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

No statutory cap on application fees.

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

No statutory receipt duty for application money.

Does Idaho have a reusable tenant screening report law?

No statute on reusable screening reports.

Can a landlord charge a holding deposit in Idaho?

No statute on holding deposits.

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

Verified August 26, 2026 All Idaho topics →

What did not become law. None of the following is law; failed bills are sometimes still described as if enacted:

H0701 (2026) — Would have added Idaho Code section 55-316 to limit rental application fees: no more than two applicant households charged for the same home at one time; a fee allowed only where a home is available, will become available by a specified date, or the applicant agrees in writing to go on a waiting list; the screening process disclosed before the application is accepted and then actually completed; a charge only to each household member who requires a criminal history and background check; and all fees related to the average costs of the screening and of processing the application. Status: Introduced February 16, 2026 and referred to the House Business Committee on February 17, 2026; it received no further action and the session has since ended. (checked August 26, 2026).
S1042, as amended (2025) — Would have added Idaho Code section 55-315 with a similar rental application fee limit: no more than two applicant households charged at one time, a sixty-day availability condition or a written waiting-list acknowledgment, disclosure before the application is accepted of the criteria the landlord would review including criminal history, credit score, income, employment and rental history, and completion of the applicant's criminal history and background check. Status: Passed the Senate 23 to 12 on February 19, 2025 and was referred to the House Business Committee on February 20, 2025, where it received no further action before the session ended. (checked August 26, 2026).

Idaho does not regulate the application stage of a residential tenancy at all: there is no cap on application or screening fees, no requirement that a fee match the cost of screening, no receipt, refund, or disclosure duty, no state denial-notice rule, and no law on holding deposits or reusable screening reports.

Cited to Idaho Code § 55-305 (1)-(3) and 17 more cited sources · Verified August 26, 2026

The one Idaho provision that limits residential rental fees, section 55-305, requires that fees imposed on a residential tenant be reasonable and bars charging a tenant a fee larger than the rental agreement provides, but it is written around people who already hold a rental agreement rather than around applicants. Idaho also bars local governments from enacting ordinances that would regulate rent, fees, or deposits charged for leasing private residential property, so cities and counties have limited room to fill the gap. The legislature has considered an application fee law in each of the last two sessions and has not passed one.

