Fee-Free Rent Payment Requirements Changed the Game Last October
Nevada Assembly Bill 121 took effect on October 1, 2025, mandating landlords offer a fee-free way to pay rent and prohibiting application fees for obtaining credit or background checks for minors. The change is bigger than you might think at first. Landlords must offer at least one rent payment method with no fees and no bank info required of the tenant.
This applies to all renters regardless of lease date. All renters, whether they signed a new lease or are an existing tenant, have to be offered a free way to pay rent. If your portal charges convenience fees for electronic payments, you now need a workaround like accepting checks or money orders without penalties.
Tenants can seek statutory damages up to $250 if landlords violate the new disclosure rules in leases signed after October first. It’s not a massive penalty on its own, yet courts often pair it with attorney fees that could quickly escalate costs for non-compliant property owners.
All Monthly Charges Must Now Be Rolled Into One Advertised Figure
Under NRS 118A.200 as amended by AB 121, landlords must disclose rent as a single, all-inclusive monthly figure called the “maximum total periodic rent” in every place where rent is listed, and this single figure must represent the highest amount a tenant could be charged in any given month. That means your MLS listings, Zillow ads, Instagram posts, and printed flyers all need to show one number. Pet fees, trash fees, admin fees – they all go into that total if they’re mandatory and recurring.
Let’s be real, this is a huge shift for landlords who historically advertised lower base rent to attract clicks online. Separate line items for mandatory monthly charges are no longer allowed in advertisements or lease headings under the new statute. Some utilities can be excluded if specific disclosure rules are met, but the compliance bar is high.
Starting Wednesday landlords will be required to state the total amount of rent a tenant is required to pay up front in the lease, and landlords can’t put in hidden fees or junk fees anymore with any mandatory charge within the total given. It sounds simple until you realize how many different fees property managers had been charging tenants each month.
Nevada Renters Face Crushing Cost Burdens That Drive Policy Changes
Nearly three out of every five Nevada renters spend an outsized share of income just to keep a roof over their heads. A fact-check published by The Nevada Independent notes that in 2024, about 270,000 of 470,000 measured renter households were cost-burdened, which equals just over fifty-seven percent. The national average for the same period sat at roughly fifty-two percent, making Nevada’s situation noticeably worse than the rest of the country.
Princeton’s Eviction Lab tracks rental data in Clark County and lists 371,427 renter households with a typical rent of $1,654 per month on its dashboard. That typical rent figure helps explain why legislators keep pushing tenant protections. When most renters are already stretched thin financially, surprise fees can become the difference between staying housed and facing eviction.
The Nevada Residential Rental Housing Report from October 2025 cites roughly fifty-seven percent of renters as rent-burdened using the definition of paying thirty percent or more of income toward gross rent. These aren’t hypothetical numbers from advocacy groups. They come from state workforce research and census data, and they paint a clear picture of why landlords are now under heavier regulatory scrutiny in 2026.
You Can No Longer Pass Habitability Repair Costs to Tenants
Effective July 1, 2023, SB381 amended NRS 118A.290 to prohibit landlords from requiring tenants to pay any fee or other charge including home warranty deductibles or copayments to perform repairs, maintenance tasks, or other work which the landlord has a duty to perform to maintain the unit in a habitable condition. I know this took effect back in mid-2023, yet many landlords are only now feeling the practical impact in 2026 as enforcement ramps up and lease renewals cycle through.
A landlord may not pass on fees or charges for maintenance or repairs needed to provide proper plumbing, hot water, electricity, heating, air conditioning, and other items as enumerated in NRS 118A.290(1). If your HVAC system fails in July, you foot the bill entirely. Passing a deductible or service contract fee to the tenant is now illegal under state law.
This prohibition does not apply if the repairs are necessary to remedy a condition caused by the tenant, members of the tenant’s household, or their guests. That exception matters, yet proving tenant fault requires documentation like photos, prior written notices, and sometimes inspector reports. If you can’t prove the tenant caused the damage, you cannot charge them for the fix.
Tenants Could File for Expedited Habitability Relief Under AB223 (Had It Passed)
AB223 authorized a tenant whose landlord fails to remedy a failure to maintain a dwelling unit in habitable condition to file a verified complaint for expedited relief. The bill sailed through the Nevada legislature with strong support, but Governor Lombardo vetoed it in June 2025. Still, understanding what the bill proposed helps landlords see where tenant advocacy is headed and what might come back in future sessions.
Under the proposed bill, a tenant could file a verified complaint with the court for expedited relief if a landlord hadn’t fixed an issue within 15 days, and the court must conduct a hearing within seven judicial days of the filing. The bill would have eliminated language allowing landlords to satisfy their obligation with “best efforts” alone. Tenants wanted actual fixes, not just attempts.
Governor Joe Lombardo vetoed AB223, stating it “needlessly disrupts a well-established balance in Nevada law” and “would create fundamental unfairness in the lessor-lessee relationship”. Housing advocates disagree strongly with that assessment and plan to push similar legislation again. For landlords in 2026, the veto is a temporary reprieve, not a permanent victory.
Eviction Record Sealing Was Expanded but Also Vetoed by the Governor
AB 201 sought to further protect renters from the economic burden of having a Nevada eviction on their record by allowing court records to be automatically sealed one year after the eviction is granted or when a case is dismissed. Like AB223, this bill passed both legislative chambers before meeting a gubernatorial veto in June 2025.
