How do I screen tenants legally in Texas?
By Andrew ChavisUpdated November 8, 20268 min readWrite the criteria first, hand them to every applicant with the application, apply them the same way to everyone, verify against sources the applicant did not supply, and send the federal notice when a consumer report plays any part in a no. Texas Property Code section 92.3515 requires a printed notice of your tenant selection criteria and the grounds for denial at the time you give out the application, with a signed acknowledgment; reject someone without having made that notice available and you owe the application fee and deposit back. The Fair Housing Act sets the outer line: intentional discrimination on race, color, national origin, religion, sex, familial status, or disability is unlawful outright, and a neutral standard can also be unlawful under HUD's discriminatory-effects rule (24 CFR 100.500) when it has an unjustified disproportionate effect on a protected group. This page is general information, not legal advice.
The Texas Rule: Criteria in Writing, Before the Fee
Section 92.3515(a) says that "at the time an applicant is provided with a rental application, the landlord shall make available to the applicant printed notice of the landlord's tenant selection criteria and the grounds for which the rental application may be denied," and it names the grounds the notice may use: criminal history, previous rental history, current income, credit history, or failure to provide accurate or complete information. Under (b) the applicant signs an acknowledgment that the notice was made available, and if there is no signature "there is a rebuttable presumption that the notice was not made available." The teeth are in (e): "If the landlord rejects an applicant and the landlord has not made the notice required by Subsection (a) available, the landlord shall return the application fee and any application deposit." Two things the statute does not do. It does not tell you what your standards must be; it tells you to publish them. And it does not make a denial unlawful for lack of notice; the consequence is the refund. A bad-faith failure to refund costs more: section 92.354 sets it at $100 plus three times the amount wrongfully kept plus the applicant's attorney's fees.
What Belongs on the Criteria Sheet
A standard you can apply identically to every adult who applies, stated as thresholds, not adjectives. Income: a gross-income multiple of the rent, verified. Rental history: how many years, what counts as a negative (an eviction judgment, a balance owed to a prior landlord), and the look-back window. Credit: the measure you use and the threshold, plus what happens when an applicant has thin credit (our practice is a larger deposit rather than an automatic denial). Criminal history: an individualized assessment of the nature, severity and recency of a conviction, with a look-back window, convictions rather than arrests, and no blanket ban. Completeness: that false or missing information is itself a ground for denial, which section 92.3515(a)(5) allows you to list. Pets and animals: the pet terms, with the assistance-animal rule stated so nobody on your side applies the pet terms to a disability accommodation. Occupancy: a limit set by the house rather than the household. Put the acknowledgment language the statute supplies on the form, and keep the signed copy with the application.
Verification Means a Source the Applicant Did Not Hand You
A pay stub, a bank-statement PDF, an offer letter, a reference letter, the phone numbers written on the form, even a credit report or background check the applicant supplies as a file: each one is a claim. Verification means checking the claim against a source the applicant did not supply. An employer reached at a number you looked up independently. A prior landlord found through county records rather than the number on the form. A screening report you ordered from a consumer reporting agency rather than one the applicant printed. Identity checked against a government ID in person or through a verification service. The Texas Fair Housing Act and the federal act both expect consistent procedures for every applicant, subject to the reasonable accommodations the law requires for a person with a disability (Property Code 301.025(c)), so the verification steps go on the criteria sheet too, and every file shows the same steps were run.
The Federal Notice When a Report Plays Any Part in a No
Tenant background checks, tenant-screening scores, and reports from a service that calls employers or prior landlords are consumer reports under the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act. The Federal Trade Commission's guidance for landlords says that if you reject an applicant, require a co-signer, raise the deposit, or raise the rent "based partly or completely" on one, you owe an adverse action notice even if the report was not the main reason. The notice names the reporting agency with its address and phone, says the agency did not make the decision and cannot explain it, and tells the applicant they can dispute the report and get a free copy within 60 days; if a credit score was used, the score, its range, the key factors, the date it was created and the entity that provided it go in too, in writing or electronically. This is a federal duty, separate from the Texas criteria rule, and it applies to a one-house landlord the same as to us.
