Application fee legalities?

[Brandon Schlichter]

Trying to find out what the law(s) are regarding application fees?

So far we've been doing $20/adult with a max of $40 for a application fee for bagkround checks and whatnot. Usually only someone who was willing to pony up the cash seriously would do it, we'd check them and all was well. However i've picked up several nicer properties and have 6-8 parties per property willing to pay application fees to try and get a chance at the property. I don't know how to handle it, because I don't want to run into legal problems with taking and not refunding fees after we've run the check on them.

[Darrin Carey]

There are really no problems with application fees in Ohio at the state level. You simply need to be consistent with every single applicant. We do $30 per adult; our cost is about that.

We process apps one at a time until someone meets our criteria. Trying to choose the "best" applicant opens up potential fair housing issues, even though you don't intend them.

What if the "second best" applicant also happens to be a protected class? All they need to do is accuse you of discrimination, true or not, and you are in a world of hurt.