Tenant screening, applications, and screening fees for California landlords

The short answer

Before advertising a unit, an owner should establish:

• The available unit and anticipated availability date.
• Written, property-appropriate qualification criteria.
• A lawful application form.
• A compliant screening-fee and application-order process.
• The reports and references that will actually be reviewed.
• A fair-housing and accommodation pathway.
• A process for incomplete applications, adverse decisions, records, and refunds.
• A local-law check for criminal history, source of income, and other restrictions.

Apply the same stated process to similarly situated applicants and document any individualized exception required by law.

What to do first

1. Pause screening if the criteria, fee, or sequence have not been updated for 2026.
2. Confirm that a unit is available now or within a reasonable period.
3. Give the written screening criteria with the application.
4. Decide which statutory screening-fee process the owner will use before collecting money.
5. Charge no more than both the actual permitted cost and the annually adjusted statutory ceiling.
6. Track when each completed application is received and when it is actually considered.
7. Preserve receipts, refunds, reports, references, communications, and the decision basis.
8. Use a compliant adverse-action notice when a consumer report materially affects the decision.

What not to do

• Do not charge every applicant immediately without a compliant process.
• Do not charge a fee when no unit is available within a reasonable period.
• Do not rely on unwritten criteria that change from applicant to applicant.
• Do not ask about protected characteristics or immigration status.
• Do not treat a voucher applicant’s full contract rent as the applicant’s personal rent burden.
• Do not use a third-party score as a substitute for reviewing the owner’s own criteria.
• Do not ignore an applicant’s request for a reasonable accommodation in the screening process.
• Do not assume that an eviction filing, arrest, or database match establishes what happened.
• Do not forget city or county restrictions on criminal-history screening.

California’s screening-fee process changed for 2026

Civil Code section 1950.6 was amended effective January 1, 2026. It now ties collection of a screening fee to one of two statutory processes.

Ordered consideration process

One option is a process in which:

• Completed applications are considered under the written criteria in the order received.
• The written criteria are provided with the application.
• The first applicant who meets the criteria is approved.
• An applicant is not charged unless or until the application is actually considered.
• An inadvertently collected fee for an application not considered is refunded within seven days, subject to the statute’s optional alternative involving another unit.

Return-the-fee process

The other option allows a different screening sequence if the landlord returns the entire screening fee to every applicant not selected, regardless of reason, within the earlier of seven days after selecting an applicant or 30 days after submission.

The process should be chosen and documented before applications arrive. Mixing the two approaches midstream makes the file harder to explain.

Fee, receipt, refund, and report duties

Section 1950.6 provides that:

• The fee cannot exceed the permitted actual out-of-pocket costs and reasonable value of time spent gathering applicant information.
• The statutory $30 base amount is adjusted annually with the Consumer Price Index beginning January 1, 1998.
• The landlord or agent must provide an itemized receipt, with email permitted by agreement.
• If no personal reference check or consumer credit report is obtained, unused amounts must be returned.
• Effective January 1, 2026, if an applicant paid a screening fee, the landlord or agent must provide the applicant a copy of the consumer credit report within seven days after receiving it.

Because the dollar ceiling changes, verify the current annual maximum before publishing or charging a specific amount. The maximum is not a default fee; actual permitted cost remains a separate limit.

Reusable tenant screening reports

Civil Code section 1950.1 defines a reusable tenant screening report and allows—but generally does not require—a landlord to accept one. If the landlord elects to accept a qualifying reusable report, the landlord may not charge the applicant a fee to access it or a separate application screening fee.

Local law may provide greater applicant protection. The owner’s application materials should state whether reusable reports are accepted and should not misdescribe that choice.

Fair-housing limits on criteria and decisions

Government Code section 12955 prohibits specified housing discrimination, discriminatory inquiries, and discriminatory advertising. California’s protected categories include source of income, disability, familial status, veteran or military status, and other characteristics listed in the statute. Federal fair-housing law also applies.

Consistency is important, but identical treatment is not always the complete answer. Disability law may require an individualized accommodation. Subsidy rules may require the owner to evaluate income and credit differently.

Government rent subsidies

When there is a government rent subsidy, Government Code section 12955 requires an income standard based on the portion of rent the tenant will pay, not the full contract rent. If credit history is used, the statute requires the owner to offer the applicant an option to provide lawful, verifiable alternative evidence of reasonable ability to pay the tenant’s portion, allow reasonable time, and reasonably consider that evidence instead of credit history.

