The short answer, as a checklist
Yes, you can charge a rental application screening fee in California, but the law now controls when you take it, how much it can be, and when it has to go back. Most of these rules come from Civil Code section 1950.6 as amended by AB 2493, which took effect on January 1, 2025. Deposit rules sit in section 1950.5 and changed again in 2024, 2025, and 2026.
This guide covers the rules that apply when you take applications for a rental and hand the approved applicant over to a lease. It was checked against the chaptered bills and official agency pages on October 4, 2026. It is general information, not legal advice. Local ordinances can add rules, so confirm anything unusual with a California landlord-tenant attorney.
Run through this list each time a new vacancy goes live. The rest of the guide explains each step.
- Confirm the unit is available now or soon enough to justify a fee.
- Pick option A (order received) or option B (refund everyone not selected), and say which one in the listing or application.
- Write the screening criteria and attach them to the application.
- Set the fee at your real cost and no higher than $65.86 for 2026.
- State the income standard as a multiple of the applicant's share of the rent, and accept alternatives to credit history from voucher holders.
- Remove arrest, juvenile, and blanket-felony questions from your application.
- Track application timestamps, fee receipts, credit report delivery dates, and refund deadlines.
- At approval, check the deposit cap, take move-in photos, record the deposit return method, and include the LA Renters' Protections notice if the unit is in the city.
Screening fees: when, how much, and what goes back
You may not charge a screening fee when you know, or should know, that no unit is available now or will be within a reasonable time. Before AB 2493, an applicant could agree in writing to pay a fee for a waitlist. That exception is gone.
In practice, take fees only for a specific vacancy or an upcoming one with a realistic move-in date. If you keep an interest list for future units, collect contact details and basic answers for free, and charge a screening fee only when a matching unit opens up.
The statute sets two limits, and the fee has to fit under both. First, it can't exceed your actual out-of-pocket cost of gathering the applicant's information, such as the credit report fee, plus the reasonable value of the time you or your agent spend on it. Second, it can't exceed $30 per applicant, adjusted each year since 1998 for increases in the Consumer Price Index.
The law doesn't name an agency to publish the adjusted figure, and the published numbers for 2026 disagree. The City of Berkeley Rent Board lists $68.96 as the 2026 maximum. The California Apartment Association lists $65.86 as of December 2025. The Department of Real Estate's 2026 landlord-tenant guide still quotes $62.02, which it labels as the December 2023 figure, so that one is out of date.
The cautious approach is to stay at or below $65.86 and never above your real cost. If your screening vendor charges $40 and processing takes a few minutes, a $65 fee is hard to defend. The cap is a ceiling, not a default price.
Co-signers and guarantors count as applicants under section 1950.6, so each one who is screened can be charged a fee, with the same limits.
Under both application processes described below, every applicant who pays is owed the following. The receipt and the credit report are not request-only, which several existing guides get wrong.
- An itemized receipt showing your out-of-pocket costs and the time spent getting and processing the information. Hand it over in person or by mail, or by email if the applicant agrees.
- A copy of the consumer credit report, delivered within 7 days of the day you receive it, in person, by mail, or by email.
- A refund of any money you didn't spend on screening, for example when you never ran the credit check or contacted references.
- A clear record that the screening fee is not part of the security deposit. The statute treats them as separate.
The two application processes allowed since 2025
Since January 1, 2025, a landlord or agent who collects screening fees must offer one of two processes. Pick one per vacancy and describe it to applicants before they pay.
Option A, order received: you consider completed applications in the order you receive them, using screening criteria you set in advance, and approve the first applicant who meets them. The criteria must be in writing and given to the applicant with the application form.
You can't charge anyone whose application you don't actually consider. If several applications arrive at once and you collect a fee from someone you never get to, you must refund it within 7 days. The applicant may choose to have the fee credited toward another unit instead, but you can't make that choice for them. If you considered an applicant and denied them for not meeting your written criteria, you don't have to refund the fee itself, though the unused-cost rule in the next section still applies.
Option B, refund everyone not selected: you may review applications however you choose, but you must return the entire fee to every applicant you don't select, whatever the reason. The refund is due within 7 days of selecting an applicant, or 30 days after the application was submitted, whichever comes first.
Option B suits a hot listing where you expect many applications and want to compare them side by side. The cost is that you absorb the screening cost of everyone you turn down, and the 30-day clock keeps running even if the unit stays open. The statute's explicit written-criteria rule sits in option A, but written criteria applied the same way to everyone are still the safest fair housing practice either way.
If you use option A, set it up like this:
- Write your criteria before you advertise: income standard, rental history, credit requirements, occupancy limits, and how you weigh each.
- Hand the criteria out with every application, not only on request.
- Timestamp every completed application so the order is easy to prove.
- Stop charging new applicants once you've approved someone.
Vouchers, credit history, and criminal records
Since 2020, California has treated Housing Choice Vouchers (Section 8), HUD-VASH, and other lawful rent subsidies as source of income protected under Government Code section 12955. Listings that say "No Section 8" are unlawful, and refusing an applicant because they use a voucher is discrimination.
Income requirements must be based on the portion of the rent the applicant pays, not the full rent. If rent is $2,400 and a voucher covers $1,800, the applicant's share is $600. A three-times-rent standard would then require $1,800 a month in income, not $7,200. The law doesn't require any particular ratio; it only fixes which number you apply it to.
