What can a landlord charge for a rental application in Wyoming?
Wyoming does not regulate rental application or tenant-screening fees at all: no cap, no tie to what a report costs, no receipt, no refund, nothing that must be told an applicant before money changes hands, no state denial-notice duty, no reusable-report law, no rule on money taken to hold a home, and no rental fee-advertising law.
Cited to W.S. 1-21-1201 (a) and 12 more cited sources · Verified August 26, 2026
What a landlord may charge to consider an application, and whether any of it comes back, are matters of the agreement between the parties. Wyoming's residential landlord-tenant law starts at the tenancy: it requires a rental agreement to state whether any portion of a deposit is nonrefundable, requires written notice of that when the deposit is taken, and requires a deposit to be returned with a written itemization of any deductions within 30 days after the tenancy ends or 15 days after the landlord receives the renter's new mailing address, whichever is later. Where a landlord unreasonably fails to return a deposit, the renter may recover the full deposit and court costs.
Wyoming application & screening 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 | 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 | No specific statutory penalty |
Cite this page: "Landlord Atlas, Wyoming Application & Screening Fee Laws (verified August 26, 2026), landlordatlas.com/laws/application-fees/wyoming/" — free to cite and quote with a link (how these records are verified). Everything above is cited in the citations section below.
Notes and caveats
- Silence is not permission — Where Wyoming law says nothing, it neither allows nor forbids a practice. Application fees, screening charges, and money taken to hold a home are matters of contract in Wyoming, and other law may still apply.
- The deposit notice is the nearest rule — The one Wyoming requirement close to this subject is that a rental agreement state whether any portion of a deposit is nonrefundable, with written notice of that fact when the deposit is taken. It is framed around the tenancy, so it does not settle the position of money taken before there is a lease.
- No penalty for the deposit notice — Wyoming's penalty for a landlord who unreasonably withholds a deposit is stated only for the return duties. The requirement to say whether a deposit is nonrefundable carries no stated penalty of its own.
- Duties in this law can be shifted or changed by agreement — Wyoming allows any duty or obligation in its residential rental law to be assigned to a different party or modified by an explicit written agreement signed by the parties, which is unusual among state landlord-tenant laws.
- General consumer law is not a rental fee law — The Wyoming Consumer Protection Act reaches deceptive trade practices in general terms and defines merchandise broadly enough to include real property, but it does not name homes offered for rent and sets no rules on how rental prices or fees are advertised.
- What this page does not cover — Rented lots for manufactured homes and recreational property rented occasionally are outside Wyoming's residential rental law by its own terms, and screening criteria such as criminal-history or income rules are a separate subject.
- Nothing changed in 2025 or 2026 — No law enacted in Wyoming's 2025 General Session or 2026 Budget Session touched any of this. The one residential landlord-tenant bill in either session concerned utilities in the rental home and was not taken up.
- About the application fee rule — Wyoming does not limit what a landlord may charge someone to apply for a rental home, and its residential landlord-tenant law does not mention an application fee at all. The Residential Rental Property Act defines only the owner, the rental agreement, the renter, the rental unit, and what ends a tenancy. What may be charged is left to the lease and to market practice.
- How the cost limit works — No Wyoming statute ties an application or screening charge to the cost of a credit, background, or eviction report. The only money the residential landlord-tenant law addresses is rent, prepaid rent, a deposit, and a separately identified utilities deposit.
- Screening charges — Wyoming places no conditions on tenant-screening charges. Nothing limits who may charge, how often an applicant may be charged, whether a report must actually be obtained, or whether the unit must be available. Tenant screening is named in the Wyoming Statutes only once, as a category of records exempt from the credit-freeze rules, which says nothing about charging an applicant.
- What the receipt duty covers — No Wyoming statute requires a receipt for application or screening money. The one writing the residential landlord-tenant law attaches to money changing hands is a notice of whether a deposit is nonrefundable, which is owed to a renter under a rental agreement and is not a receipt.
- When money must come back — Wyoming does not require an application or screening fee to be given back in any circumstance. The only return duty in its residential landlord-tenant law is triggered when a tenancy ends, so it does not reach money taken from a person who applies and does not become a renter. Whether such money comes back is a matter of the parties' agreement.
- Refunds — There are no Wyoming rules on when or how much of an application fee comes back. The refund machinery in the residential landlord-tenant law runs to deposits at the end of a tenancy: a deposit may be applied to accrued rent, damage beyond reasonable wear and tear, cleaning to the condition at the start, and other costs set by contract, and the balance plus a written itemization must be delivered within 30 days after the tenancy ends or 15 days after the landlord receives the renter's new mailing address, whichever is later, with 30 more days where there is damage.
