8 Charges Landlords Add Before a Virginia Renter Ever Gets Their Keys

Close to a third of Virginia households rent instead of own.

Most of them budgeted for the number on the listing. Fewer of them budgeted for what a landlord can legally collect before that number ever kicks in.

These are the charges a Virginia landlord can add before a renter ever gets their keys.

Note: This is general information, not legal advice. Rental rules and fee amounts are subject to change, so confirm the current requirements with the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development.

1. Your Application Fee

Virginia landlords can charge every applicant a nonrefundable application fee before anyone knows if they’ve been approved.

State law caps that fee at $50, or $32 if the unit is public housing or otherwise regulated by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Landlords can still add the actual, out-of-pocket cost of a background or credit check on top of that fee.

That part isn’t capped.

Nearly a third of Virginia’s households rent instead of own, so this fee is usually the first charge a renter meets.

It isn’t negotiable, and it’s a cap on the fee itself, not on everything else a landlord can still bill.

2. Your Application Deposit

An application deposit is the second charge many Virginia landlords add, refundable but separate from that fee.

Unlike the fee, state law sets no dollar limit on it.

What the law controls is the deadline for getting it back.

Reject the application, and the landlord has to refund it within 20 days, minus any actual expenses and damages.

Pay that deposit in cash, a certified check, a cashier’s check, or a postal money order.

The deadline then drops to 10 days when the landlord is the one rejecting the application.

The clock runs ten days flat.

Many renters never ask which clock applies to their own payment.

3. Your Renter’s Insurance Premium

A renter’s insurance requirement is a charge many Virginia landlords build into the lease as a flat condition of tenancy.

State law lets a landlord require that coverage, arrange the policy itself, and bill the tenant for the premium.

That premium counts as rent under Virginia law, not as a refundable deposit.

That money never comes back.

If the landlord requires payment before the tenancy starts, that premium plus any security deposit still can’t add up to more than two months’ rent.

Landlords have to notify the tenant in writing that a separate, self-purchased policy is an option instead of the landlord’s plan.

A renter who hands over proof of their own coverage isn’t stuck paying for the landlord’s plan too.

4. Paying to Hold the Unit

Once an application looks promising, many Virginia landlords and property managers charge a holding fee to take the unit off the market.

Virginia’s landlord-tenant statute doesn’t set a price on it.

In Northern Virginia, that fee commonly runs $50 to $200, and it can rise to $200 or $300 in pricier markets like Arlington or Alexandria.

Whether it’s refundable depends entirely on what the paperwork says.

It could go either way.

Ask before paying it.

Some landlords credit it toward the security deposit later.

Others don’t, and nothing in state law requires them to.

5. Your Security Deposit

Virginia law caps every security deposit a landlord collects at two months’ rent, no matter what the landlord calls it.

The statute’s own wording says “however denominated,” so a landlord can’t dodge the cap by renaming part of it.

On an $1,800-a-month apartment, that’s a hard ceiling of $3,600 before a renter gets a key.

Two months’ rent is the absolute limit.

That’s the most a Virginia landlord can hold, combined, across every deposit tied to the lease.

6. Adding a Pet Deposit

A pet deposit is the extra charge many Virginia landlords add for renters bringing an animal into the unit.

That money isn’t a separate pool under state law.

It’s one shared pool, not two separate ones.

It counts toward the same two-month ceiling as the base security deposit.

A landlord who has already collected two months’ rent as a security deposit can’t legally add a pet deposit on top of that number.

Ask what the grand total comes to before signing, not just what each line item costs.

7. Prepaying Your Rent

Prepaid rent is a charge some Virginia landlords require before move-in, on top of the first month due at signing.

State law doesn’t let that money sit in a landlord’s regular account.

It has to go into an escrow account within five business days of the landlord receiving it.

Five business days is the whole window.

The landlord can’t touch it without the renter’s written consent, unless the landlord has already earned the right to that money under the lease.

Few renters realize prepaid rent works differently than a plain deposit.

8. Your Move-In Admin Fee

A one-time administrative or move-in fee is the last charge many Virginia landlords add before the lease even starts.

Since July 2025, state law has required that charge to be itemized on the very first page of the written lease, alongside the security deposit and the rent.

The lease must also state, in writing, that no additional deposit or rent applies unless it’s listed there or incorporated later by way of a separate addendum after execution.

The law sets no limit on the fee.

It just makes sure a renter sees it coming.

If Virginia Refuses Your Application

Virginia law spells out exactly what a landlord can keep from a rejected applicant’s deposit.

Only actual expenses and documented damages, itemized in writing.

Everything else has to come back within the deadline that applies to how the applicant paid.

A landlord who blows past that deadline, or keeps more than the law allows, can be on the hook for the wrongfully withheld amount plus the applicant’s attorney fees.

Those attorney fees stack on top of the refund.

That’s an enforceable remedy, not a formality.

Why Disclosure Doesn’t Mean a Cap

Virginia’s fee disclosure law is a transparency rule, not a price limit.

It forces every one-time charge onto page one of the lease.

It never tells a landlord how much that charge is allowed to be.

There’s no ceiling at all.

Outside the application fee and the security deposit, Virginia sets no statewide ceiling on what a landlord can name as a move-in fee, an admin fee, or a holding fee.