Nevada Rental Application Form

Introduction

Key Things to Know

1. 1

   Nevada's fee prohibition is scoped to a person rather than to an amount. Section 118A.306(2) bars a landlord from collecting an application fee, a fee to obtain a credit report or a fee to obtain a background check for a minor who is a member of the household of the prospective tenant. Nothing in it caps what may be charged for anyone else. A household application listing two adults and three children can lawfully carry charges for the two adults and may carry none for the three children. The provision was added by the 2025 session and approved June 3, 2025.

2. 2

   The two defined terms do the work, so apply them literally. Under Section 118A.306(3), minor means a person who is under 18 years of age, and household means an association of persons who live in the same home or dwelling and who are related by blood, adoption, marriage or domestic partnership. The prohibition is written for a minor household member of the prospective tenant, which is narrower than every person under 18 who might appear on a form, and an 18-year-old living at home is not a minor for this purpose.

3. 3

   There is no statutory ceiling on what a Nevada landlord may charge an adult applicant. Section 118A.306 names no sum and no cost benchmark, and chapter 118A supplies no other application-fee limit, so Nevada is not a state where an applicant can test a charge against a figure. What an applicant can test is narrower and more concrete: whether a charge was collected for a minor household member, and whether the two-part return condition has been satisfied.

4. 4

   The refund condition is conjunctive and this is the single easiest thing to get backwards. Section 118A.306(1) requires the refund only where the landlord rents the dwelling unit to a different prospective tenant AND does not conduct the activity for which the fee was collected. Losing out on the unit alone does not trigger it. Nor does an unspent fee alone, if the unit went to the applicant who paid. Guidance that states the rule as either-or is reading the subsection too generously.

5. 5

   Both halves of that subsection are drafted to be read broadly within their own limb. The money it reaches is any fee to apply to rent a dwelling unit, including, without limitation, an application fee, a fee to obtain a credit report or a fee to obtain a background check, so a charge is not outside the rule because of what it was called. The activity it measures is likewise illustrative: processing the application, or obtaining a credit report or background check of the prospective tenant.

6. 6

   Notice what Section 118A.306 does not contain, because the gaps shape what an applicant can realistically ask for. There is no deadline in days for making the refund. There is no duty to give a receipt, no duty to itemize, and no duty to tell the applicant what the screening cost. There is no formula for returning an unused portion, as distinct from the whole fee. And the section carries no statutory damages figure, so no penalty number belongs next to it.

7. 7

   One Nevada disclosure duty is available before the fee is paid, and it came in with the same 2025 act. Section 118A.235 provides that a landlord or their agent shall, upon request, provide to a prospective tenant a copy of the written rental agreement, if any, to which the prospective tenant would be subject if he or she were to become a tenant. It is a lease-terms duty rather than a screening duty, it is triggered only by asking, and it lets an applicant read what they are applying for before paying to be considered for it.

Nevada Requirements for Rental Application Form

• No Fee of Any of Three Kinds for a Minor Household Member

  Section 118A.306(2) provides that a landlord shall not collect an application fee, a fee to obtain a credit report or a fee to obtain a background check for a minor who is a member of the household of the prospective tenant. All three charge types are named, so the label on the line item does not decide whether the prohibition applies. This is the whole of what Nevada forbids outright, and it was added to chapter 118A by the 2025 session in Assembly Bill 121, approved June 3, 2025.

• Who Is a Minor, and What Counts as a Household

  Section 118A.306(3) defines both terms rather than leaving them to ordinary usage. A minor means a person who is under 18 years of age. A household means an association of persons who live in the same home or dwelling and who are related by blood, adoption, marriage or domestic partnership. Both definitions have to hold for the prohibition to bite, because the subsection speaks to a minor who is a member of the household of the prospective tenant. An 18-year-old applying alongside a parent is not covered by it.

• No Statutory Ceiling on the Adult Applicant Charge

  Section 118A.306 states no dollar figure and no cost benchmark, and no other section of chapter 118A limits what a landlord may charge to process a rental application. As the chapter stands for 2026, what an adult applicant is charged in Nevada is not capped by state law. Say what the fee is on the form and keep the arithmetic available, but do not expect a state figure to measure it against. The limits Nevada does impose are about who may be charged and when the money must be returned.

• The Refund Condition, and Why Both Halves Are Required

  Section 118A.306(1) requires a landlord who collected a fee to apply to rent a dwelling unit to refund it if the landlord rents the dwelling unit to a different prospective tenant, and does not conduct the activity for which the fee was collected. The two limbs are joined by and. Running the screening defeats the duty even where the unit went to another applicant, and renting to the applicant who paid defeats it even where nothing was ever run. In force since the 2025 session, approved June 3, 2025.

• Which Charges the Refund Rule Reaches

  The subsection applies to any fee to apply to rent a dwelling unit, including, without limitation, an application fee, a fee to obtain a credit report or a fee to obtain a background check. The non-performance limb is drafted the same open way: the activity for which the fee was collected includes, without limitation, processing the application or obtaining a credit report or background check of the prospective tenant. Within its own two conditions the provision is broad, which is why the conditions themselves are where a Nevada dispute actually turns.

• What the Nevada Fee Section Does Not Require

  Four things are absent from Section 118A.306 and the absence is worth recording on the form rather than discovering later. There is no deadline in days for the refund. There is no receipt duty and no itemization duty. There is no obligation to disclose what the screening actually cost, before or after collection. And there is no unused-portion formula, so the subsection speaks to the fee rather than to a remainder. The section also carries no statutory damages figure, so no penalty number belongs beside it.

• A Copy of the Written Rental Agreement, On Request

  Section 118A.235, added by the same 2025 act, provides that a landlord or their agent shall, upon request, provide to a prospective tenant a copy of the written rental agreement, if any, to which the prospective tenant would be subject if he or she were to become a tenant. The duty runs to a prospective tenant, so it is available before any fee is paid, and it is triggered by asking rather than volunteered. It is the one pre-fee disclosure chapter 118A gives a Nevada applicant, and it costs nothing to use.

• Grounds Nevada Puts Off Limits to a Landlord

  Section 118.100 provides that a person shall not, because of race, religious creed, color, national origin, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, ancestry, familial status or sex, refuse to sell or rent or refuse to negotiate for the rental of, or otherwise make unavailable or deny, a dwelling to any person; discriminate in the terms, conditions or privileges of a rental, including the amount of breakage or brokerage fees, deposits or other undue penalties; or make, print or publish any notice, statement or advertisement indicating such a preference, limitation or discrimination. Section 118.120 supplies the remedy: a district court action commenced within not less than one year of the occurrence or the termination of the violation, with actual damages, punitive damages, costs and reasonable attorney fees available to a prevailing plaintiff.