Delaware Rental Application Form
Delaware caps the rental application fee at the greater of 10 percent of the monthly rent for the unit or $50, under 25 Del. C. Section 5514(d), so the fifty dollar figure is a floor beneath the percentage rather than a maximum. A second ceiling at Section 5310(a) limits the charge to the specific cost of the investigation. Delaware requires a receipt and record keeping rather than a refund, and doubles the damages for an overcharge.
Find out where you stand in Delaware
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Introduction
Ten percent of the monthly rent is Delaware's application fee ceiling, and the fifty dollar figure printed beside it is the floor beneath that percentage rather than a cap on top of it. The wording in 25 Del. C. Section 5514(d) is that a landlord may charge an application fee, not to exceed the greater of either 10 percent of the monthly rent for the rental unit or $50, to determine a tenant's credit worthiness. Read the words the greater of either carefully, because they are the whole of the mechanism. On a unit where 10 percent of the rent comes to more than fifty dollars, the percentage is the limit and the fifty dollars is irrelevant. On a cheaper unit, where 10 percent lands under fifty dollars, the fifty dollars becomes the limit instead. In neither case is fifty dollars the most a Delaware landlord may charge, which is the single most common error made about this state. The same subsection also tells you what counts: where a tenant is required to pay a fee to determine the tenant's credit worthiness, such fee is an application fee. The label on the invoice does not decide it; the function does. A second and entirely separate ceiling sits underneath that one, in a different chapter of the code. Section 5310(a) bars a landlord from charging a prospective tenant more than the specific cost of a credit or other type of investigation, so a fee that clears the percentage test can still be unlawful if it exceeds what the investigation actually cost. Both ceilings apply at once, and the lower of them is the one that matters in practice. What Delaware does not do is make the landlord give the money back. There is no refund duty here, and no duty to itemize or return an unused portion. The state works through paper and penalties instead. The landlord shall, upon receipt of any money paid as an application fee, furnish a receipt to the tenant for the full amount paid, and shall maintain for a period of at least 2 years complete records of all application fees charged and amounts received for each such fee. Section 5310(b) adds a 6 month retention duty for the records of each application made by any prospective tenant, and puts the Consumer Protection Unit of the Attorney General's office behind it. And where a landlord unlawfully demands more than the allowable application fee, the tenant shall be entitled to damages equal to double the amount charged. So the Delaware question is arithmetic plus evidence: what was 10 percent of that rent, what did the investigation cost, and what does the receipt say.
Key Things to Know
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Two Delaware ceilings apply to the same charge, and they come from different chapters of the code. The first is the percentage test in Section 5514(d): the greater of 10 percent of the monthly rent for the rental unit or $50. The second is in Section 5310(a), which bars charging a prospective tenant more than the specific cost of a credit or other type of investigation. Because both bind at once, clearing one is not a defense to the other. A fee set at 10 percent of a high rent is still unlawful if the credit investigation cost less than that, and a fee pitched at the specific cost of the investigation is still unlawful if it climbs above the percentage ceiling. The fee figure in Section 5514(d) traces to the recodification of the section at 70 Del. Laws, c. 513, and the only later amendment to Section 5514 altered subsection (a) rather than the fee, so the figure stands as published for 2026.
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A receipt is not optional in Delaware and it is not for a part of the money. Section 5514(d) requires the landlord, upon receipt of any money paid as an application fee, to furnish a receipt to the tenant for the full amount paid by the tenant. The same sentence imposes a record-keeping duty running well past the application: the landlord shall maintain for a period of at least 2 years complete records of all application fees charged and amounts received for each such fee. That two year window is longer than most state fee-record duties in this area and it is what makes a pattern of overcharging across many applicants visible rather than deniable.
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Delaware has no refund duty attached to the application fee, and that is a real difference rather than an oversight. The Residential Landlord-Tenant Code was read through for one, and the section that comes closest runs the other way: Section 5311 provides that except for an optional service fee for actual services rendered, such as a pool fee or tennis court fee, a landlord shall not charge to a tenant any nonrefundable fee as a condition for occupancy of the rental unit. That provision speaks to a tenant under a rental agreement, not to a prospective applicant, and the code treats the application fee as its own permitted category. So an applicant whose fee was within both ceilings and who was turned down has no statutory claim to the money back. What Delaware gives instead is the ceilings, the receipt and the penalty.
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The penalty for an overcharge is a multiplier rather than a fixed sum. Section 5514(d) states that where the landlord unlawfully demands more than the allowable application fee, the tenant shall be entitled to damages equal to double the amount charged as an application fee by the landlord. Read the words carefully: the measure is double the amount charged, not double the excess over the ceiling. The charge that triggers it is an unlawful demand for more than the allowable fee, which on a Delaware application can mean more than the percentage ceiling in Section 5514(d) or more than the specific cost of the investigation under Section 5310(a). Attorney review of a particular charge is available as an option.
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Delaware draws a statutory line around what may be asked for at the application stage, and it calls everything outside that line assurance money. Section 5310(a) provides that in every transaction wherein an application is made by a prospective tenant to lease a dwelling unit, the prospective landlord or owner shall not ask for, nor receive, any assurance money or other payment which is not an application fee, security deposit, surety bond fee or premium, pet deposit or similar deposit reserving the dwelling unit for the prospective tenant for a time certain. That short list is the boundary between a lawful application fee and an unlawful up-front demand, and it is also where Delaware locates the holding deposit: a deposit reserving the unit is permitted only where it reserves it for a time certain.
