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

No statutory cap on application fees.

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

No statutory receipt duty for application money.

Does Georgia have a reusable tenant screening report law?

No statute on reusable screening reports.

Can a landlord charge a holding deposit in Georgia?

No statute on holding deposits.

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

Verified August 26, 2026 All Georgia topics →

Enacted but not yet in force. This page reflects the law in force today. The following measure has been signed and takes effect on the date shown:

SB 406 (2026), Ga. L. 2026, p. 988 — the Georgia Property Owners' Bill of Rights Act — Already SIGNED but not yet effective: on January 1, 2027, new O.C.G.A. 44-7-50(e) lets a court, on motion and after a hearing, make all records of a dispossessory proceeding unavailable to the public when the tenant won the case, when the tenant has paid the judgment in full including interest and costs, or when seven years have passed since a dismissal or a paid-in-full judgment. The landlord may still pursue any amounts owed in a separate action or through collections. The rest of the act concerns homeowners' and property owners' associations, not landlord-tenant law. Status: Signed 2026; section 9 makes the dispossessory-records provision effective January 1, 2027 (only the association attorney-fee section took effect July 1, 2026). The answers shown do not yet reflect it. (checked August 16, 2026).

Georgia does not regulate rental application or tenant-screening fees: state law sets no limit on the amount, does not tie the charge to what a report costs, and requires no receipt, no refund, no disclosure before the money is collected, and no denial notice beyond what federal law already requires.

Cited to O.C.G.A. § 44-7-30 (3) and 15 more cited sources · Verified August 26, 2026

The money rules in Georgia's landlord and tenant chapter begin at the signed rental agreement, so the security deposit protections, including the two months' rent limit added in 2024 and the treble-damages remedy for a deposit wrongly kept, do not reach application money. The state's own published landlord and tenant guide says that application fees, and deposits paid to hold a home until the lease is signed, are not security deposits and are usually not refundable. Nothing enacted in the 2025 or 2026 sessions changed any of this.

Georgia 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, Georgia Application & Screening Fee Laws (verified August 26, 2026), landlordatlas.com/laws/application-fees/georgia/" — 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

No limit on the amount — Georgia leaves the size of an application or screening fee entirely to the landlord and the terms of the application. There is no dollar limit, no formula, and no requirement that the charge match what a credit or background report costs.
Application money sits outside the security deposit rules — Georgia's security deposit protections apply to money a tenant gives a landlord by virtue of a residential rental agreement. Application fees and money paid to hold a home before a lease is signed are not security deposits, so the two months' rent limit, the escrow or surety bond requirement, and the treble-damages remedy do not apply to them.
Federal law still applies to denials — Georgia adds no denial-notice duty of its own. Where a landlord turns an applicant down based on a consumer report, the notice obligation comes from the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act.
The disclosure duties Georgia does impose — Georgia requires a landlord to disclose in writing the owner of record and the person authorized to manage the premises at or before the start of a tenancy, and to tell a prospective tenant in writing about a repeated history of flooding before a written lease is signed. Neither duty concerns fees or screening.
No fee-transparency requirement for rental advertising — Neither Georgia's statutes nor its administrative rules require rental advertising to show an all-in price or to itemize mandatory fees. Georgia's general consumer-protection statute, the Fair Business Practices Act, is not applied to rental application fees in the Attorney General's own landlord and tenant materials.
Local rules — Georgia bars counties and municipalities from regulating the amount of rent charged for privately owned residential rental property. That provision speaks to rent and does not mention application or screening fees. Local ordinances are outside the scope of this state-law summary.
Who handles the application — Since July 1, 2025, a landlord who does not live in Georgia and who owns or operates single-family or duplex residential rentals in the state must employ a Georgia-licensed broker. That changes who manages the rental and answers tenants, not what an applicant may be charged.
About the application fee rule — Georgia sets no limit on what a landlord may charge someone to apply for a home. The money rules in the landlord and tenant chapter begin at the signed rental agreement: the only amount limit in the chapter applies to security deposits, which may not exceed two months' rent, and a security deposit is defined as money held by virtue of a residential rental agreement. What an applicant pays is set by the landlord and by the terms of the application.
How the cost limit works — No Georgia statute ties an application or screening charge to what a credit, criminal, or eviction report actually costs. The one fee definition in the landlord and tenant chapter concerns whether money is refundable under the rental agreement, not what the money may cover.
Screening charges — Georgia places no conditions on charges for credit, criminal, or eviction reports at the application stage. There is no one-charge-per-applicant limit, no requirement that the landlord actually obtain a report, and no written notice or vacancy step that must come first. The state's published landlord and tenant guide describes screening as a matter of the applicant's consent and the landlord's own requirements.
What the receipt duty covers — Georgia requires no receipt for application or screening money. The one paperwork step the chapter requires before money changes hands is tied to the security deposit: before the deposit is tendered, the tenant must be given a written list of existing damage to the premises, which the tenant keeps.
When money must come back — No Georgia statute forces the return of an application or screening fee in any circumstance. The chapter's return duty runs to the security deposit, and a security deposit is money held by virtue of a residential rental agreement, so the duty does not reach money paid before a lease exists.
Refunds — Georgia sets no refund trigger, amount, or deadline for application money. Whether a fee comes back when an applicant is turned down, withdraws, or finds the home already taken depends on the terms of the application. The state's published landlord and tenant guide records the usual practice as non-refundable, with the fee sometimes credited toward the first month's rent.
What must be disclosed up front — Nothing has to be disclosed before an application fee is collected. Georgia's pre-tenancy disclosure duties concern the property rather than the money: at or before the tenancy begins the landlord must give the tenant, in writing, the names and addresses of the owner of record and of the person authorized to manage the premises, and before a written lease is signed the owner must tell a prospective tenant in writing about a repeated history of flooding. Neither reaches screening criteria, the basis of a fee, or applicant rights.
Denial notices — Georgia adds no state denial-notice duty. A landlord who turns down an applicant owes no notice under Georgia law about the reasons or about any report relied on. Where a denial rests on a consumer report, the notice comes from the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act, which is federal law rather than a Georgia rule.
Reusable screening reports — Georgia has no portable or reusable screening report law. A landlord need not accept a report an applicant brings, no provision bars a charge when such a report is used, and no validity window is set. The chapter's list of dwelling-lease terms that cannot be waived names repairs, landlord liability, holdover proceedings, distress warrants, and security deposits, and contains no screening or report provision.
Money to hold a unit — Georgia sets no rules for money paid to hold a home until the lease is signed. Such money is not a security deposit, because that term covers money held by virtue of a residential rental agreement, and the state's published landlord and tenant guide says directly that deposits to hold an apartment until the lease is signed are not security deposits and are usually not refundable. No limit, written statement, or disposition rule applies to it.
Advertising and fee transparency — Georgia has no rental fee-transparency law. No statute and no state regulation requires an all-in advertised rent, requires mandatory fees to be itemized, or bans hidden fees in residential rental advertising. The advertised-price rules Georgia does have govern petroleum products, retail food and goods labeling, telecommunications conduct, and professional advertising, and none of them reaches dwellings offered for rent. Georgia's Fair Business Practices Act is a general consumer statute, and the Attorney General's landlord and tenant materials do not apply it to rental application fees.
Penalties — No penalty attaches at the application stage, because Georgia imposes no application-stage duty. The penalties the landlord and tenant chapter does carry attach elsewhere: three times the sum improperly withheld plus reasonable attorney's fees where a security deposit is wrongly kept, a fine of up to $500 for knowingly suspending a tenant's utilities during an eviction case, and one month's rent plus $500, court costs, and fees where a landlord retaliates against a tenant.