Immigration and citizenship information

Civil Code section 1940.3 generally prohibits landlord inquiries about immigration or citizenship status while preserving the ability to request information needed to verify identity or financial qualifications and to comply with federal-law obligations.

Criminal and eviction history

California regulations and some local ordinances restrict how criminal history may be considered. Civil Code section 1950.1 expressly preserves those rules. Owners should identify the governing jurisdiction and review what information the screening provider actually returns before adopting a disqualification rule.

An automated recommendation may reflect incomplete, duplicate, sealed, or misidentified records. The owner remains responsible for the housing decision.

Federal consumer-reporting duties

When a consumer report is used to deny an application or impose materially less favorable terms, federal law may require an adverse-action notice. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau explains that the notice must identify the reporting company and tell the applicant about the right to obtain and dispute the report.

Adverse action may include more than a denial. Requiring a cosigner, higher deposit, or higher rent because of a report can qualify. California’s separate deposit limits still apply.

An owner should not tell an applicant that the screening company “made the decision.” The owner establishes the criteria and decides how to use the report.

Facts and documents that matter

A clean screening file should include:

• The advertisement and date published.
• Unit availability information.
• Written criteria in effect at the time.
• The blank application and disclosures.
• Completed applications and completion timestamps.
• The selected section 1950.6 process.
• Fee receipts and refund records.
• Reports, references, and verification notes.
• Accommodation requests and the separate interactive-process file.
• Communications with each applicant.
• Decision notes tied to the stated criteria.
• Adverse-action notice and delivery evidence, when required.
• Data-retention and secure-destruction records.

Sensitive applicant information should be collected only when needed, stored securely, and shared only with authorized people.

Local overlay check

Before screening, verify whether the city or county regulates:

• Criminal-history inquiries or timing.
• Source-of-income advertising or application practices.
• Reusable screening reports.
• Application fees or rental “junk fees.”
• Tenant opportunity-to-rent or first-in-time processes.
• Required notices or forms.

The Local Landlord Law Center is the correct starting point for Orange, Los Angeles, and San Diego County properties. A statewide workflow should include a local module rather than assume uniform rules.

Decision paths

The applicant meets the criteria

Confirm the criteria were applied, resolve any accommodation issue, verify the unit remains available, and move to lease and disclosure review.

The applicant does not meet a criterion

Confirm the criterion was disclosed, lawful, and supported by accurate information. Determine whether a reasonable accommodation, subsidy rule, or local restriction changes the analysis. If a consumer report influenced the decision, prepare the adverse-action notice.

The application is incomplete

Use a written incomplete-application process. Do not quietly move an applicant out of sequence based on information the application never identified as required.

Multiple applications arrive together

Follow the selected section 1950.6 process, document timestamps and actual consideration, and issue required refunds promptly.

A report appears inaccurate

Do not treat a questionable match as conclusive. Give the applicant the required report and notice, and consider a documented pause or clarification process consistent with the criteria and applicable law.

Mistakes that can make the problem harder

• Charging the CPI-adjusted maximum without verifying actual cost.
• Collecting fees before an application is actually considered under the ordered process.
• Failing to provide the credit report within seven days after receipt when a fee was paid.
• Applying income multiples to the full rent for a voucher applicant.
• Using different criteria because one applicant appears “more reliable.”
• Requesting immigration-status information instead of identity or financial documentation.
• Ignoring adverse-action duties after a conditional approval.
• Keeping no record of which version of the criteria applied.

How Law Laguna can help you move forward

Law Laguna can review the application, written criteria, fee calculation, process sequence, consumer-reporting documents, accommodation pathway, adverse-action template, and local overlay. The work product may include a written workflow, redlined application, criteria sheet, records checklist, and decision protocol for managers.

Related services and guides

• Legal services for California rental-property owners
• Ongoing Landlord Counseling and Compliance
• Residential Lease Drafting and Review
• Fair Housing for California Rental Property Owners
• Rental Advertising, Screening, and Protected Classes
• Source of Income and Housing Vouchers
• Local Landlord Law Center

Official legal sources

This page relies principally on Civil Code section 1950.6, as amended effective January 1, 2026; Civil Code section 1950.1; Government Code section 12955; and Civil Code section 1940.3. Federal consumer-reporting and fair-housing law and local ordinances require separate review.

Do not publish a numerical annual screening-fee ceiling without confirming the current CPI adjustment.

Laws and local procedures change. This page is general information, not legal advice.

Build a screening process that can be explained

Law Laguna can review the criteria, application, fee process, reports, fair-housing pathway, decision records, and local overlay before the next unit is advertised.

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