Rental property owners have two options for screening potential renters. Even if a rental property owner does not charge an application fee, they have to use one of these options.

You can use either the inclusive screening criteria outlined by City ordinance or your own, individual assessment.

Inclusive screening criteria

The inclusive guidelines cover criminal, rental and credit history. Your screening criteria cannot be stricter than what's below, but they can be less strict. Here is a list of topics you cannot consider when deciding to accept a potential renter:

• Criminal history
  • Misdemeanors with dates of sentencing older than three years
  • Felonies with dates of sentencing older than seven years
  • Convictions for certain felonies with dates of sentencing older than 10 years, including: first-degree murder, second-degree murder, third-degree murder, first-degree manslaughter, kidnapping, first-degree criminal sexual conduct, first degree assault, first degree arson and first degree aggravated robbery

• Rental history
  • Evictions where judgment was three or more years before the application date
  • Settlements that started one or more years before the application date
  • Dismissed evictions or evictions that lead to a judgment for the applicant
  • Too little rental history
  • If you require an income equal to three times the rent or more, you must allow the applicant to show that they have been able to pay rent in the past with an income less than three times the rent

• Credit history
  • Credit score, but you can consider information in a credit report if it's relevant to the person's ability to pay rent
  • Insufficient credit history

Individual assessment option

If a property owner wants to use stricter criteria, they must use an individual assessment to consider applicants. The property owner must consider all additional information that an applicant provides to explain, justify, or dispute information revealed by screening.

In an individual assessment, a property owner must consider:

• The nature and severity of the incidents that would lead to an application being denied
• The number and type of the incidents
• The time that has passed since the incidents happened
• The age of the individual at the time the incidents happened

Exceptions

A property owner can deny an applicant when they were convicted of:

• Drug offenses as defined in Section 102 of the federal Controlled Substances Act
• Offenses that would prevent them from federally assisted housing, such as having a member of the household who must be registered as a lifetime sex offender

Read the federal Controlled Substances Act