Sec. 10 (verified 2026) Official source
9 V.S.A. § 4456a (b) (verified 2026) Official source
9 V.S.A. § 2480e (a) (verified 2026) Official source
9 V.S.A. § 2480g (verified 2026) Official source
9 V.S.A. § 4456a (verified 2026) Official source
9 V.S.A. § 4461 (c) (verified 2026) Official source
9 V.S.A. § 4466 (a) (verified 2026) Official source
9 V.S.A. § 2480b (a) (verified 2026) Official source
9 V.S.A. § 4456a (b)(1) (verified 2026) Official source
9 V.S.A. § 4461 (a), (c) (verified 2026) Official source
2026 Acts and Resolves No. 109 (H.512), Sec. 1, adding 9 V.S.A. § 2479f Sec. 1, § 2479f(a)(7), (b)(1) (verified 2026) Official source
9 V.S.A. § 2453 (a) (verified 2026) Official source
9 V.S.A. § 2480f (a), (b) (verified 2026) Official source
9 V.S.A. § 4454 (verified 2026) Official source
9 V.S.A. § 2461 (a), (b) (verified 2026) Official source
9 V.S.A. § 4456a (a), (b) (verified 2026) Official source

How this record was verified: Direct read of 9 V.S.A. chapter 137 in full on legislature.vermont.gov, including sections 4451, 4452, 4453, 4454, 4456a, 4461 and 4466 read individually; direct read of 9 V.S.A. sections 2453, 2461, 2480a, 2480b, 2480e, 2480f and 2480g in the consumer protection chapter, together with that chapter's complete section index; a read of 9 V.S.A. chapter 139 for any application-stage fee provision; and a 2025-2026 session-law sweep covering the legislature's complete Acts Affecting VSA Sections list for the biennium, its list of all 1,287 introduced bills, its list of bills passed by both chambers, and the enacted text of 2025 Act 69 (Secs. 10 and 25), 2026 Act 179, 2026 Act 176 (Sec. 30) and 2026 Act 109 (Sec. 1). The legislature's statute keyword search returned no results through the route used, so the negative findings rest on the end-to-end chapter read, the chapter section indexes and the session-law lists.