The Rental Application Form

There are a number of key things to remember about the rental application form itself. 

First, you must have a written application form.  Second, the rental application form must provide the rental housing owner the authority to run a credit report, conduct a background check and to confirm information with the rental applicants’ employer, prior landlord references, as well as other references that might be needed.  The authority granted by the rental application form should be expansive and over-inclusive. 

Confidential Information & Security

Third the rental application form should provide a section or page where the results of the rental application investigation can be documented.  The area should be sufficiently large that meaningful comments can be written down.  It does no good if the area is so small that nothing useful or helpful can be written down.   In the alternative, the investigation results should be documented in a database which is safely stored and backed up on a secure hard drive.  Remember application information must be kept secured because it includes confidential and personal information of the applicant which could be used to compromise the identity of the applicant.  Federal law requires the owner and manager to have policies in place regarding the security of this confidential information. 

Improper Questions

Finally, make sure the form does not ask illegal or improper questions.  A number of older forms can still be found wandering the stationary stores and Internet sites.  Make sure the form you are using does not ask questions that are now considered illegal under current Fair Housing standards.  In addition, a form that is permissible in one state, may be impermissible in another state.  Make sure the form you use is appropriate for your state and locale.  

The California Criminal Background Dilemma

For example, it is standard protocol for a rental housing provider to conduct a criminal background investigation on a prospective applicant, in states other than California.  However, in California this is not the industry standard protocol. 

In California, a rental housing provider or owner is specifically prohibited from using information that is obtained from  a Megan’s Law site when making decisions regarding housing.  Consequentially, rental housing owners in California generally do not seek permission to obtain this information, because they are prohibited from using it.  This no win situation causes rental housing providers in California to not want to know about the criminal background of their prospective residents. 

Second Opinions:

A well drafted article on this subject can be found at the web site of Kimball,  Tiery & St. John, a California law firm representing landlords throughout the state of California.