Louisiana Rental Application Form

Introduction

Key Things to Know

1. 1

   Two hundred words is the length Louisiana gives a rental applicant to explain a thin file, and the right to use them has to be disclosed before the fee is taken. La. R.S. 9:3258.1(A)(3) requires the pre-payment notice to tell the applicant that they may share, in good faith, a statement of two hundred words or less explaining that the applicant has experienced financial hardship resulting from a state or federally declared disaster or emergency and how that hardship impacted the applicant's credit, employment or rental history. Subsection (A)(4) goes further than most disclosure provisions do and names the events: the lessor's notice regarding the statement of financial hardship shall reference the COVID-19 pandemic and hurricanes. The Section says nothing about what the lessor must then do with the statement, so it is an opportunity to add context and not a decision rule.

2. 2

   The notice is a condition on taking the money, which is a different thing from a receipt. La. R.S. 9:3258.1(A) is written as a prohibition: a lessor shall not require payment of an application fee unless, prior to accepting the payment, the lessor gives written notice of all of the listed items. Item (1) is the amount of the application fee, item (2) is whether the lessor considers credit scores, employment history, criminal history or eviction records in deciding whether to rent or lease to the applicant, and item (3) is the hardship statement right. All of it is owed before a dollar changes hands, and under subsection (B) the notice may be delivered, stored and presented by electronic means if the electronic means meet the requirements of the Louisiana Uniform Electronic Transactions Act in R.S. 9:2601 and following.

3. 3

   Louisiana puts no number on the fee, and the absence is a settled one rather than a gap in research. La. R.S. 9:3258.1 contains no amount limit, no percentage, no actual-cost ceiling and no refund obligation, and its credit line reads Acts 2021, No. 422, Section 1, with no later amendment. The legislature has since been asked twice. A 2024 Regular Session bill on application fees paid for leasing residential property has a recorded status of pending in House Commerce after being considered on 25 March 2024, and a 2025 Regular Session bill on the same subject was withdrawn from the files of the House prior to introduction. Neither became law, so the figure a Louisiana applicant is quoted is whatever the notice says it is.

4. 4

   The remedy is the part most summaries of this statute leave out, and leaving it out makes the duty sound stronger than it is. La. R.S. 9:3258.1(D) provides that no person shall have a cause of action against a lessor or a lessor's agents or employees for any alleged violation of this Section, and that a lessor and a lessor's agents and employees are hereby immune from any and all causes of action for alleged violations of this Section. The Section states a duty and then removes any private action for breaching it. An applicant who never received the notice has no claim under the Section, which is why the practical value of the notice is the dated piece of paper it produces.

5. 5

   One carve-out decides whether a Louisiana applicant is owed the notice at all. La. R.S. 9:3258.1(C) provides that the Section shall apply to all lessors of property to be used as a lessee's primary residence except for owner-occupied buildings consisting of no more than four units. Two tests have to be met for the exemption: the building is owner-occupied, and it consists of no more than four units. A small building the owner does not live in is inside the Section, and a large owner-occupied building is inside it too. Because the Section is keyed to property used as the lessee's primary residence, a short-term or vacation letting is outside it as well.

6. 6

   Louisiana sets no statewide restriction on how a record may be used at the application stage, and the page states that as the absence it is. The one Louisiana provision that mentions criminal history in a rental context is the notice duty in La. R.S. 9:3258.1(A)(2), which requires advance disclosure of whether those records are considered and says nothing about the use itself. The Louisiana Equal Housing Opportunity Act at R.S. 51:2606 lists the unlawful practices in housing and contains no record-based provision; its credit line is current through Acts 2025, No. 100, Section 4. A Fair Chance in Housing Act that would have added individualized assessment and record exclusions was filed and never enacted, the 2022 version having been left pending in Senate committee after being considered on 25 May 2022.

7. 7

   Louisiana protects two characteristics that most state comparisons miss, and both reach the application paperwork. La. R.S. 51:2606(A)(1) makes it unlawful to refuse to sell or rent after the making of a bona fide offer, or to refuse to negotiate for the sale or rental of, or otherwise make unavailable or deny, a dwelling to any person because of race, color, religion, sex, familial status, national origin, military status, or natural, protective, or cultural hairstyle. Subsection (A)(3) extends to any notice, statement or advertisement about a rental that indicates a preference, limitation or discrimination on those grounds, which is why nothing on a Louisiana application form or in a Louisiana listing may signal one.

