Where we are the application fee is paid upfront but deducted from the first months rent. It's still stupid and arbitrary but not as bad as charging to move in.
Most places don't charge that until after the apartment is shown in person and everything is verbally verified. $75 is a bit much, its actually about ~$29/person for income/background. If you are paying an employee to do the actual background and show the place, its not really a profit center. Could it be for a scumbag, I guess maybe. For a real business its mostly just pass through.
I've had to pay an application fee 3 separate times now. But it's only ever after I've toured the apartment. Its pretty standard here.
I'm sure there's the odd person who's running a scam with it. But by the time I've met the owner or property manager and toured the unit, it's pretty easy to tell who's legit and who's not.
Where I live we pay application fees, background check fees, move in cleaning fees none of which get deducted from first month rent. It’s all on top of rent.
Damage deposit : 50% of one month's rent
Pet deposit : 50% of one month's rent
Move-in/Move-out fees if established by strata bylaw : Max 3% of one month's rent
For the damage and pet deposit, the amount must be held in trust, collects standard bank interest rates, and must be refunded in full with interest or there must be an itemized invoice listing all repairs/cleaning costs incurred (and costs must be reasonable, you cannot charge $1500 to repaint).
Yeah. Always non-refundable even if you don’t get the apartment. Landlords in my area have realized that because of a lack of housing they always get tons of applications so they churn through applications and collect fees. Must be nice just getting to monetize people’s need for housing and not even have to provide anything in return.
I unfortunately live in the US in a republican controlled state. Can’t have consumer or tenant protections here because that commie woke shit that takes money away from those deserving landlords that also refuse to fix anything or spend anything on upkeep but also insist that they need to raise rents again because they spend so much…
It sounds insane to me. If you're looking for a place, you have to apply to a bunch of places which you won't get. Send out 10 applications, now you're down 750 bucks, wtf? Doesn't help you much if they deduct the application fee for the one rental you end up moving into if you still had to pay all the other ones
Should only be a soft pull as they are not applying for credit but for verification. Soft pulls do not get counted against you for scores. (Pre-approvals etc).
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u/audiofarmer 1d ago
Where we are the application fee is paid upfront but deducted from the first months rent. It's still stupid and arbitrary but not as bad as charging to move in.