Common questions: Georgia 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 Georgia?: No statutory cap on application fees.
Does an application fee have to be refunded in Georgia?: No statutory refund duty.
Does a landlord have to give a receipt for an application fee in Georgia?: No statutory receipt duty for application money.
Does Georgia have a reusable tenant screening report law?: No statute on reusable screening reports.
Can a landlord charge a holding deposit in Georgia?: No statute on holding deposits.

Citations

O.C.G.A. § 44-7-30 · (3) (verified 2026) Official source
O.C.G.A. § 44-7-30.1 (verified 2026) Official source
O.C.G.A. § 44-7-30 · (1) (verified 2026) Official source
O.C.G.A. § 44-7-30 · (1), (3) (verified 2026) Official source
Georgia Landlord-Tenant Handbook (Georgia Department of Community Affairs, revised August 29, 2024) · p. 6 (verified 2026) Official source
O.C.G.A. § 44-7-33 · (a) (verified 2026) Official source
O.C.G.A. § 44-7-34 · (a) (verified 2026) Official source
O.C.G.A. § 44-7-3 · (a) (verified 2026) Official source
O.C.G.A. § 44-7-20 (verified 2026) Official source
O.C.G.A. § 44-7-2 · (b) (verified 2026) Official source
Georgia Landlord-Tenant Handbook (Georgia Department of Community Affairs, revised August 29, 2024) · p. 9 (verified 2026) Official source
O.C.G.A. § 44-7-35 · (c) (verified 2026) Official source
O.C.G.A. § 44-7-14.1 · (c) (verified 2026) Official source
O.C.G.A. § 44-7-24 · (e) (verified 2026) Official source
O.C.G.A. § 44-7-19 (verified 2026) Official source
Georgia Landlord-Tenant Handbook (Georgia Department of Community Affairs, revised August 29, 2024) · pp. 6, 9 (verified 2026) Official source

How this record was verified: Direct read of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, Title 44, Chapter 7 (Landlord and Tenant), Articles 1 through 6 complete, as published by Georgia's designated public-access code service and current through the 2026 Special Session, together with a term search of the Georgia Rules and Regulations for advertised-price and mandatory-fee rules reaching dwellings, a reading of the Georgia Landlord-Tenant Handbook published by the Department of Community Affairs, and a review of the Governor's official records of legislation signed and vetoed in the 2025 session, the 2026 session, and the 2026 Special Session.