- What must be disclosed up front — Wyoming requires nothing to be told an applicant before application money changes hands. There is no duty to publish screening criteria, to say what the fee pays for, or to state applicant rights. The nearest provision requires a rental agreement to state whether any portion of a deposit is nonrefundable, and requires written notice of that to the renter when the deposit is taken. Because a renter is a person already entitled under a rental agreement to occupy the home, that duty speaks to deposits within a tenancy rather than to fees taken at the application stage.
- Denial notices — Wyoming places no state denial-notice duty on a landlord who turns down an applicant. Nothing requires a reason, a deadline, or a copy of any report. Federal fair-credit-reporting duties apply of their own force and are not a Wyoming rule.
- Reusable screening reports — Wyoming has no portable or reusable tenant-screening report law. No landlord must accept a report an applicant already paid for, and nothing sets a validity window or bars a second charge. Whether to accept one is left to the landlord.
- Money to hold a unit — No Wyoming statute governs money taken to hold a home between approval and a signed lease. Nothing caps it, requires a written statement of its terms, or says what becomes of it if the deal falls through. The residential landlord-tenant law does require a rental agreement to state whether any portion of a deposit is nonrefundable, but that works through a rental agreement that already exists. Terms are set by agreement.
- Advertising and fee transparency — Wyoming has no statute or state regulation requiring an all-in advertised rent, itemization of mandatory rental fees, or a ban on hidden rental fees. The Wyoming Consumer Protection Act makes it unlawful to knowingly make false or misleading statements of fact about the price of merchandise, or to engage in unfair or deceptive acts or practices, in connection with a consumer transaction. Its definition of merchandise is broad enough to include real property and services, but the act nowhere names homes offered for rent and contains no pricing-display rule. That act gives the Attorney General enforcement powers but no power to make rules, so there is no state regulation of this kind either.
- Penalties — Wyoming attaches no penalty to anything at the application stage, because it imposes no duty there. The penalties that exist reach tenancies: where a landlord unreasonably fails to return a deposit or a utilities deposit as required, the renter may recover the full deposit and court costs, and a landlord who prevails may be awarded court costs where the court finds the renter acted unreasonably in suing. No penalty at all attaches to the requirement that a rental agreement state whether a deposit is nonrefundable. General consumer law allows a person who has given the required notice and been left uncured to recover the damages actually suffered.
Common questions: Wyoming application & screening 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 Wyoming?
- No statutory cap on application fees.
- Does an application fee have to be refunded in Wyoming?
- No statutory refund duty.
- Does a landlord have to give a receipt for an application fee in Wyoming?
- No statutory receipt duty for application money.
- Does Wyoming have a reusable tenant screening report law?
- No statute on reusable screening reports.
- Can a landlord charge a holding deposit in Wyoming?
- No statute on holding deposits.
Citations
- W.S. 1-21-1201 · (a) (verified 2026) Official source
- W.S. 1-21-1208 · (a) (verified 2026) Official source
- W.S. 40-12-505 · (d)(iv)(B) (verified 2026) Official source
- W.S. 1-21-1207 (verified 2026) Official source
- W.S. 1-21-1201 · (a)(v) (verified 2026) Official source
- W.S. 1-21-1208 · (a), (b) (verified 2026) Official source
- W.S. 1-21-1201 · (a)(iii) (verified 2026) Official source
- W.S. 40-12-105 · (a)(vii), (a)(xv) (verified 2026) Official source
- W.S. 40-12-102 · (a)(ii), (a)(vi) (verified 2026) Official source
- W.S. 1-21-1208 · (c) (verified 2026) Official source
- W.S. 40-12-108 · (a) (verified 2026) Official source
- W.S. 1-21-1208 · (a), (c) (verified 2026) Official source
- W.S. 40-12-105 · (a) (verified 2026) Official source
How this record was verified: Direct read of the Wyoming Residential Rental Property Act, W.S. 1-21-1201 through 1-21-1211, in full as published by the Wyoming Legislature, together with the Wyoming Consumer Protection Act, W.S. 40-12-101 through 40-12-112, the security freeze sections of that act, the conveyancing chapter of Title 34, and a term search of the complete Wyoming Statutes, Titles 1 through 42; plus the bill records of the 2025 General Session and the 2026 Budget Session of the Wyoming Legislature.