Rental Application and Tenant-Screening Fee Requirements in Vermont

At a glance

Residential application fees are prohibited

Vermont Statutes title 9, § 4456a(a) states that a landlord or the landlord’s agent “shall not charge an application fee” to an individual applying to enter into a rental agreement for a residential dwelling unit. Section 4451 defines a landlord as the owner, lessor, or applicable sublessor and defines a dwelling unit as a building or part of one used as a home, residence, or sleeping place by people maintaining a household.

The prohibition does not apply to a fee charged to apply to rent commercial or nonresidential property. The current residential statute states no actual-cost, reasonable-cost, customary-cost, or indexed exception. It also does not separately authorize charging the applicant for a credit report, background check, or other screening report.

Identification choices for background and credit checks

For a background or credit check, § 4456a(b)(1) requires the landlord to accept any one of three alternatives:

• an original or copy of any unexpired government-issued identification;
• an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number; or
• a Social Security number.

The landlord or agent may not require a Social Security number to complete the residential rental application and may not refuse to accept the application because the applicant lacks one.

What the statute does not add

Section 4456a creates no special unit-availability or screening-criteria disclosure, fee receipt, report-copy duty, unused-fee refund deadline, applicant-supplied or reusable-report process, application-order rule, or state denial-reason notice. It also states no fee-specific damages, fixed penalty, cure period, attorney-fee rule, enforcement formula, or local-preemption clause. Federal consumer-reporting duties and stronger local rules may apply independently.

What trips people up

The identification amendment did not create a screening-fee exception. The current section regulates what a landlord must accept to conduct a background or credit check, but it does not say that the applicant may be charged the check’s actual cost.

The statute does not define “application fee.” It clearly prohibits that fee, but it does not supply a separate definition for a differently labeled screening or processing charge. A label alone does not resolve whether a particular charge is the prohibited application fee.

The commercial carveout is not a residential exception. It preserves fees for applications to rent commercial or nonresidential property; it does not permit an application fee for a residential dwelling unit.

Common questions

Can a Vermont landlord charge the actual cost of a background check? Section 4456a does not separately authorize that charge or state an actual-cost exception to its residential application-fee prohibition.

Must I provide a Social Security number? No. The landlord must accept one of the listed identification or taxpayer-number alternatives and cannot reject the application merely because it lacks a Social Security number.

Must the landlord give me a copy of the screening report? Section 4456a states no special Vermont report-copy duty. Federal consumer-reporting law may create separate rights.

Does Vermont require applications to be processed in order? No first-in- order, first-qualified, or single-application process appears in § 4456a.

Statutes and sources

• 9 V.S.A. § 4456a — residential application-fee prohibition, nonresidential carveout, identification alternatives, and Social Security number rule.

  A landlord or a landlord’s agent shall not charge an application fee to any individual in order to apply to enter into a rental agreement for a residential dwelling unit.

Official source: http://legislature.vermont.gov/statutes/section/09/137/04456a (accessed 2026-07-21) - 9 V.S.A. § 4451(3)-(4), (8) — dwelling-unit, landlord, and rental-agreement definitions.

“Landlord” means the owner, lessor, or where applicable, the sublessor of a residential dwelling unit or the building of which it is a part.

Official source: http://legislature.vermont.gov/statutes/section/09/137/04451 (accessed 2026-07-21)