Mississippi: Rental Application and Tenant-Screening Fee Requirements
The short answer
Mississippi has no general statewide statute that caps or otherwise specifically regulates a residential application, processing, credit-check, background-check, or tenant-screening fee. The current Residential Landlord and Tenant Act and real-estate broker licensing chapter do not create special precharge disclosures, receipts, report copies, refunds, reusable-report acceptance, application order, denial notices, or fee-specific damages. Application terms and generally applicable law may still matter, but Mississippi supplies no dedicated screening-fee process.
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This is the general rule in Mississippi. Ezel applies current Mississippi law to your specific facts and answers with citations to the statutes.
| Governing law and coverage | No general statewide application/screening-fee statute after audit of Miss. Code Title 89 and Title 73 ch. 35; ch. 89-8 covers rental agreements for Mississippi dwelling units, subject to § 89-8-3 exclusions |
|---|---|
| Fees allowed or prohibited | No statewide provision specifically authorizes or prohibits application, processing, credit-check, background-check, or tenant-screening fees |
| Maximum charge and adjustment | No statewide numeric, actual-cost, reasonable-cost, customary-cost, per-applicant, per-household, or indexed ceiling in the audited statutes |
| Permitted costs and charge timing | No statewide fee-component, vacancy, charge-when-considered, or multiple-concurrent-application restriction |
| Before-screening disclosures | No special statewide availability, fee-basis, screening-criteria, report-source, dispute-right, or application-order disclosure |
| Receipt, report copy, and refund | No special statewide application-fee receipt, landlord-obtained-report-copy, unused-fee refund, or unconsidered-application refund rule |
| Applicant-supplied or reusable reports | No statewide applicant-supplied or reusable screening-report acceptance or no-fee procedure |
| Application order and adverse action | No statewide first-in-order, first-qualified, single-application, or state denial-reason notice process for rental applications |
| Remedies and stronger local rules | No application-fee-specific statutory damages or enforcement provision; audited statutes state no application-fee local-preemption clause |
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Mississippi has no special statewide fee process
The current Mississippi Residential Landlord and Tenant Act contains no rule
specifically addressing a residential application, processing, credit-check,
background-check, or tenant-screening fee. The complete real-estate broker
licensing scheme in Title 73, chapter 35 was also audited. Its application-fee
and background-investigation provisions concern applicants for professional
licenses, not applicants for rental housing.
Accordingly, the audited state statutes create no special statewide requirement
for:
- a maximum dollar amount, actual-cost formula, or annual adjustment;
- proof that a unit is available or that an application will be considered;
- advance disclosure of the fee basis, screening criteria, or report source;
- an application-fee receipt, report copy, or unused-fee refund;
- acceptance of an applicant-supplied or reusable report;
- first-in-order or first-qualified processing; or
- a state-format denial or conditional-approval notice.
This is the ordinary statewide rule. A government-assisted or other specially
regulated housing program may impose additional requirements.
Coverage and ordinary-law boundary
Miss. Code § 89-8-3 applies chapter 89-8 to rental agreements for dwelling units
in Mississippi and lists exclusions, including institutional residence,
transient lodging, purchaser occupancy, owner occupancy of a condominium or
cooperative, and specified agricultural arrangements. The same section preserves
rights and remedies at law or in equity that the chapter does not prohibit.
Miss. Code § 89-8-7(1)(c), (f), (l), and (m) define a dwelling unit, landlord,
rental agreement, and tenant. Those provisions establish the chapter's coverage
but do not create an application-fee ceiling or screening process. Without a
fee-specific statute, the written application, the parties' representations,
and generally applicable law may still matter to a particular dispute.
What trips people up
A professional license application is not a rental application. Title 73,
chapter 35 requires an application, fees, and a background investigation for a
person seeking a real-estate broker or salesperson license. Those requirements
do not regulate a prospective tenant's screening charge.
The security-deposit rule answers a different question. Miss. Code
§ 89-8-21(1) governs money whose primary function is to secure performance of
a rental agreement. This survey excludes security and holding deposits from
the application-fee answer.
Federal and program rules remain separate. The absence of a Mississippi
screening-fee statute does not eliminate federal consumer-reporting or fair-
housing duties, and it does not establish the rules for a particular subsidized
housing program.
Common questions
Is there a statewide maximum application fee? No numeric or cost-based cap
appears in the current audited state statutes.
Must the landlord refund the fee if another applicant rents the unit? The
audited statutes create no special statewide unused-fee or unconsidered-
application refund rule.
Must the landlord provide the credit or background report? Mississippi's
audited state schemes impose no special report-copy duty tied to an application
fee. Federal consumer-reporting law may apply separately.
Does Mississippi require reusable screening reports? No statewide
applicant-supplied or reusable-report acceptance procedure appears in the
audited statutes.
Statutes and sources
- Miss. Code chapter 89-8 — complete Residential Landlord and Tenant Act
audited for the statewide negative.AN ACT TO BRING FORWARD SECTIONS 89-8-1, 89-8-3, 89-8-5, 89-8-7 ... AND
89-8-45, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, WHICH REGULATE THE RESIDENTIAL LANDLORD
AND TENANT ACT.
Official source: http://billstatus.ls.state.ms.us/documents/2024/pdf/HB/1500-1599/HB1580IN.pdf (accessed 2026-07-21)
- Miss. Code § 89-8-3 — current coverage, exclusions, and preservation of
other rights and remedies.
This chapter shall apply to, regulate and determine rights, obligations and
remedies under any rental agreement ... for a dwelling unit located within
this state.
Official source: http://billstatus.ls.state.ms.us/documents/2025/pdf/SB/2300-2399/SB2328SG.pdf (accessed 2026-07-21)
- Miss. Code § 89-8-7 — current definitions of dwelling unit, landlord,
rental agreement, and tenant.
\"Landlord\" means the owner, lessor or sublessor of the dwelling unit or
the building of which it is a part, or the agent representing such owner,
lessor or sublessor.
Official source: http://billstatus.ls.state.ms.us/documents/2025/pdf/HB/1200-1299/HB1200SG.pdf (accessed 2026-07-21)
- Miss. Code Title 73, chapter 35 — complete real-estate broker licensing
scheme audited for tenant-facing application-fee and screening rules.
§ 73-35-9. Application for license. § 73-35-10. Background investigation
required of applicants for real estate broker's, real estate salesperson's,
or nonresident's license.
Official code source: https://unicourt.github.io/cic-code-ms/transforms/ms/ocms/r78/gov.ms.code.title.73.html (accessed 2026-07-21)
Source links
Every statute quoted above, linked, with the date we checked it.
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