Louisiana Requirements for Rental Application Form

• No Limit on the Amount, and No Refund Duty Either

  La. R.S. 9:3258.1 is Louisiana's dedicated residential lease application statute and it sets no ceiling of any kind on the application fee: no dollar figure, no percentage of rent, no actual-cost limit. It also imposes no duty to refund the fee, to itemize it, or to return an unused portion. Its credit line reads Acts 2021, No. 422, Section 1, with no later amendment. Two further attempts failed in the sessions since: a 2024 bill on application fees paid for leasing residential property was left pending in House Commerce after being considered on 25 March 2024, and a 2025 bill on the same subject was withdrawn from the files of the House prior to introduction.

• Written Notice of the Amount, Before the Money Is Accepted

  La. R.S. 9:3258.1(A) provides that a lessor shall not require payment of an application fee unless, prior to accepting the payment, the lessor gives written notice of all of the listed items, the first of which is the amount of the application fee. The duty runs before collection, so it is a condition on charging rather than a receipt afterwards. Enacted by Acts 2021, No. 422. An applicant who is asked for a fee without having been told the amount in writing is being charged outside the Section.

• Advance Disclosure of What the Decision Rests On

  La. R.S. 9:3258.1(A)(2) requires the same pre-payment notice to state whether the lessor considers credit scores, employment history, criminal history, or eviction records in deciding whether to rent or lease to the applicant. This is a categorical disclosure duty and nothing more: the Section tells the lessor what to say in advance and says nothing about how any of those records may be used. Louisiana sets no statewide restriction on record-based denials, which is why this item is the only place that subject appears in the statute at all.

• The Two Hundred Word Disaster Hardship Statement

  La. R.S. 9:3258.1(A)(3) requires the notice to tell the applicant that they may share, in good faith, a statement of two hundred words or less explaining that the applicant has experienced financial hardship resulting from a state or federally declared disaster or emergency and how that hardship impacted the applicant's credit, employment, or rental history. Subsection (A)(4) then requires that the lessor's notice regarding the statement of financial hardship shall reference the COVID-19 pandemic and hurricanes. The Section does not say what weight the statement carries, so it is a right to add context to the file before the decision rather than an entitlement to any outcome.

• Electronic Delivery of the Notice

  La. R.S. 9:3258.1(B) provides that notice required by the Section may be delivered, stored, and presented by electronic means if the electronic means meet the requirements of the Louisiana Uniform Electronic Transactions Act, as provided in R.S. 9:2601 and following. The timing rule in subsection (A) is unaffected: the notice still has to reach the applicant before the payment is accepted, so an emailed notice that arrives after an online fee has been charged has not satisfied the Section.

• Owner-Occupied Buildings of Four Units or Fewer Are Exempt

  La. R.S. 9:3258.1(C) provides that the Section shall apply to all lessors of property to be used as a lessee's primary residence except for owner-occupied buildings consisting of no more than four units. Both conditions have to hold for the exemption to apply, so a four-unit building whose owner lives elsewhere stays inside the Section and an owner-occupied building of five or more units does too. Because the Section is keyed to property used as the lessee's primary residence, a short-term or vacation letting falls outside it as well.

• The Statute Removes the Cause of Action

  This has to be read together with the notice duty, because the duty sounds stronger on its own than the Section makes it. La. R.S. 9:3258.1(D) provides that no person shall have a cause of action against a lessor or a lessor's agents or employees for any alleged violation of this Section, and that a lessor and a lessor's agents and employees are hereby immune from any and all causes of action for alleged violations of this Section. The Section states no damages figure, no penalty and no private right of action. What it leaves an applicant is the dated notice itself, which is worth asking for and worth keeping.

• Louisiana Protected Characteristics, Including Two the National Form Misses

  La. R.S. 51:2606(A)(1) makes it unlawful to refuse to sell or rent after the making of a bona fide offer, or to refuse to negotiate for the sale or rental of, or otherwise make unavailable or deny, a dwelling to any person because of race, color, religion, sex, familial status, national origin, military status, or natural, protective, or cultural hairstyle. Military status and natural, protective, or cultural hairstyle are Louisiana additions. Subsection (A)(3) reaches any notice, statement or advertisement with respect to the rental of a dwelling that indicates a preference, limitation or discrimination on those grounds, so the application form and the listing both come within it. The section's credit line is current through Acts 2025, No. 100, Section 4.