Idaho 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, Idaho Application & Screening Fee Laws (verified August 26, 2026), landlordatlas.com/laws/application-fees/idaho/" — 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 — That Idaho sets no cap does not mean any amount is lawful in every case. It means the amount and the terms are governed by what the landlord offers and the applicant agrees to, and by general contract and consumer protection law, rather than by a rule written for rental applications.
Section 55-305 covers tenants, not applicants — Idaho's reasonableness requirement for residential rental fees speaks of a residential tenant and of the tenant of a rental property, and applies to rental agreements entered into or renewed on or after July 1, 2023. Someone who has paid to apply but has not signed a rental agreement is outside it.
Section numbers changed in 2025 — The 2025 landlord and tenant code reorganization, chapter 65 of the 2025 session laws, took effect July 1, 2025 and renumbered much of Title 55, chapter 3. The fee reasonableness provision enacted in 2023 as section 55-314 is now section 55-305. Older material may still cite the earlier number.
Local rules are limited — Section 55-306, added in 2025, bars a local governmental unit from enacting, maintaining, or enforcing an ordinance or resolution that would have the effect of requiring property owners to take part in an optional federal housing assistance program or any other program or law that would otherwise regulate rent, fees, or deposits charged for leasing private residential property. It does not say in terms whether an application fee counts as such a fee.
Federal law still applies — A landlord who turns down an applicant based on a credit or background report has duties under the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act, including notice of the decision and of the reporting agency that supplied the report. Those are federal duties; Idaho adds none of its own.
Deposit rules start at the tenancy — Idaho's security deposit statute defines security deposits as amounts deposited by a tenant, and its refund deadlines of twenty-one days by default and thirty days at the outside run from the surrender of the home at the end of a tenancy. Money paid before any tenancy exists, such as a payment to hold a home, is not covered.
What the legislature has been asked to do — Bills to limit rental application fees were introduced in 2025 and 2026. The 2025 bill passed the Senate before dying in a House committee; the 2026 bill never left committee. Both would have added a new section rather than amended the existing fee provision, and neither became law.
Manufactured homes and short-term rentals are separate — Idaho's Manufactured Home Residency Act and Floating Homes Residency Act, and the state's short-term and vacation rental measures, sit in their own parts of the code and are not covered here.
About the application fee rule — Idaho sets no limit on what a landlord or property manager may charge a person applying for a home. The one fee-limiting section in Idaho's landlord and tenant law, section 55-305, requires that fees imposed on a residential tenant be reasonable and bars charging a tenant a fee that is larger than the rental agreement provides or that is not in the agreement at all, but it applies to people who already hold a rental agreement rather than to applicants. What an applicant pays is left to the terms the landlord offers and to what the applicant agrees to pay.
How the cost limit works — No Idaho statute ties an application or screening charge to what the screening actually costs. Section 55-305, the state's only fee-reasonableness provision for residential rentals, governs fees charged to a tenant under a rental agreement and says nothing about the price of screening an applicant.
Screening charges — Idaho places no conditions on tenant-screening charges. There is no rule about who may charge, how many applicants may be charged for the same home, whether a screening must actually be run, or what must be agreed in writing first. Tenant screening appears in the Idaho Code only in the consumer credit security freeze chapter, which lets a consumer reporting agency release frozen information to a third party using it for tenant screening; that duty falls on the reporting agency, not on a landlord, and it involves no fee.
What the receipt duty covers — Idaho requires no receipt for application or screening money. The closest written-accounting duty in Idaho law is the itemized statement a landlord must give a tenant when returning less than a full security deposit after the tenancy ends, which does not reach money paid to apply.
When money must come back — No Idaho statute requires a landlord to return an application or screening fee in any circumstance, including where the home is already taken, the applicant is never screened, or the application is withdrawn. Idaho's only statutory refund duty for rental money is the security deposit rule, which is triggered by the end of a lease and the surrender of the home.
Refunds — Because Idaho imposes no refund duty at the application stage, there is no statutory deadline, no formula for how much must come back, and no list of circumstances that trigger a return. Whether any part of an application fee is refundable is a matter for the terms the landlord sets out. Idaho's twenty-one day and thirty day deadlines apply to security deposits after a tenancy ends.
What must be disclosed up front — Idaho requires nothing to be told to an applicant before money changes hands: not the screening criteria, not what the fee pays for, not the applicant's rights. The written-notice duties Idaho does impose in this area run to people who already hold a tenancy, namely thirty days' written notice of a rent increase or of nonrenewal, and thirty days' written notice of a change in a fee not set out in a written rental agreement.
Denial notices — Idaho has no state denial-notice duty for rental applicants. A landlord who turns down an applicant because of a credit or background report is answering to the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act, which is federal law rather than an Idaho rule, and Idaho adds nothing on top of it. The state's own credit-reporting chapter places its duties on consumer reporting agencies.
Reusable screening reports — Idaho has no reusable or portable screening report law. A landlord is under no duty to accept a report an applicant already paid for, there is no bar on charging a fee when such a report is used, and no validity window is set. An applicant who wants a report reused is relying on the landlord's willingness to accept it.
Money to hold a unit — Idaho law does not address money taken from an applicant to hold a home until a lease is signed. There is no cap, no written-statement duty, and no rule about what happens to the money if the lease is signed, if the applicant backs out, or if the landlord rents to someone else. Idaho's deposit statute defines security deposits as amounts deposited by a tenant, so money paid before a tenancy exists falls outside it.
Advertising and fee transparency — Idaho has no all-in advertised price rule, mandatory-fee itemization duty, or hidden-fee ban for residential rental advertising. The Idaho Consumer Protection Act's list of unfair and deceptive practices contains no rental fee or advertised-rent provision, and the Attorney General's consumer protection rules, while they include a general hidden-costs rule and reach renting and leasing in their definition of trade and commerce, set out no price-disclosure rule for homes offered for rent; their detailed advertising rules address motor vehicles.
Penalties — Idaho attaches no damages, penalty, or fee forfeiture to a landlord's conduct at the application stage, because it imposes no duty there. The reasonableness requirement for fees charged to tenants carries no remedy on its face. The Idaho Consumer Protection Act allows a person who buys or leases goods or services and suffers an ascertainable loss to recover actual damages or one thousand dollars, whichever is greater, plus attorney fees to a prevailing plaintiff, but that remedy depends on a practice the act declares unlawful, and Idaho declares no application-fee practice unlawful.

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

Citations

Idaho Code § 55-305 · (1)-(3) (verified 2026) Official source
Idaho Code Title 55, ch. 3 (contents) (verified 2026) Official source
Idaho Code § 55-305 · (1) (verified 2026) Official source
Idaho Code § 28-52-105 · (f) (verified 2026) Official source
Idaho Code § 55-305 · (2) (verified 2026) Official source
Idaho Code § 6-321 · (2) (verified 2026) Official source
Idaho Code § 6-321 · (1) (verified 2026) Official source
Idaho Code § 6-321 · (1)-(2) (verified 2026) Official source
Idaho Code § 55-304 · (2) (verified 2026) Official source
Idaho Code § 55-305 · (2)(b)(ii) (verified 2026) Official source
Idaho Code § 28-52-105 (verified 2026) Official source
Idaho Code § 48-603 (verified 2026) Official source
IDAPA 04.02.01, Idaho Rules of Consumer Protection · Rules 60, 230-237 (verified 2026) Official source
Idaho Code § 48-608 · (1), (5) (verified 2026) Official source
Idaho Code § 55-305 (verified 2026) Official source
Idaho Code § 55-306 (verified 2026) Official source
Idaho Code § 6-321 (verified 2026) Official source
Idaho Code § 48-608 (verified 2026) Official source

How this record was verified: Direct read of Idaho Code Title 55, chapter 3 (Rights and Obligations of Owners) and Title 6, chapter 3 (Forcible Entry and Unlawful Detainer) as published by the Idaho Legislature, including the full chapter contents lists and the operative text of sections 55-304, 55-305, 55-306, 6-320 and 6-321; plus sections 28-52-105, 48-603 and 48-608, the Idaho Rules of Consumer Protection at IDAPA 04.02.01, statute-wide term searches on the Legislature's own Idaho Statutes search for application fee, tenant screening, screening fee, screening report, holding deposit, credit report, junk fee, mandatory fee, total price and adverse action, and a reading of the Legislature's complete 2025 and 2026 legislation lists for rental fee measures.