Bill Description: House Bill 701 would impose new regulations on landlords who charge an application fee to rental applicants.
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NOTE: House Bill 701 is related to Senate Bill 1042 (2025).
Does it give government any new, additional, or expanded power to prohibit, restrict, or regulate activities in the free market? Conversely, does it eliminate or reduce government intervention in the market?
House Bill 701 would create Section 55-316, Idaho Code, to impose new regulations on property owners who charge an application fee to rental applicants.
The bill would make it unlawful for a property owner or property manager to charge rental application fees to more than two rental applicant households per rental unit concurrently.
It would prohibit charging any application fee unless there is “a rental unit currently available for rent,” “a rental unit that will become available by a specified future date,” or “the rental applicant acknowledges in writing that no rental property is available and consents to being placed on a waiting list for future available rental units.”
It would also prohibit charging an application fee unless a property owner or property manager “discloses to the prospective tenant, prior to accepting the rental application, any information regarding the rental applicant screening process that the property owner or property manager will evaluate as a condition of accepting the rental applicant as a tenant in the residential unit” and completes the screening process according to the disclosure.
The bill includes a subsection that says, “Rental application fees may only be charged to each rental applicant within a rental applicant household who requires a criminal history and background check.”
Of note, the above language suggests that a property owner or property manager would be prohibited from charging an application fee at all unless he conducts background checks.
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In addition to these new regulations, the bill says, “All rental application fees shall be related to the average costs of the screening as disclosed pursuant to subsection (1)(b) of this section and any other costs incurred from processing the rental application.”
Regulating applications and limiting application fees is government interference in the market and limits the tools available to property owners to screen rental applicants in whatever manner the market supports.
Prices and fees (in the private sector) should be set by the market, not by government. If a property owner charges an application fee that is higher than the “average costs” of screening and processing, but the applicant is willing to pay it, government has no business interfering in the transaction.
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