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Screening cuts risk when you write the criteria before you advertise, apply them the same way to every applicant, and reject only for reasons you could show on paper.
By RentalAnalytics Editorial Team · Published October 12, 2026
A hunch about who "seems" like a good tenant is how fair housing problems start, and it is a weak predictor besides. Income, rent history, and a check you are allowed to run are narrower tools. They also have to stay inside the Fair Housing Act.
The Fair Housing Act protects people from discrimination when they are renting a home, buying, getting a mortgage, or seeking housing assistance. HUD's overview lists the prohibited bases: race, color, national origin, religion, sex, familial status, and disability.
That list reaches the ad, the application, the cutoff you set, and the way you enforce it. A rule that is neutral on its face and then waived for some people and not others is still a problem. So is a rule you only mention after you have met the applicant.
Write the criteria into the listing or a one-page standard you hand to everyone. Decide the cutoffs when no file is on your desk. If you change a cutoff, change it for applications that arrive after the change, not for the file you are holding.
Source: HUD, Housing Discrimination Under the Fair Housing Act.
Use items that tie to whether this person can pay the rent and take care of the unit. Keep each one measurable.
Income against this unit's rent. A common landlord standard is that gross monthly income covers the rent at least three times. That multiple is a screening choice, not a statute you can cite as federal law. Whatever multiple you pick, write it down and use it on every complete application. Count income you can verify with pay stubs, an offer letter, or a benefit statement. Do not count a figure an applicant hopes to earn.
Recent rental history. Ask for the last landlord's contact information and whether the applicant left owing rent or was asked to leave for a lease breach. Verify by phone or in writing. A gap in housing needs a explanation you can accept in advance, such as living with family, not a free-form interview that drifts into protected topics.
Identity and who's on the lease. Every adult who will live in the unit goes through the same application. A guest policy belongs in the lease, not in a guess during the tour.
Credit or a background report, if you use one. If you pull a consumer report, you need a permissible purpose and the disclosures that go with it. Tell applicants you will do it, get the consent your process requires, and apply the same standard to the result. "No unpaid landlord debt over a stated dollar amount" is a standard. "I didn't like the file" is not.
Occupancy that fits the unit. A written occupancy limit based on the number of people and the size of the unit is easier to apply evenly than a vibe about who the unit is "for." Familial status is a protected basis. Do not build the limit around whether the household includes children.
Leave off criteria that track a protected basis, even indirectly, unless you have a specific legal reason you have checked with a lawyer. Marital status questions, "this is a quiet building for professionals," and different deposits by national origin do not belong in the standard.
Use one order. It saves report fees and it keeps you from inventing a new test halfway through.
Write the result in the file the same day. The note should name the criterion, not a personality read. "Verified gross income is 2.4 times rent. Standard is 3 times. Declined." is a file you can defend. "Seemed risky" is not.
If two applicants qualify, follow the selection rule you published, such as the first complete application that met every line. Do not jump the line because someone offered to pay extra months up front unless your written standard allows that offer from anyone.
How to estimate rent matters here because the income test is only as good as the rent on the ad. Screen to a rent you can support with local data, not to a wish price that forces every qualified applicant to fail. The rent-to-income tables on the site, starting at the rent-to-income rates page, show how heavy rent is relative to income in a given area. That is context for whether your multiple is realistic in that market. It does not replace your written cutoff.
A renewal is a screening event you already have data for. You have the payment ledger and the condition of the unit. You do not need to re-interview the tenant about their life.
Decide in the standard what you will recheck. A typical approach is to renew a tenant who paid on time and did not breach the lease, then set the new rent from the gap to market, subject to any local cap. Pull a new background report at renewal only if the lease or your published policy says you will, and only under the same consent rules you use for applicants.
The lease renewal advisor compares current rent with a HUD-based median and points toward hold, raise modestly, or reposition. That is a pricing output. Pair it with the payment history before you send a notice. A tenant who has paid reliably at a slightly-under-market rent is a different risk from a new applicant you have never collected from. How much to raise rent at renewal walks that tradeoff, including what a vacancy costs if the increase pushes a good payer out.
If you decline to renew, use a reason you could put next to the ledger. Nonpayment, a documented lease breach, or an owner move-in allowed by local law are in a different category from a decision you cannot explain. Some states and cities require a stated cause after a tenant has been in place for a set time. Check that rule before you send a non-renewal that only says you are "not renewing."
If a renewal increase pushes a good payer out, the empty month has a dollar cost. See The Real Cost of Tenant Turnover and Vacancy.
No. It is a common written standard landlords choose so the cutoff is the same for every applicant. Pick a multiple you can explain, publish it, and verify income the same way each time. A rule you waive for people you like is not a standard.
Familial status is one of the bases HUD lists under the Fair Housing Act. A household with children has to be measured against the same occupancy, income, and rental-history rules as any other household. Do not advertise a unit as adults-only to avoid families.
Tell them the criterion they missed, in writing, the same way you would tell anyone else. If you used a consumer report in the decision, follow the adverse-action steps that apply to that report, including who issued it and how to dispute errors. Keep a copy of what you sent.
Only if your written policy says so and you have the consent and purpose to pull it. Payment history on your own ledger is direct evidence about this tenancy. A credit pull does not replace that ledger, and it adds a report you must handle under the same rules as an applicant file.
Screening tells you whether you want the tenancy to continue. The renewal rent tells you on what terms. A tenant who meets your renewal standard can still be under market. The lease renewal advisor helps on the rent gap. It does not score the tenant's behavior. You still read the ledger.
If the tenant already lives there, run the current rent through the lease renewal advisor before you decide the increase. If you are filling a vacancy, set the advertised rent first, then apply the written income multiple to that figure so the screen matches the unit you are actually offering.
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