New Tenant Screening Rules for 2026

Member since 2011 · 152 posts · 113 votes

6mo

Nice post, Marc! I couldn’t agree more. Selecting the right tenant is paramount to having a good time in the rental business. And doing so in an incorrect manner can be one of the worst nightmares.

3 Reply

Richard F.

Honolulu, HI · Member since 2008 · 3k+ posts · 2k+ votes

6mo

Quote from @Marc Winter:

New Screening Rules for 2026: Staying on the Right Side of the Law

If you're a "mom & pop" landlord, you know that finding a great tenant is everything. A bad choice can mean months of headaches and lost rent. But the rules around how you pick that tenant just got a major refresh from the National Association of Residential Property Managers (NARPM). These updates are meant to keep your screening process fair, consistent, and compliant with the Fair Housing Act.

Here is the breakdown of how to screen your tenants safely in 2026:

Consistency is Your Best Friend: The absolute golden rule of Fair Housing is to treat every applicant exactly the same. This means using the same application form, asking the same standard questions, and running the exact same checks (like credit, income, and rental history) for every single person who applies, regardless of who they are. Consistency is your biggest legal shield against a discrimination claim.
Write Down Your Criteria—Before You Screen: Before you even accept the first application, you must document specific, measurable screening standards. Don't just say you want "good credit." Instead, require a specific threshold, like a "credit score of 620 or higher" or "monthly income equal to 3x the rent". Having these written standards in place shows that you are making decisions based on business needs, not personal bias.
No "Blanket Bans" on Criminal History: This is a big one. You cannot have a "blanket ban" that automatically rejects any applicant with any criminal record. The law requires you to consider each case individually. You must evaluate the nature, severity, and how recent an offense was, and whether it’s directly relevant to a person's ability to be a safe and responsible tenant.
Document Why You Denied Them: If you have to deny an application, you must document the precise, concrete reason. This shouldn’t be a feeling or a guess. A valid, documented reason looks like: "The applicant's credit score did not meet my minimum of 620," or "We were unable to verify sufficient income". Keeping good records of all your screening decisions, both approvals and denials, is essential for demonstrating you applied your criteria fairly.
Adverse Action Notices are Mandatory: If you deny someone based on a screening report—even partially—you are legally required to send them a formal adverse action notice. This notice, which can be given in writing, explains that their application was rejected because of information in a report and provides the contact details for the screening company that supplied the data. It also informs the applicant of their right to get a free copy of the report and to dispute any inaccurate information.

The Bottom Line: Tenant screening is your first line of defense against problem tenants, but you have to do it by the book. In 2026, staying compliant with Fair Housing means having clear, written standards, applying them 100% consistently to everyone, and being ready to document exactly why you made your choice.

Source: https://www.narpm.org/

100% !!! I am retired now after 30 years as PM, but was a member of NARPM for many years, great org and info!

I keep beating the table on being consistent with every aspect of what you do; creating written policies and procedures; and maintaining solid documentation, but reading a lot of posts here, many choose to cut corners to "save" a buck. One day, they will learn.

2 Reply

Tyler FoshePro Member

Rental Property Investor · Los Angeles Area · Member since 2021 · 58 posts · 23 votes

6mo

Thanks Marc for this excellent post! We are getting ready to launch our first rental in Southern California and I am working on our eligibility criteria. One area I am struggling with is the criminal history. If we are not allowed to have "blanket bans" on certain types of convictions then how do we clearly define criteria where we evaluate the nature, severity, and how recent the offense was without that decision being based on a hunch or a feeling? Most of the criteria I have seen from other landlords say something like, "no convictions for violent felonies and no convictions for non-violent felonies in the last seven years." Is something like that not acceptable?

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Richard F.

Honolulu, HI · Member since 2008 · 3k+ posts · 2k+ votes

6mo

With the caveat to closely examine Cali's, shall we say, unique LL/Tenant and Fair Housing rules, including blanket bans and source of income regs, there are a lot of ways to formalize your true minimums without tying your hands.

You do need to access sufficient court records to determine the type of case, when conviction was, and prison term. Of course, more details are better, but are usually limited for our purposes. If your minimums are, for example, no violent or drug related offenses in past three years; minimum of 18 months since confinement with no new offenses; less than 3 traffic violations in past 18 months; these are typically found to be "reasonable", of course that can vary by jurisdiction, so you should seek legal recommendations locally. "seven years" would likely be considered as unreasonable, especially in Cali. The time frame could vary dependent upon the actual crime and circumstances. The key is to have a reasonable "minimum" in each area of investigation, credit, income, banking, criminal, traffic, employment history, and housing history. Additionally you investigate social media or basic online searching and note actual behavioral issues noted during interactions, and document these issues as part of the application package.

