Connecticut Rental Application Form

Introduction

Key Things to Know

1. 1

   The fifty dollars is where Connecticut's screening fee ceiling starts, not where it stands. Section 47a-4d(c) sets the limit at fifty dollars plus an adjustment reflecting any increase in the consumer price index for urban consumers, as determined by the Commissioner of Housing on an annual basis, and that language has been in force since October 1, 2023. The determination belongs to a named state official rather than to the landlord, which is the unusual part. The practical problem is that no published determination, notice or table could be found on any Connecticut state source, so there is no official current total to quote and this page does not invent one. An applicant who wants to test a charge works from the vendor invoice the landlord has to supply, not from a number on a website.

2. 2

   The list of charges a Connecticut landlord may demand before a tenancy starts is closed and short: a security deposit under Section 47a-21, advance payment for the first month's rent, a deposit for a key or any special equipment, and the one tenant screening report fee. Everything else named or unnamed is barred by Section 47a-4d(b), which reaches any payment, fee or charge for the processing, review or acceptance of any rental application and also any other payment, fee or charge demanded before or at the beginning of the tenancy. The same subsection separately bans a move-in fee and a move-out fee. An administrative fee, a holding fee or a processing charge does not become lawful by being renamed, because the statute regulates the demand rather than the label.

3. 3

   Two documents are owed to anyone who paid a Connecticut screening fee, and the second is the one that matters for the money. Under Section 47a-4d(d) the landlord shall provide a copy of the tenant screening report, or, where the landlord is prohibited from providing a copy, information concerning the report that would allow the applicant to request a copy from the service provider that produced it. The landlord shall also provide a copy of the receipt or invoice from the entity conducting the report. Section 47a-4d contains no duty to return an unused portion of the fee, so the invoice duty is what gives the ceiling its teeth: it puts the actual cost of the report in the applicant's hands.

4. 4

   One fee has to stretch across four kinds of report. Section 47a-4d(a) provides that a tenant screening report means a credit report, a criminal background report, an employment history report, a rental history report or any combination thereof, used by a landlord to determine the suitability of a prospective tenant. That definition is what keeps the ceiling from being sidestepped by splitting the work into separate line items, because the permission in subsection (c) is for a fee for a tenant screening report, not a fee per report type. Anything charged beyond that single permitted fee falls back under the subsection (b) prohibition.

5. 5

   Connecticut treats one class of criminal record as a protected characteristic rather than as information to be weighed. Since January 1, 2023, Section 46a-80c has made it a discriminatory practice to refuse to rent after a bona fide offer, to refuse to negotiate, to otherwise make unavailable or deny a dwelling, to discriminate in the terms, conditions or privileges of a rental, or to advertise a preference, on the basis of erased criminal history record information. Section 46a-80a(4) defines that term as records erased under Section 54-142a or Section 54-76o or any other provision of the general statutes or operation of law, information relating to a person granted youthful offender status under Section 46b-146, and continuances of a criminal case that are more than thirteen months old. The protection covers not only the applicant but a person residing or intending to reside in the dwelling and any person associated with the applicant. Section 46a-80c(b) carves out the rental of a room in a unit the owner occupies as a residence, and a unit in a dwelling of not more than four units where the owner occupies another of them. Claims run through the Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities.

6. 6

   Where the rent money comes from is not something a Connecticut landlord may weigh. Section 46a-64c(a)(1) makes it a discriminatory housing practice to refuse to rent after a bona fide offer, to refuse to negotiate, or otherwise to make unavailable or deny a dwelling to any person because of lawful source of income, alongside race, creed, color, national origin, ancestry, sex, gender identity or expression, marital status, age, familial status, status as a veteran and status as a victim of domestic violence. As amended by P.A. 25-139 the list also covers status as a victim of sexual assault and status as a victim of trafficking in persons. A rental application that scores an applicant down for holding a housing voucher is on the wrong side of that section, and enforcement again runs through the Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities.

7. 7

   The two Connecticut rules have different reach, which is easy to miss when they are read together. Section 47a-4d carries no owner-occupied and no unit-count carve-out of its own; what limits it is the chapter 830 definitions of landlord and dwelling unit, which P.A. 23-207 expressly extended to the section, so the chapter's existing exclusions, such as transient occupancy in a hotel or motel, carry across. Section 46a-80c does carry two express owner-occupied carve-outs, set out above. Separately, a 2025 addition at Section 47a-7d(a) bars advertising, displaying or offering a dwelling unit for rent at an amount that excludes any fee, charge or cost the tenant must pay on a periodic basis, and requires such charges to be prorated into the advertised rent. That is a price-transparency duty about the rent rather than the application, but it is the other place Connecticut now polices a fee that appears late.

