Choosing tenants well is one of the most consequential things you’ll do as a landlord, and it’s also one of the areas where owners run into legal trouble without meaning to. I’m Robbie English, REALTOR and Broker at Uncommon Realty, and through Uncommon Rentals I manage tenant screening for property owners across Central Texas. Here’s how to screen tenants effectively while staying inside fair housing law.
TLDR
- Screen every applicant against the same objective, written criteria — income, credit, and rental history, not personal characteristics.
- Write your rental ads about the property, not the tenant you picture living there.
- Document every step of the process so you can show consistent treatment if it’s ever questioned.
- Know which protected classes apply federally and which ones Texas and your city add on top.
- When you deny an applicant, put the specific, objective reason in writing.
The Federal Baseline
The Fair Housing Act prohibits discrimination based on race, color, national origin, religion, sex, disability, or familial status. That’s the floor everywhere in the country, landlord or property manager, big portfolio or single rental.
What Texas Adds — and What It Doesn’t
Texas law generally mirrors the federal list rather than expanding it. One thing worth knowing if you’re renting in Austin specifically: the city passed an ordinance in 2014 protecting renters from source-of-income discrimination (refusing an applicant just because they’re paying with a housing voucher), but the state legislature later passed a law blocking cities from enforcing source-of-income protections, with one carve-out — cities can still protect veterans using housing vouchers. So if you’re screening applicants in Austin, you can decline a voucher holder on that basis alone under current state law, but you can’t do that if the applicant is a veteran using a voucher. Ordinances shift, so if this distinction matters for your situation, it’s worth confirming current status before you rely on it.
Set Your Criteria Before You List the Property
Decide your income-to-rent ratio, minimum credit score, and how you’ll handle a past eviction before you ever post the listing. Then apply those same numbers to every applicant. This is the single biggest thing that protects you — a documented, consistent standard removes the guesswork (and the legal exposure) that comes from judgment calls made applicant by applicant.
Advertise the Property, Not a “Type” of Tenant
Your listing copy should describe the home: the quiet street, the school district, the recent updates, the yard. It shouldn’t describe who you picture renting it. Steer clear of language that even implies a preference for or against families, a particular background, or anyone with a disability.
Run Every Application the Same Way
Credit checks, background checks, employment verification — run them for every applicant, not just the ones you’re unsure about. Selectively screening some applicants and not others is one of the more common ways landlords end up with a fair housing complaint, even without any intent to discriminate.
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Interviews and Conversations
If you talk with applicants before deciding, keep the conversation on the property, the lease terms, and their ability to meet your stated criteria. Questions about family status, religion, national origin, or disability — even asked out of simple curiosity — create risk. Stick to what’s relevant to the tenancy.
Denying an Applicant
When someone doesn’t meet your criteria, put the reason in writing and keep it specific and objective: credit score below your stated minimum, income below your required ratio, an eviction on record. Skip personal commentary. That written record is what protects you if a denial is ever questioned.
Why Owners Hire This Out
A lot of the property owners I work with hand tenant screening to Uncommon Rentals because getting it wrong is expensive in two different ways — a fair housing complaint on one end, and a tenant who doesn’t pay or damages the property on the other. My team runs the same documented screening process on every applicant, across every property we manage in Austin, Cedar Park, Leander, and the surrounding area, so owners aren’t making these calls applicant by applicant on their own.
Tenant selection is the first step in managing a rental well, not the whole job. Lease enforcement, maintenance response, and clear communication matter just as much once someone’s moved in. If you’d rather have someone else own that process end to end, that’s what my team handles.
