To Refund or Not to Refund-application fee

[Alyssa ODell]

Hi everyone! We bought the BP’s tenant application for Ohio and we’ve run across a couple of questions regarding whether or not we should refund the $40 application fee. First question, why do the documents say the application fee will be refunded anyway? We’ve never heard of this. The stipulations (again provided by the BP’s Ohio forms), say it’ll be refunded unless they are accepted as tenants or if they lied/misrepresented facts on the application. We provided our qualification standards very clearly in the ad, but the form didn’t ask for a credit score or any of our other standards on the application (though now we’re changing it), and only gave space to checkmark evictions or bankruptcy and to explain any criminal history. They said no to those questions and left the criminal/background “explanation” section blank. We have a two applicants (husband and wife) and he has a criminal record, but he meets the income and credit minimums. She has a clean record but doesn’t meet the credit standards. Again these are our landlord standards and they are not listed on the application we got from BP. They left the criminal/background section blank. So do we consider this a misrepresentation of facts? Do we have grounds to not refund their application fee since it wasn’t disclosed? And why would we have to refund their application fee anyway? We can’t find any legal reason why it would need to be returned in Ohio’s landlord/tenant laws. What are your thoughts? Thanks! Alyssa

[John Thedford]

I give back app fees if the app has not been run. If it has been run I do not refund. You might want to draft a letter specifying that the app fee is not refundable if run. My list has requirements for credit, evictions, criminal records, etc. BTW-I charge $75 fee.  Your post is why I do not like boiler plate forms. It may not leave options. I have them sign my requirements list along with the app.