Most working people have their estimated taxes deducted from their pay before they receive it. They don’t have an option to not pay.

Of course, it’s often a scam. But application fees can be legit. The key is how they are administered.

The fee should not be non refundable, just not refunded under certain specific circumstances.

It’s not fraud if you tell the applicant what the rental criteria are and what happens to the money if they are turned down.

In ancient times, I was a small time landlord. On a couple of occasions I asked for an application fee. I followed these rules, which I explained to the applicant:

1. The application fee was refunded if I turned down the applicant, provided the background check did not disclose a lie on the application.
2. The application fee was applied to the security deposit if I granted the rental.
3. The application fee was not refunded if the background check found a lie on the application, or if I granted the rental and the applicant changed their mind and declined to rent.

It costs money to do background checks. I wasn’t going to be out of pocket if an applicant was dishonest with me.

Their marching was poor because there is almost no practical reason why anyone in today’s Army should ever need to march. The vast majority of service people do very little marching after basic training.

No! Rilly?