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The application papers outlive the application, and a state agency can go and look at them. Section 5310(b) requires each landlord to retain, for a period of 6 months, the records of each application made by any prospective tenant. On any complaint of a violation of that section, the Consumer Protection Unit of the Attorney General's office shall investigate, shall interview tenants of the landlord, and shall, under appropriate search warrant, have the right to investigate all records of the landlord pertaining to applications made within the preceding 6 months. That is a public enforcement route sitting alongside the private double-damages remedy, and it is why the two retention periods, 6 months for applications and 2 years for fee records, are worth noting as separate clocks.
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Where the rent money comes from is not a lawful ground of refusal in Delaware, and the rule sits inside the Landlord-Tenant Code rather than only in the Fair Housing Act. Section 5116(a) provides that no person, being an owner or agent of any real estate, house, apartment or other premises, may refuse or decline to rent to any tenant or any person by reason of race, creed, religion, marital status, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, age, source of income, occupation, military status, housing status, familial status, or any other basis protected under Chapter 46 of Title 6. Subsection (g) keeps income and credit assessment available but fences it: any sufficiency or sustainability of income test, and any credit requirement, must be applied in a commercially reasonable manner and without regard to source of income.
Key decisions before you file
Before you file a Rental Application Form in Delaware, a few decisions shape the document: which option to choose and what each one means. The Rental Application Form guide walks through them.
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Delaware Requirements for Rental Application Form
The Percentage Ceiling, With Fifty Dollars as Its Floor
25 Del. C. Section 5514(d) permits an application fee not to exceed the greater of either 10 percent of the monthly rent for the rental unit or $50, charged to determine a tenant's credit worthiness. Because the statute says the greater of either, the ceiling moves with the rent and the fifty dollars is the floor beneath the percentage rather than a maximum above it. The subsection also defines the charge by what it does: where a tenant is required to pay a fee to determine the tenant's credit worthiness, such fee is an application fee, whatever it is called. The figure traces to the recodification of the section at 70 Del. Laws, c. 513; the only later amendment to Section 5514 altered subsection (a), and the section is published as a single version with no future-effective twin.
The Second Ceiling: the Specific Cost of the Investigation
25 Del. C. Section 5310(a) independently bars charging a prospective tenant, as a fee for any credit or other type of investigation, more than the specific cost of that investigation. It sits in a different chapter from the percentage cap and applies at the same time, so a Delaware application fee has to clear both tests. Clearing the percentage ceiling is no answer to a charge that exceeded what the investigation actually cost, and matching the investigation cost is no answer to a charge above the percentage ceiling.
A Receipt for the Full Amount Paid
Section 5514(d) requires that the landlord shall, upon receipt of any money paid as an application fee, furnish a receipt to the tenant for the full amount paid by the tenant. The duty is unconditional: it does not depend on the applicant asking, on the size of the fee, or on whether the application is later granted. Delaware does not require an itemization of what the fee was spent on, so this receipt plus the specific-cost ceiling is what an applicant has to work with when testing a charge.
Two Record-Keeping Clocks: Two Years and Six Months
Section 5514(d) requires the landlord to maintain, for a period of at least 2 years, complete records of all application fees charged and amounts received for each such fee. Section 5310(b) separately requires each landlord to retain, for a period of 6 months, the records of each application made by any prospective tenant. The two clocks measure different things, the money and the applications, and they run for different lengths, which matters to a landlord building a retention policy and to an applicant asking what still exists.
Double Damages for an Unlawful Demand
Section 5514(d) provides that where the landlord unlawfully demands more than the allowable application fee, the tenant shall be entitled to damages equal to double the amount charged as an application fee by the landlord. The measure is double the amount charged, not double the excess over the ceiling, so the exposure is not proportionate to the size of the overstep. Delaware states no separate penalty figure for the receipt or record-keeping duties.
Assurance Money: the Closed List of Permitted Up-Front Payments
Section 5310(a) provides that in every transaction wherein an application is made by a prospective tenant to lease a dwelling unit, the prospective landlord or owner of the dwelling unit shall not ask for, nor receive, any assurance money or other payment which is not an application fee, security deposit, surety bond fee or premium, pet deposit or similar deposit reserving the dwelling unit for the prospective tenant for a time certain. Anything else demanded before the tenancy is prohibited assurance money. Note the qualifier on the holding deposit: it is permitted only where it reserves the unit for a time certain.
Attorney General Enforcement of the Application Rules
Section 5310(b) provides that upon any complaint of a violation of that section, the Consumer Protection Unit of the Attorney General's office shall investigate the same, shall interview tenants of the landlord and shall, under appropriate search warrant, have the right to investigate all records of the landlord pertaining to applications made within the preceding 6 months. That public route runs alongside the private double-damages remedy, and the Unit may act to stop a practice rather than only to compensate for a single charge.
Source of Income Is a Protected Basis
25 Del. C. Section 5116(a) provides that no person, being an owner or agent of any real estate, house, apartment or other premises, may refuse or decline to rent to any tenant or any person by reason of race, creed, religion, marital status, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, age, source of income, occupation, military status, housing status, familial status, or any other basis protected under Chapter 46 of Title 6. Subsection (g) fences the income and credit question rather than removing it: any sufficiency or sustainability of income test and any credit requirement must be applied in a commercially reasonable manner and without regard to source of income. Delaware has no statewide restriction on the use of criminal history in a rental decision, and prescribes no conditional-offer sequence and no individualized assessment.