Property management & leasing
Rental Criteria: Definition & Example
Also called: Screening criteria, Qualifying criteria
What Is Rental Criteria?
Rental criteria are the written standards a landlord uses to evaluate every applicant, such as minimum income, rental history, credit, and background requirements.
What does rental criteria mean?
Written rental criteria tell applicants up front what the landlord will look at and how. They commonly cover income (for example, three times the monthly rent), acceptable income documents, rental history, credit, criminal history policies that comply with local law, occupancy limits, and whether guarantors are accepted.
Publishing criteria and applying them the same way to everyone is one of the most effective ways to reduce fair housing risk. Several cities and states now require landlords to disclose their screening criteria before accepting an application fee.
Criteria should also say how income from different sources is counted, including vouchers, Social Security, and self-employment income, because many jurisdictions prohibit source-of-income discrimination.
Rental criteria example
A property’s posted criteria state that household income must be at least 2.5 times the rent, that applicants need 24 months of verifiable rental history or a guarantor, and that housing vouchers count toward income for the tenant’s share of rent. Every applicant receives the same document before paying the application fee.
Related terms
- Tenant ScreeningTenant screening is the process landlords use to evaluate rental applicants, typically by reviewing identity, income, rental history, credit, and background information against written criteria.
- 3x Rent RuleThe 3x rent rule is a common landlord guideline requiring an applicant’s gross monthly income to be at least three times the monthly rent.
- Fair Housing ActThe Fair Housing Act is a federal law that prohibits discrimination in renting, selling, and financing housing based on race, color, national origin, religion, sex, familial status, or disability.
- Source-of-Income DiscriminationSource-of-income discrimination is treating a rental applicant differently because of where their lawful income comes from, such as a housing voucher, Social Security, child support, or public assistance.
- Application FeeAn application fee is a charge a landlord or property manager collects when someone applies to rent, usually to cover the cost of screening and processing the application.
