Make a Mississippi Rental Application

The Mississippi Rental Application Process

Landlords or property managers generally charge a fee for each application that is turned in, paid by the applicant. These fees vary greatly, but applicants can expect to pay between $25 to $75 per application.

A Mississippi rental application form must comply with Mississippi landlord-tenant laws. It uses blank spaces to collect information about the applicant so that the landlord or the property manager can determine if the applicant is a good risk.

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A Sample Mississippi Rental Application with Examples for Each Step

The rental application should include blank spaces that:

• Capture the full legal name and birthday of the applicant. As the landlord, you can either require each applicant to complete a rental application or allow a married couple or a couple in a civil union to both be listed on the same application if you provide enough room for two applicants.
• Provide space for the cell phone number, work phone number, and email address for the applicant.
• Obtain the applicant’s social security number if you plan to run a credit check, background check, or criminal background check.
• Capture the applicant's previous rental history, starting with their most recent address. Ensure that you ask for the name and contact information of their current landlord or property management company. It should also ask how long the applicant has lived at their current address and how much they pay currently in rent.
• Capture the applicant's employment history, starting with their current employer. It should include the name of their employer, employer’s address, job title, how long they've worked for their employer, the name of their supervisor, and the contact number for human resources or their supervisor.
• Capture the applicant's sources of income. 
• Ask whether the applicant has checking or savings accounts and which financial institutions manage those accounts.
• Capture information about the number of vehicles the applicant owns as well as a description of each vehicle. This is important for Mississippi landlords and property managers who have rental properties with limited parking or who issue parking passes.
• Capture the contact information of the applicant's emergency contact.
• Get the name and age of each person who will reside in the rental unit with the applicant.
• Determine whether the applicant has any pets and, if so, how many, the type, and the size.
• A disclosure that complies with Mississippi law explaining to the applicant whether you're going to run a credit check, background check, or criminal history on the applicant and an applicant's signature authorizing you to do so. Also, note whether the application fee paid by the applicant is refundable.
• A signature line for the applicant, as well as a spot for the date.

Rental Application Resources for Tenants in Mississippi

As a renter, you have rights when you sign a Mississippi rental lease agreement.

• The Mississippi Bar provides a web page that explains the current landlord-tenant laws in plain English.
• Mississippi Legal Aid's website offers a lot of information for tenants. It covers when repairs must be made to the unit, how the tenant can make requests for repairs, how landlords can evict tenants, whether landlords can evict a tenant without going to court, information about security deposits, and what happens if a landlord retaliates against a tenant.
• The University of Mississippi School of Law offers a housing clinic. Law students who are supervised by faculty run the clinic. The clinic assists individuals and families who are facing foreclosure or eviction.

Mississippi Rental Application Laws

Although the State of Mississippi does not impose caps on security deposits, individual cities and counties may. However, the law does dictate that landlords return a tenant’s security deposit within 45 days after the tenant vacates the property (Mississippi Code Annotated § 89-8-21).