Connecticut Requirements for Rental Application Form

• No Fee at All for Processing the Application

  Conn. Gen. Stat. Section 47a-4d(b) provides that no landlord may demand from a prospective tenant any payment, fee or charge for the processing, review or acceptance of any rental application, or demand any other payment, fee or charge before or at the beginning of the tenancy, except a security deposit under Section 47a-21, advance payment for the first month's rent, a deposit for a key or any special equipment, or a fee for a tenant screening report under subsection (c). The same subsection adds that no landlord may charge a tenant a move-in or move-out fee. The list of exceptions is closed, so renaming a charge does not bring it inside. In force since October 1, 2023.

• The One Permitted Fee, and the Official Who Sets Its Ceiling

  Section 47a-4d(c) provides that on and after October 1, 2023 a landlord may charge a fee not exceeding fifty dollars plus an adjustment reflecting any increase in the consumer price index for urban consumers, as determined by the Commissioner of Housing on an annual basis, for a tenant screening report concerning a prospective tenant. The fifty dollars is the statutory base rather than the current ceiling, and the adjustment is a determination assigned to a named state official rather than a calculation the landlord makes. No published determination from the Commissioner could be found on a Connecticut state source, so no current total is stated here. Where a charge needs testing, the vendor invoice required by subsection (d) is the document to work from.

• One Fee Covers Every Kind of Report

  Section 47a-4d(a) defines a tenant screening report as a credit report, a criminal background report, an employment history report, a rental history report or any combination thereof, used by a landlord to determine the suitability of a prospective tenant. Subsection (c) permits a fee for a tenant screening report, singular, so the definition is what stops the ceiling being sidestepped by billing each report type separately. A second or third charge for another component of the same screening falls back under the subsection (b) prohibition on any other pre-tenancy payment, fee or charge.

• The Report, or the Means of Requesting It

  Section 47a-4d(d)(1) requires a landlord that charges a screening fee to provide the prospective tenant a copy of the tenant screening report or, where the landlord is prohibited from providing such a copy, information concerning the report that would allow the applicant to request a copy from the service provider that produced it. The duty is not conditioned on the applicant asking for it and does not depend on whether the application was approved.

• The Screening Vendor's Receipt or Invoice

  Section 47a-4d(d)(2) requires a copy of the receipt or invoice from the entity conducting the tenant screening report. This is the provision that makes the ceiling in subsection (c) usable, because it puts the actual cost of the report in the applicant's hands rather than leaving the figure to be taken on trust. Section 47a-4d contains no duty to return an unused portion of the fee, so this document, and not a refund, is what Connecticut gives an applicant who wants to check the charge.

• Erased Criminal History Record Information Is Off Limits

  Since January 1, 2023, Section 46a-80c has made it a discriminatory practice to refuse to rent after a bona fide offer, to refuse to negotiate, to otherwise make unavailable or deny a dwelling, to discriminate in the terms, conditions or privileges of a rental, or to advertise a preference, on the basis of erased criminal history record information. Section 46a-80a(4) defines that as records erased under Section 54-142a or Section 54-76o or any other provision of the general statutes or operation of law, information relating to a person granted youthful offender status under Section 46b-146, and continuances of a criminal case more than thirteen months old. The protection covers the applicant, a person residing or intending to reside in the dwelling, and any person associated with the applicant. Section 46a-80c(b) carves out the rental of a room in a unit the owner occupies as a residence, and a unit in a dwelling of not more than four units where the owner occupies another. Claims run through the Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities. Connecticut prescribes no conditional-offer sequence and no individualized assessment.

• Lawful Source of Income Is a Protected Basis

  Section 46a-64c(a)(1) makes it a discriminatory housing practice to refuse to rent after the making of a bona fide offer, to refuse to negotiate for a rental, or otherwise to make unavailable or deny a dwelling to any person because of lawful source of income, alongside race, creed, color, national origin, ancestry, sex, gender identity or expression, marital status, age, familial status, status as a veteran and status as a victim of domestic violence. As amended by P.A. 25-139 the list also covers status as a victim of sexual assault and status as a victim of trafficking in persons. The section reaches the terms, conditions and privileges of a rental as well as the refusal itself, so it bears on how an application is handled and not only on the final answer.

• Who the Fee Rule Reaches, and What Connecticut Does Not Require

  Section 47a-4d carries no owner-occupied and no unit-count carve-out of its own. What bounds it is the chapter 830 definitions of landlord and dwelling unit, which P.A. 23-207 expressly extended to the section, so that chapter's existing exclusions, such as transient occupancy in a hotel or motel, carry across. Two duties found in neighbouring states are absent here: chapter 830 and chapter 814c were read in full and neither requires a landlord to publish screening criteria before taking a fee, nor to state the reasons for a denial in writing, and neither contains a reusable or portable tenant screening report provision obliging a landlord to accept a report the applicant already paid for. A 2022 bill that would have required a fee waiver in that situation was not enacted.