If AB201 had passed, courts would be required to automatically seal eviction case files when the eviction case is dismissed by the court, when a tenant files a motion to seal the record and the landlord does not oppose, or when an appeal is resolved in a way outlined by the legislative text. Landlords who rely on eviction history during tenant screening would have faced a smaller pool of visible records.
AB201 introduced a rebuttable presumption that records should be sealed if the tenant requests sealing more than one year after the eviction order. The practical effect for landlords in 2026 is that this policy remains on hold, yet tenant advocates continue to press for automatic sealing rules that could reshape screening practices in future legislative cycles.
Summary Eviction Process Reform Died Despite Legislative Support
Instead of going through a court process to seek an eviction for unpaid rent, Nevada’s summary eviction process requires tenants be the first to file with the court after a 7-day notice is placed on their door. Nevada is unique in this respect, and housing advocates have tried repeatedly to change it. During the 2025 legislative session, Assembly Bill 283 reworked Nevada’s summary evictions process by removing the burden of tenants to respond first, yet despite greater pressure from tenant advocates Governor Lombardo vetoed the legislation.
AB283 would have required landlords to serve tenants with a full package of documents at the start of the eviction process, and tenants would have had to file a written answer within seven judicial days of receiving the eviction notice. The bill would have repealed older statutes and replaced them with a framework placing the filing burden on landlords rather than tenants.
The veto means Clark County landlords in 2026 still use the existing summary eviction track governed by NRS 40.253 and related sections. Many Vegas evictions follow this faster route, which allows quicker removal of non-paying tenants compared to full unlawful detainer actions. Yet the policy debate is far from over, and similar proposals will likely return in the 2027 legislative session.
Online Payment Portal Fees Face New Limits Under AB121
AB121 prohibits a landlord or agent from charging a tenant a fee to make a payment through an Internet website or online portal that exceeds the amount of any fee charged by the operator of the Internet website or online portal for the use of the website or portal. In other words, if your portal provider charges you two dollars per transaction, you can pass along two dollars to the tenant but not a penny more. Markup on payment processing fees is now illegal.
Payment processing fees imposed by an online portal provider must be disclosed in the lease agreement. Transparency is the watchword here. If you’re charging a portal fee at all (and it’s not your one required fee-free method), you need to itemize it clearly in the rental contract.
Many larger property management companies had been charging convenience fees well above their actual processing costs as a revenue stream. AB121 shut that practice down statewide. Landlords who continue to charge inflated portal fees in 2026 risk statutory penalties and tenant lawsuits.
Application Fee Refunds Are Now Required in Certain Situations
Landlords must now provide prospective tenants with a copy of the rental agreement upon request and refund application fees if they rent to another tenant or don’t process the application. This provision of AB121 is designed to stop landlords from collecting application fees from dozens of prospects when they have no real intention of renting to most of them.
The legislation also bars landlords from collecting application, credit report, or background check fees for minors in the household. If a family has children under eighteen, you cannot charge extra application fees just because the lease names those minors as occupants. It seems logical once you think about it, yet it was a common practice before the law changed.
Landlords who fail to refund fees properly could face civil actions from rejected applicants. The financial exposure is relatively modest per violation, but word spreads quickly online when property owners develop reputations for keeping application money improperly. Compliance here is both a legal and a practical necessity.
Why Compliance Documentation Became More Important Than Ever
When nearly sixty percent of your tenant pool is cost-burdened and state lawmakers keep introducing stronger renter protections, landlords need ironclad records. Every notice you serve, every repair you complete, every fee you charge must have a paper trail that can survive court scrutiny. The margin for informal or casual management practices has shrunk dramatically.
Keep digital and physical copies of all lease agreements, amendment forms, rent payment records, maintenance requests, and repair invoices. If a tenant claims you charged an illegal fee or failed to offer a fee-free payment option, your documentation is your only defense. Courts in Clark County are increasingly willing to rule against landlords who cannot prove compliance with the new statutes.
Property managers serving Vegas landlords are investing heavily in compliance software and staff training for 2026. The cost of getting these rules wrong is higher than the cost of building robust systems. One statutory violation with attorney fees attached can wipe out months of rental income.
What Landlords Should Do Right Now to Stay Protected
Review every lease template and advertisement you use to ensure all mandatory recurring fees are rolled into one maximum total periodic rent figure. Check that your lease discloses at least one fee-free payment method clearly. Audit any portal fees you charge to confirm they do not exceed the actual processing cost charged by the provider.
Train your on-site staff and management teams on the new application fee refund rules and the prohibition on passing habitability repair costs to tenants. Make sure everyone understands that home warranty deductibles and service contract fees for repairs the landlord must handle are no longer allowed under NRS 118A.290 as amended by SB381.
Finally, monitor legislative activity closely. The bills that died by veto in 2025 will likely return in modified form during the 2027 session. Landlord advocacy groups and tenant protection coalitions are both organizing for the next round. Staying informed about proposed changes gives you time to adjust your business model before new laws take effect.
Running rental property in Las Vegas means adapting to a regulatory environment that shifted significantly between late 2023 and late 2025, with the practical impacts landing squarely in 2026. What worked five years ago might now trigger statutory penalties. Did you catch all the changes before they caught you?
