Write the criteria down first
Tenant selection criteria are written standards you use to evaluate every prospective tenant. Setting them before you have an applicant in front of you is what makes them objective; deciding them afterward is how discrimination claims are built.
At minimum, define what financially responsible means for your property, and what evidence of paying on time, treating the property with care and being a reasonable neighbor looks like. Your criteria cannot be discriminatory or conflict with any federal, state or local fair housing law.
You are not required to hand prospects a copy, but there is an advantage to doing so: a prospect who reads your standards and decides not to apply saves both of you the process. Whether you share them at the first inquiry call or when you hand over the application, be consistent about when.
Then follow them without exception. Deviating from your written standards for particular applicants is precisely the fact pattern a discrimination complaint needs, and consistency is your defense if you are challenged.
One reassurance and one caution: more than ninety percent of residential applicants turn out to be good tenants who pay on time and care for the property. The screening exists for the small minority, and experienced problem tenants know that a novice owner is easier to fool than a professionally managed property. Do not let a prospect rush you through the process.
The fair housing lines that catch honest people
Most fair housing problems do not come from bad intent. They come from owners who did not know a policy or a habit was discriminatory until they were charged with it.
The federal Fair Housing Act covers race, color, religion, national origin, sex, familial status and disability. Many state and local laws add classes — age, sexual orientation, gender identity, source of income including housing assistance, occupation, medical status and others — so check what applies where your property sits.
Steering is the trap that catches well-meaning landlords. Guiding an applicant toward a particular unit, floor or section based on a protected characteristic is illegal, even when the motive is kind. Suggesting a family with children look only at the ground floor or the unit near the playground restricts their options and violates the law. Every applicant should get information on everything available and choose what they want to see.
Families are entitled to the same treatment as anyone else. 'Adult-only' residential housing has effectively been eliminated except for communities operated in strict compliance with senior housing rules at 55-and-older or 62-and-older. Charging families with children higher rent or a larger deposit, offering shorter lease terms, restricting amenities, or reserving certain areas can all be found discriminatory. If you have genuine safety concerns about the property, take reasonable steps to make it safe — the decision about whether it suits their children belongs to the parents.
Advertising is covered too. Copy that indicates or implies a preference is discriminatory before anyone applies.
- Federal classes: race, color, religion, national origin, sex, familial status, disability
- Check state and local additions — several are common and often overlooked
- No steering: show everything available and let the applicant choose
- No different terms, deposits or amenity access for families with children
- Advertising that implies a preference is itself a violation
Disabilities, accommodations and assistance animals
Fair housing regulations require three distinct things for tenants with disabilities, and they are frequently conflated.
Reasonable accommodations are changes the owner makes, at the owner's expense, so a tenant can use the property on an equal basis — a wider or closer parking space is the standard example. Reasonable adjustments are changes to rules, procedures or services on request. Modifications are physical changes the tenant makes at their own expense, subject to conditions: limited to what their disability-related needs require, restored on move-out if they would make the unit unacceptable to the next tenant, done in a workmanlike manner with your prior approval and any needed permits, and in some cases with restoration funds escrowed.
Assistance and support animals are not pets and are not subject to pet rules. If you have a no-pet policy, fair housing law requires an exception. You cannot charge a pet deposit or raise the security deposit because of a support animal, and you cannot limit breeds or impose unreasonable size restrictions. You can set reasonable rules of conduct, and the tenant remains responsible for any damage the animal causes.
The Americans with Disabilities Act is a separate statute with a narrower reach in residential settings. It applies to the parts of a property the public is invited into — an on-site rental office, model units, parking for prospective residents, or an amenity opened to public use — rather than to private units and resident-only common areas. Barrier removal is required where readily achievable and technically feasible, and the ADA has no grandfather clause. Residential properties first occupied on or after March 13, 1991 also had to be built to fair housing accessibility guidelines covering common areas and dwelling units.
Verifying what the application says
Verification takes time and it is the best-spent time in the whole process. Relying on your instincts about people is inaccurate, arbitrary and — applied unevenly — illegal.
Identity comes first. Ask each adult applicant for a current driver's license or other government-issued photo ID, confirm it matches the application, and ask about any discrepancy. Write down whatever explanation you get; an old address on an ID is something a credit report can help you check. Keep a photocopy in the file of an approved tenant.
Rental history is the highest-signal item and the hardest to collect. Some landlords will tell you everything; others are unhelpful, either because they are annoyed the tenant is leaving or because they fear liability for saying anything negative. Put your questions in writing and ask for a written response so you have a record. If rapport fails, get the one question that matters: would you rent to this applicant again? Better still, ask factual questions that can be answered honestly — were there noise complaints or police calls, was the full rent paid on time each month. Silence is also information.
Employment and income get verified with the employer directly, not just from documents the applicant supplies. Ask for recent pay stubs and verify other income sources as well. Independently confirm the company's phone number if anything looks off, and discuss compensation only with an appropriate representative. Tell the applicant your screening may take a few days so the wait does not feel like a rejection.
Pull a credit report on each applicant — it shows current and prior accounts, payment timeliness, and public record entries like bankruptcies and judgments. Compare the addresses on the report against the application and ask about anything that does not line up. Credit report information must be kept strictly confidential and cannot be given to third parties.
A useful extra: ask for the last year of water and utility bills. They confirm a prior address and show whether the applicant pays bills on time.
- Photo ID for every adult; document and check discrepancies
- Written questions to prior landlords; ask 'would you rent to them again?'
- Verify income with the employer, not just from pay stubs
- Credit report on each applicant; keep it confidential
- Utility bills as a secondary check on address and payment habits
Questions you cannot ask, and how to deny properly
If you walk through the application with a prospect, ask only what is on the form. Questions about birthplace, religion, marital status, children, or a physical or mental condition invite a discrimination complaint whether or not you meant anything by them.
You may ask whether the applicant is at least eighteen or an emancipated minor, and whether they have been convicted of a crime — though not every conviction justifies a denial, and blanket criminal-history exclusions have drawn fair housing scrutiny.
Notify every applicant promptly, approved or denied. Do the denial in writing and keep a copy for at least three years. A phone call makes it difficult to convey the required disclosures and leaves the applicant free to conclude the denial was discriminatory. A structured notice-of-denial form documents the legitimate reason and lets you include the disclosures the Fair Credit Reporting Act requires.
The FCRA is not optional. If you reject an applicant based on a credit report, you must notify them of their rights. The same obligation applies when you approve someone but impose a condition because of credit — a higher deposit, higher rent, or a cosigner. Where the denial rests on something other than credit a written notice is not strictly required, but sending one, or at least inviting a written request for the reason, is the better practice.
If an applicant falls short of your criteria, a cosigner can be a solution — but only if the guarantor is fully screened. Have them complete an application, pay the fee, and go through credit screening. Subtract the guarantor's own housing cost from their income before measuring them against your requirements, since they have their own rent or mortgage to pay. An out-of-state guarantee is worth considerably less than an in-state one, because enforcing it may be impractical.
Do not tell the other qualified applicants the unit is taken until every document is signed and all move-in funds are collected.