Since January 1, 2024, SB 267 has added a credit rule for subsidized applicants. If you use credit history, you must let the applicant choose to show their ability to pay their share with other verifiable evidence, such as benefit award letters, pay records, or bank statements. You must give them reasonable time to provide it and consider it in place of their credit history. You can still verify employment, references, and identity.
California's fair housing regulations on criminal history have applied statewide since January 1, 2020 (2 CCR sections 12264 to 12271). You may not ask about or use arrests that didn't lead to a conviction, records from completed diversion programs, sealed or dismissed convictions, or juvenile records. Blanket bans such as "no felons" are not allowed.
If you do consider convictions, the regulations expect a direct link to a real safety or property risk. They also weigh the nature and severity of the offense and how long ago it happened. Practices that lower your risk include running the criminal check only after the applicant meets your financial criteria, letting the applicant explain or correct the record, and giving your written policy to anyone who asks. Using a screening company doesn't move this responsibility off you.
Los Angeles note: as of October 2026 we found no enacted fair chance housing ordinance in Los Angeles County or the City of Los Angeles. The county's Fair Chance Ordinance, effective September 3, 2024, covers employers, not landlords. A city housing proposal (Council File 22-0280) has not become an ordinance. Check again before relying on this, because local rules change.
After approval: deposits, photos, and lease paperwork
Once you've picked an applicant, a second set of rules applies when you collect money and sign the lease.
- Deposit cap (AB 12, since July 1, 2024): the security deposit may not exceed one month's rent, furnished or unfurnished, in addition to the first month's rent. Pet, key, and cleaning deposits count toward the cap.
- Small landlord exception: a landlord who is a natural person, or an LLC made up entirely of natural persons, and who owns no more than two rental properties with four or fewer units in total may collect up to two months' rent. The exception never applies to a servicemember applicant.
- Servicemember deposits (since April 1, 2025): if you charge a servicemember more than your standard deposit, still within one month, explain why in writing by lease signing and return the extra after six months if they aren't behind on rent.
- Move-in photos (AB 2801): for tenancies starting on or after July 1, 2025, photograph the unit at or just before move-in. Since April 1, 2025, photograph it after move-out both before and after any repairs or cleaning you deduct for.
- Deposit return method (AB 414, since January 1, 2026): if the tenant paid the deposit or rent electronically, return the deposit electronically unless you agree otherwise in writing. The 21-day deadline after move-out is unchanged.
- Internet bundles (AB 1414, since January 1, 2026): tenants in tenancies that start, renew, or continue on or after that date may opt out of paying for a third-party internet service bundled with the unit.
- Rent reporting (AB 2747): covered landlords must offer tenants optional positive rent reporting to a credit bureau at lease signing. Buildings with 15 or fewer units are generally exempt unless owned by a REIT or certain corporations.
- City of Los Angeles: give the city's Notice of Renters' Protections to every new or renewing tenant and post it in a common area.
- Coming April 1, 2027 (SB 1296, signed September 2026): a written pet policy must be given with the rental application, and certain pet-related fees must be refunded within seven business days of a written request. It doesn't apply yet.
- Not law: AB 1248, a proposed all-in rent pricing bill, died on the Assembly inactive file on February 2, 2026, although some articles still describe it as law.
Where free pre-screening fits
Many of these rules are triggered by money changing hands, so a free step before the paid application helps. A short pre-screening form lets interested renters read your written criteria, share move-in timing, household size, and pets, and decide whether to apply. Fewer people pay for an application that was never going to fit.
Rentalot gives each listing a shareable pre-screening link that renters can answer by text or browser voice. Their answers are saved to your dashboard for you to review. Rentalot doesn't charge application fees, run credit or background checks, or make housing decisions: it collects and organizes the answers, and you approve what matters. Keep the questions lawful and the same for everyone. The rules in this guide still apply to the paid application step.
Sources, checked October 4, 2026 (bill texts on leginfo.legislature.ca.gov): AB 2493 (2024, Chapter 966), amending Civil Code section 1950.6: fee limits, the two application processes, receipts, credit report delivery, refunds; City of Berkeley Rent Board, Tenant Screening and Application Fees: $68.96 maximum for 2026; California Apartment Association, maximum screening fee FAQ (updated February 2026): $65.86; California Department of Real Estate, 2026 California Tenants guide: $62.02 as of December 2023; SB 329 (2019) and SB 267 (2023), Government Code section 12955: source of income, tenant-portion income standards, credit alternatives; California Civil Rights Department, fair housing regulations 2 CCR sections 12264 to 12271 and its Fair Housing and Criminal History FAQ; AB 12 (2023), AB 2801 (2024), SB 611 (2024), and AB 414 (2025), amending Civil Code section 1950.5: deposit cap, photos, servicemember deposits, return method; AB 1414 (2025), Civil Code section 1942.8; AB 2747 (2024), Civil Code section 1954.07; Los Angeles Housing Department, Notice of Renters' Protections; Los Angeles County DCBA, Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers; Los Angeles City Clerk, Council File 22-0280; SB 1296 (2026) and AB 1248 (2025) bill status pages.