Typically you will see Bad Habits in multiple areas, which you can aggregate to make your approve/deny decision. In other words, if they are weak in one area, not a problem. If they are weak in multiple areas, problem. Document your decision process and package all the documents and info to file securely. Multiple approved and denied packages can "prove" your decision was based on facts, not a Protected Class IF a discrimination complaint reaches a Courtroom.

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Marc Winter

OP

Real Estate Broker · Northeast PA · Member since 2017 · 2k+ posts · 2k+ votes

6mo

@Tyler Foshe,

To answer your question about clearly defining criteria on criminal history, let's look at what the Fair Housing rules actually state:

A housing provider “that imposes a blanket prohibition on any person with any conviction record – no matter when the conviction occurred, what the underlying conduct entailed, or what the convicted person has done since then – will be unable to meet” its burden of proving the policy is necessary to achieve a substantial, legitimate, nondiscriminatory interest.
“A policy or practice that fails to consider the nature, severity, and recency of criminal conduct is unlikely to be proven necessary” to serve that substantial, legitimate, nondiscriminatory interest.
A policy that denies housing to anyone with a prior arrest (without a conviction) “cannot be justified, and therefore such a practice would violate the Fair Housing Act.”
Credit: Fair Housing:
guidance on “how the Fair Housing Act applies to the use of criminal history by providers or operators of housing and real-estate related transactions
My own opinion is that, on management's disclosure to an applicant about what criteria will be used to evaluate the application, a written statement describing all of the criteria, PLUS a short disclosure specifically about criminal records being evaluated based on "the nature, severity, and recency of criminal conduct".
So, create your own scoring system, have that in writing, and apply it to everyone equally.
Remember, I'm a real estate broker, property manager, and investor--not an attorney--this is not legal advice.

1 Reply

Tyler FoshePro Member

Rental Property Investor · Los Angeles Area · Member since 2021 · 58 posts · 23 votes

6mo

@Richard F. Those recommendations make sense and that gives me a better understanding of how to stay compliant. I found a great rental criteria sample from our local apartment association that has been vetted by lawyers in our area. I will keep our criteria close to the sample to reduce the risk of issues. Thanks for your feedback.

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Tyler FoshePro Member

Rental Property Investor · Los Angeles Area · Member since 2021 · 58 posts · 23 votes

6mo

@Marc Winter It looks like I misunderstood the term "blanket ban" in this context. I thought it meant you could not disqualify applicants with certain types of criminal records without considering other factors. Now I understand that "blanket ban" means you cannot disqualify an applicant on the basis of any type of arrest or conviction. Disqualifying convictions have to be directly related to the safety of others and the security of property. Thanks for that clarification. I am also reading "The California Landlord's Law Book" from Nolo Press and it is a goldmine of great information.

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Julie Garner

Member since 2023 · 40 posts · 44 votes

5mo

https://x.com/TheLizVariant/status/2037619008065663310

Anyone doing this? Making children's grades part of the screening process. Seems like a good idea to me. I can't find a law that it runs afoul of.

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Tyler FoshePro Member
Rental Property Investor · Los Angeles Area · Member since 2021 · 58 posts · 23 votes
5mo
Quote from @Julie Garner:

https://x.com/TheLizVariant/status/2037619008065663310
Anyone doing this? Making children's grades part of the screening process. Seems like a good idea to me. I can't find a law that it runs afoul of.
As a landlord I do not feel that it is appropriate for me to ask applicants for their children's grades. There are many different reasons for a child to have low grades that have nothing to do with their parents' ability to pay rent and be good tenants. Also this policy would probably not survive a legal challenge because of fair housing disparate impact considerations. Although it might seem fair on the surface, students with learning disabilities and students from disadvantaged homes that cannot afford tutors or other educational resources would be impacted more than other students and their families.
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Colleen F.Pro Member

Investor · Narragansett, RI · Member since 2013 · 8k+ posts · 4k+ votes

5mo

@Julie Garner that is an interesting take. Years ago when I was not a landlord I worked in a school and even in a K-8 school the kids with the most absences had the most problematic parents. This included what was called the projects and one of my jobs was home visits for absent kids. Some parents kids were always actual sick vs some had other reasons and when I visited their homes the other reasons parents I think now I would not want them as tenants. I am not sure actual grades are your best proxy because not all parents or kids are necessarily bright but just sending kids to school shows a value and a lack of deliquency (barring illness). Now I don't/would not use this but the parents I have rented to had well behaved kids on viewing. Also the parents weren't scary aggressive to their kids. I think you can learn a lot when you observe kids/parents during a viewing. I still remember one viewing where the father I thought I am not renting to them because I see a call to CPS in the future.

