Vermont: Rental Application and Tenant-Screening Fee Requirements
The short answer
Vermont bars a landlord or agent from charging an application fee to an individual applying for a residential dwelling unit; commercial and nonresidential applications are outside that rule. The current statute provides no actual-cost exception and does not separately authorize charging the applicant for a credit, background, or other screening report. For a background or credit check, the landlord must accept an original or copy of any unexpired government-issued identification, an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number, or a Social Security number, and may not require a Social Security number or reject the application because one is absent.
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This is the general rule in Vermont. Ezel applies current Vermont law to your specific facts and answers with citations to the statutes.
| Governing law and coverage | 9 V.S.A. § 4456a; landlords (owners, lessors, and applicable sublessors) and their agents charging an individual to apply for a residential dwelling unit; commercial and nonresidential applications excluded |
|---|---|
| Fees allowed or prohibited | Application fee prohibited; § 4456a states no actual-cost exception and does not separately authorize an applicant-paid credit, background, or other screening-report charge |
| Maximum charge and adjustment | $0 for the prohibited residential application fee; no separate numeric, actual-cost, customary-cost, or indexed screening-charge ceiling stated (§ 4456a(a)) |
| Permitted costs and charge timing | No residential application-fee cost category or collection stage authorized; commercial and nonresidential applications are outside the prohibition (§ 4456a(a)) |
| Before-screening disclosures | No special unit-availability, fee-amount, screening-criteria, report-source, dispute-right, or application-order disclosure in § 4456a |
| Receipt, report copy, and refund | No special application-fee receipt, screening-report copy, or unused, excess, duplicate, or unconsidered-fee refund process stated in § 4456a |
| Applicant-supplied or reusable reports | No statewide applicant-supplied or reusable-report process; for a background or credit check, landlord must accept unexpired government ID, ITIN, or SSN as specified (§ 4456a(b)(1)) |
| Application order and adverse action | No first-in-order, first-qualified, single-application, or state denial-reason notice process; landlord may not require an SSN to complete the application or refuse it for lack of an SSN (§ 4456a(b)(2)) |
| Remedies and stronger local rules | Section 4456a states no fee-specific damages, penalty, cure, attorney-fee, or enforcement formula and no local-preemption or stronger-local-law clause |
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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)
Source links
Every statute quoted above, linked, with the date we checked it.
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