Fair Housing: The Line Is Effect, Not Intent
The federal Fair Housing Act protects race, color, national origin, religion, sex, familial status and disability; the Texas Fair Housing Act in Property Code chapter 301 tracks it. Intentional discrimination is unlawful on its face. A neutral screening standard is tested differently, under HUD's discriminatory-effects rule: whether the standard, applied as written, has a disproportionate effect on a protected group, whether it serves a legitimate, non-discriminatory interest, and whether a less discriminatory alternative would serve that interest. A blanket rule against any criminal history is the kind of neutral standard that analysis examines; what we use is an individualized assessment of the nature, severity and recency of convictions, with a stated look-back window, applied the same way to every applicant. Two Texas-specific points. Source of income is not a protected class in Texas, and Local Government Code 250.007 bars a city from requiring a landlord to accept a housing voucher, with two exceptions the statute keeps: an ordinance protecting a military veteran's source of income, and voluntary incentive programs a city runs to encourage voucher acceptance (250.007(b), (c)). A category-wide voucher refusal can still be examined under the federal discriminatory-effects rule, which is why we screen voucher income under the same published income standard as any other verified income. And an assistance animal is not a pet: Texas Human Resources Code 121.003(h) bars extra compensation or a deposit for a service animal, and intentionally or knowingly misrepresenting an animal as an assistance or service animal when it is not specially trained or equipped is a misdemeanor under 121.006. The published, consistently applied criteria sheet is the record a landlord points to when a complaint comes. An unwritten rule applied from memory is the one that cannot be shown.
What Happens After You Decide
Acceptance has a clock too. Under section 92.352(a) the applicant "is deemed rejected" if the landlord does not give notice of acceptance on or before the seventh day after a completed application on the landlord's form, or after the landlord takes an application deposit without furnishing a form; and under (b), rejecting one co-applicant rejects all of them. An application deposit, by definition in section 92.351(1), is refundable if the applicant is rejected; an application fee, under (1-a), is nonrefundable and meant to offset screening cost. The definitions decide what comes back, whatever the form calls the money: a sum that is refundable on rejection is an application deposit, so the form should use the statutory names and match the statute. When a deadline in this subchapter falls on a Saturday, Sunday or state or federal holiday, section 92.353(c) extends it to the end of the next day. Then the file: the signed acknowledgment, the application, the reports you ordered, the verification notes, the decision, and the adverse action notice if one went out. That file, kept the same way for every applicant, is how a landlord shows the standard was applied as written. This page is general information about Texas and federal law as of November 2026, not legal advice; a Texas attorney should review your criteria sheet before it goes to the first applicant.
Common Questions
- Does a Texas landlord have to give tenant selection criteria in writing?
- Yes. Property Code 92.3515 requires a printed notice of the selection criteria and the grounds for denial at the time the application is provided, with a signed acknowledgment. Reject an applicant without having made it available and the application fee and deposit must be refunded.
- Can a landlord deny a tenant for credit score alone in Texas?
- Credit history is one of the grounds the statute lets you list. If the denial relies on a credit or screening report, federal law requires an adverse action notice naming the reporting agency and the applicant's dispute rights. Our own practice treats thin credit with a larger deposit rather than an automatic no.
- Can a Texas landlord refuse all applicants with a criminal record?
- A blanket ban is the kind of neutral policy HUD's discriminatory-effects rule examines for disproportionate effect and justification. Our practice is an individualized assessment of the nature, severity and recency of convictions, with a stated look-back window, applied identically to every applicant.
- Does a Texas landlord have to accept Section 8 vouchers?
- Texas law does not make source of income a protected class, and Local Government Code 250.007 bars cities from requiring voucher acceptance. The statute keeps exceptions for veteran-protection ordinances and voluntary incentive programs. A category-wide refusal can still be examined under the federal discriminatory-effects rule; we screen voucher income under the same published income standard as any other verified income.
- Can I charge a pet deposit for a service animal in Texas?
- No. Human Resources Code 121.003(h) says a person with a disability who has a service animal may not be required to pay extra compensation or a deposit for the animal, though they remain liable for damage beyond reasonable wear and tear.
- How long does a Texas landlord have to accept or reject an application?
- Seven days. Under Property Code 92.352(a), if no notice of acceptance goes out by the seventh day after a completed application, the applicant is deemed rejected, and rejecting one co-applicant rejects all. A deadline that falls on a weekend or holiday runs to the end of the next day (92.353(c)).
Sources
- Texas Property Code 92.3515, 92.351, 92.352, 92.354 (rental application fees and tenant selection criteria)
- FTC, Using Consumer Reports: What Landlords Need to Know (Fair Credit Reporting Act adverse action)
- Texas Property Code chapter 301, Texas Fair Housing Act
- Texas Local Government Code 250.007, ordinances on source of income
- Texas Human Resources Code 121.003 and 121.006, assistance animals in housing
- HUD, Fair Housing Act overview (protected classes)
Prefer this source in your Google resultsanswers like this, higher in your results
Tell me about the house.
You get the numbers, sourced and dated. What you do with them is up to you.
See how we screenDo I have to refund a rental application fee in Texas?
sell it or rent it? run the numbersgoogle reviewstrec license 0845090
- 01Which repairs should I do before renting out my house in 76179?
- 02Can I charge for pets in a Texas rental, and what about assistance animals?
- 03How much security deposit should I charge for a Texas rental?