2 Reply

Rachid AbadliBusiness Member

Investor · Sacramento, CA · Member since 2024 · 125 posts · 33 votes

3mo

Great breakdown, Marc. The consistency requirement is the one that trips up most self-managing landlords. It's easy to apply the same criteria when you have a written policy. It's much harder when you're screening one applicant at a time and making gut decisions.

What I do for my fourplex in Sacramento:

Written criteria before the listing goes live. Income minimum (3x rent), credit floor, eviction history policy, and rental verification requirements. These are documented and applied identically to every applicant. No exceptions and no "they seemed nice."
Same application form for everyone. Same questions, same verification steps, same timeline. If I check employment for one applicant, I check it for all.
Denial reasons documented in writing. Even when it's not legally required, I record exactly why someone was denied and which criteria they failed to meet. If someone ever claims discrimination, I have a clear and consistent paper trail.

Tyler, on the criminal history question, the key is individualized assessment. You can't have a blanket policy rejecting anyone with a record, but you can evaluate the nature, severity, and recency of the offense in relation to the housing opportunity. A ten-year-old nonviolent misdemeanor is very different from a recent conviction. Document your reasoning for every decision.

The landlords who get in trouble are the ones who screen inconsistently—stricter for some applicants than others. Write your criteria down, apply them equally, and document everything.

LeaseBase.ai

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Henry T.

Member since 2022 · 1k+ posts · 1k+ votes

3mo

I just wanted to add one little detail for the smaller landlords, where FHA does not apply.

Owner-occupied buildings with four or fewer units. The FHA generally isn't applicable when a building has two to four units, and the owner lives in one of them.
Single-family homes rented without a broker. The FHA doesn't apply when a single-family house is sold or rented without a broker, so long as the owner doesn't own more than three houses.

Also, asking about grades I think would be inappropriate. But coincidentally , I've been shopping insurance lately and two of the agents that I called asked what my kids' grades were. I told them to just put N/A.

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Rachid AbadliBusiness Member

Investor · Sacramento, CA · Member since 2024 · 125 posts · 33 votes

3mo

The consistency piece is what trips up most small landlords. You need the same criteria applied the same way every time — income threshold, credit floor, background check scope — before you even see an applicant's name. I write mine down as a one-page policy and reference it for every application.

In California, it's even more layered. Source-of-income discrimination laws mean you can't reject Section 8 vouchers in most jurisdictions. And if you're in a city with local tenant protections on top of state law, screening criteria can vary by property.

The biggest mistake I see landlords make is screening differently based on "gut feel." That's how you end up on the wrong side of a Fair Housing complaint. Document your criteria, apply them uniformly, and keep records of every decision. Boring, but bulletproof.

Has anyone here had to adjust their screening criteria specifically because of new local ordinances this year?

LeaseBase.ai

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Robin Blessett

Property Manager · Maryland & Washington DC · Member since 2026 · 22 posts · 14 votes

3mo

Really appreciate this breakdown — the consistency and documentation points especially are things every small landlord should have locked down.

The criminal history section does give me pause though. The guidance makes sense in principle — no blanket bans, evaluate each case individually — but I wonder how realistic that is for a mom-and-pop with one or two units.

Individualized assessments sound straightforward until you're actually sitting with a background report trying to decide if a 7-year-old conviction is "relevant to tenancy." There's no clear rubric for that, and the burden of proving your decision was legitimate falls on you if a complaint is ever filed.

I'm not saying the intent is wrong. I just think the guidance assumes a level of resources and legal fluency that most small landlords don't have.

Curious if anyone here has navigated a Fair Housing question around a criminal history denial — how did you handle documenting that decision?

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Richard F.

Honolulu, HI · Member since 2008 · 3k+ posts · 2k+ votes

3mo

@Robin Blessett, this eval is very dependent upon the type and scope of criminal/civil court record data you are able to obtain. Many jurisdictions have court records available online, often free, or low cost. These can be State or County records. You also can access sex offender records in some regions. Anything you can access can reveal important info. I say it over and over on these forums, Bad Habits typically apply across all areas of a persons life. Find someone popular in traffic court, odds are they won't follow your rules either. Or worse.

