Texas tenant screening laws give rental applicants a specific set of protections that start before you fill out an application and continue after you’ve been denied. Landlords must hand you written selection criteria upfront, decide within seven days, refund your application deposit if they reject you, and follow federal rules when they pull your credit or act on what they find. If a landlord skips any of these steps, the money often has to come back — and sometimes with penalties on top.
Written Selection Criteria Come First
Before a Texas landlord processes your rental application, they have to give you a printed notice describing the standards they’ll use to approve or deny you. The notice must cover the grounds that can lead to rejection: criminal history, prior rental history, current income, credit history, and whether the information on your application is accurate and complete.1State of Texas. Texas Property Code 92.3515 – Notice of Eligibility Requirements The law doesn’t tell landlords what the standards must be. They can require a minimum credit score, income equal to three times the rent, or a clean rental history. What they can’t do is keep those standards to themselves.
You’ll be asked to sign an acknowledgment confirming you had a chance to read the criteria. If you don’t sign, the law presumes the landlord never gave you the notice. The acknowledgment has to warn you that your application can be rejected and your application fee kept if you don’t meet the criteria or submit incomplete information.1State of Texas. Texas Property Code 92.3515 – Notice of Eligibility Requirements
Here’s the leverage this rule gives you: if a landlord rejects you without ever providing this notice, they owe you a full refund of both your application fee and any application deposit.1State of Texas. Texas Property Code 92.3515 – Notice of Eligibility Requirements It doesn’t matter whether you would have qualified. The landlord skipped a required step, so the money comes back.
Application Fees vs. Application Deposits
Texas draws a sharp line between two kinds of money you pay during screening, and confusing them is one of the most common tenant mistakes.
An application fee is nonrefundable. It covers the cost of running your background and credit checks. Texas sets no statutory cap. Once you pay it, you generally don’t get it back — unless the landlord failed to provide the written selection criteria described above.2State of Texas. Texas Property Code 92.351 – Definitions
An application deposit is different. It’s a separate sum you pay to hold the unit while the landlord reviews your file, and by statutory definition it’s refundable if you’re rejected as a tenant.2State of Texas. Texas Property Code 92.351 – Definitions
The word “rejected” does a lot of work here. If the landlord approves you and you decide not to move in, you weren’t rejected — you walked away, and the deposit can be kept. If you’re approved and sign the lease, the deposit is usually credited toward your security deposit or first month’s rent, depending on what your agreement says.
The Seven-Day Response Deadline
A Texas landlord can’t sit on your application indefinitely. If they don’t notify you of acceptance within seven days, you are automatically considered rejected.3State of Texas. Texas Property Code 92.352 – Rejection of Applicant The clock starts on the date you submit a completed application, or the date the landlord accepts your deposit if no formal application form was used. If the seventh day falls on a weekend or a state or federal holiday, the deadline extends to the end of the next business day.4State of Texas. Texas Property Code 92.353 – Procedures for Notice or Refund
Once that deemed rejection kicks in, your application deposit is owed back. Notice of acceptance or rejection can come by phone or by U.S. mail postmarked on or before the deadline. If you specifically ask that any refund or acceptance be mailed to you, the landlord has to honor that request and send it to the address you give them.4State of Texas. Texas Property Code 92.353 – Procedures for Notice or Refund
What You Can Collect if a Landlord Wrongfully Keeps Your Money
A landlord who refuses in bad faith to return an application fee or deposit that should have been refunded is liable for $100, plus three times the amount wrongfully kept, plus the applicant’s reasonable attorney’s fees.5State of Texas. Texas Property Code 92.354 – Liability of Landlord
The “bad faith” qualifier matters. A landlord who made an honest mistake or took a few extra days isn’t automatically facing treble damages. But a landlord who pockets your deposit after rejecting you and then ignores your refund request is exactly who this provision targets. Because attorney’s fees are recoverable, a lawyer may take the case without requiring you to pay upfront.