You don't need a "deep dive", keep the view at a basic level. Are you looking at "charges", or "convictions"...big difference. Are they drug, gun, violence related, or not? Do they amount to one or two "youthful indiscretions" from several years ago, or are they showing increased frequency or escalation of severity? Is the DUI within the recent 2 or 3 years, along with other violations in the interim, or was it one instance, 5 years ago...and at what age did it occur? Or, is there a long term history of convictions, whether traffic citations, misdemeanors, or felonies?

"Mom & Pop" are the ones most likely to rent to someone based on appearances or "feelings". They may even luck out and land a good Tenant. BUT, over the long term, that is a horrible strategy. If you could see some of the properties turned over to our management by Owners that got burned by someone they "thought" would be a good choice, you would get clarity very quickly. One bad Tenant can cost you thousands of dollars out of pocket plus lost rent. Screening is the single most important task you have. Do it right, the first time.

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Robin Blessett

Property Manager · Maryland & Washington DC · Member since 2026 · 22 posts · 14 votes

3mo

@Richard F., Great points and you're right — a lot of that information is out there and accessible without spending much. For a seasoned landlord that knows where to look, those are invaluable resources.

But I think the audience most vulnerable here is the new mom and pop owner who doesn't yet know those resources exist. And on top of that, they're often so focused on getting the unit rented and relieving the financial pressure of vacancy that screening becomes surface level — they're checking boxes rather than really digging in.

Add to that the cost of legal counsel to understand how to interpret what they're finding in the context of Fair Housing compliance, and most new landlords are navigating this without the tools or guidance to do it right.

The information is free. Knowing what to do with it and having the right support in making those decisions is where most new landlords fall short.

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Colleen F.Pro Member

Investor · Narragansett, RI · Member since 2013 · 8k+ posts · 4k+ votes

3mo

@Robin Blessett I think when you are rejecting someone for a background check you have to be careful that you are rejecting for a conviction or active case. Most criminal records will show dismissed cases as well. I think you would be hard pressed to defend rejecting someone for something dismissed. I have been lucky in all the cases there was reasonable distance from the event and the tenants turned out great. Also most people come clean verbally before the check if they have to pay for the check,and they don't apply if they anticipate an issue. I think new landlords go astray by not running a background in the first place or not understanding that the service they use will not cover the state the tenant is arriving from.

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Rachid AbadliBusiness Member

Investor · Sacramento, CA · Member since 2024 · 125 posts · 33 votes

2mo

Robin nailed it. "Individualized assessment" sounds reasonable, but most self-managing landlords don't have an HR department writing compliant screening policies.

What's worked for me is simple: write your criteria before you list the unit, then apply it consistently to every applicant.

The criminal history piece trips people up. You're not required to ignore it—you're required to evaluate it individually. A recent violent felony is different from a six-year-old DUI.

Documentation is your best protection. A written policy that's applied consistently is much easier to defend than trying to explain decisions after the fact.

California adds another layer with AB 1008 and local fair chance ordinances, so it's worth checking your city's rules before screening.

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Jon Westrom

Property Manager · Fort Worth, TX · Member since 2014 · 77 posts · 29 votes

2mo

After 30 years and hundreds of placements, the consistency point is the one that gets people in trouble more than any other... landlords make one exception, then another, and suddenly they can't explain why they approved one applicant and denied someone who looked the same on paper. I'd add one thing to this list: your written criteria should be visible to applicants before they apply, not just sitting in your files. When people can see the exact standards upfront, the bad fits self-select out and you get cleaner applications from the start. Document everything, treat everyone identically, and let your criteria do the work.

1 Reply

Rachid AbadliBusiness Member

Investor · Sacramento, CA · Member since 2024 · 125 posts · 33 votes

1w

@Robin Blessett — you're raising the right concern. “Individualized assessment” sounds like you need a legal team for every application. In practice, it's simpler than it sounds:

Write down 3–4 questions you'll ask for every applicant with a record:

What was the offense?
How long ago?
Is it relevant to being a safe tenant?
What's happened since?

If someone had a DUI 8 years ago and has been clean since, that's not relevant to whether they'll pay rent and maintain the unit.

The key is documenting that you asked those questions and how you weighed the answers — same process, every time, every applicant. That's your Fair Housing protection. You don't need a lawyer for each application. You need a one-page checklist you actually follow.

The landlords who get in trouble aren't the ones who deny someone with a legitimate safety concern — they're the ones who can't show they applied any process at all.

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New Tenant Screening Rules for 2026

New Tenant Screening Rules for 2026

New Screening Rules for 2026: Staying on the Right Side of the Law

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New Screening Rules for 2026: Staying on the Right Side of the Law