Your Rights When a Credit Report Denies Your Application
Most Texas landlords pull a credit report as part of screening. Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, your rental application creates the “legitimate business need” that lets them do it, but they still need your written consent and have to give you a summary of your FCRA rights.6Federal Trade Commission. Using Consumer Reports: What Landlords Need to Know
When a landlord denies your application, requires a larger deposit, or offers less favorable lease terms based even in part on a credit report, federal law requires an adverse action notice. It has to include the name, address, and phone number of the consumer reporting agency that supplied the report, a statement that the agency didn’t make the decision and can’t explain why you were denied, notice of your right to a free copy of the report within 60 days, and notice of your right to dispute inaccurate or incomplete information with the agency.7Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 U.S. Code 1681m – Requirements on Users of Consumer Reports
That 60-day window is only for getting a free copy of the report. Your right to file a dispute with the reporting agency doesn’t expire after 60 days.7Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 U.S. Code 1681m – Requirements on Users of Consumer Reports Once you file a dispute, the reporting agency has 30 days to investigate and either correct the information or explain why it stands.8Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1681i – Procedure in Case of Disputed Accuracy
Limits on Criminal and Eviction History Screening
Texas landlords have wide discretion to consider criminal history, but that discretion has federal boundaries. HUD guidance makes clear that blanket policies rejecting anyone with a criminal record are likely to violate the Fair Housing Act because of their disproportionate impact on certain racial and ethnic groups. A defensible policy focuses on convictions rather than arrests, considers the nature and severity of the offense, and factors in how much time has passed. Many property managers use a lookback period of seven to ten years for most offenses, along with an individualized review that lets applicants explain the circumstances.
Eviction history has its own federal limit. Consumer reporting agencies cannot include civil suits or civil judgments more than seven years old.9Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1681c – Requirements Relating to Information Contained in Consumer Reports An eviction from nine years ago should not appear on your screening report.
HUD has also cautioned that overly broad use of eviction history is “especially likely to have an unjustified discriminatory effect.” Eviction records where the tenant prevailed or where the case was dismissed carry no useful information about future tenancy. HUD expects landlords to let applicants dispute whether negative eviction information is accurate or relevant, including situations tied to domestic violence.
Fair Housing, Housing Vouchers, and Occupancy
Both federal and Texas law prohibit landlords from applying different screening standards based on a protected characteristic. In screening, the most common violations involve setting different income requirements, charging different application fees, or applying stricter criminal history policies to certain groups.10Texas Workforce Commission. Housing Discrimination – Fair Housing The Texas Workforce Commission’s Civil Rights Division enforces the Texas Fair Housing Act, which mirrors the federal protected classes: race, color, national origin, religion, sex, disability, and familial status.11Texas Workforce Commission. Civil Rights Division
Source of income is one area where Texas differs from many other states. State law does not prohibit landlords from rejecting tenants who pay rent using housing vouchers, and a 2015 statute preempts cities from passing their own source-of-income protections, with a narrow exception for local ordinances protecting veterans. If you rely on a Housing Choice Voucher (Section 8), a Texas landlord can legally refuse to accept it.
Occupancy limits can also create fair housing problems. HUD’s longstanding guidance treats a standard of two people per bedroom as generally reasonable, but stricter policies may constitute familial status discrimination, especially where a unit has large bedrooms, dens, or other livable space.12U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Keating Memo – Occupancy Standards If a landlord rejects your family because you have children and their occupancy cap doesn’t match the actual size of the unit, that’s worth pushing back on.
What Happens to Your Personal Data After Screening
A rental application collects a lot of sensitive information: Social Security number, bank account details, employment records. When screening ends, that data doesn’t just vanish. The FTC’s Disposal Rule requires any business that uses consumer report information to take reasonable steps to destroy it when it’s no longer needed.13eCFR. 16 CFR 682.3 – Proper Disposal of Consumer Information For paper records, that means shredding or burning. For electronic files, it means wiping or destroying the media so the data can’t be recovered.
If you’re concerned about what a landlord is doing with your information after they deny your application, you can ask. Landlords who use third-party screening companies should be confirming those companies follow proper disposal practices too. Careless storage or disposal of your financial data isn’t only sloppy — it can violate federal regulations that carry enforcement consequences.