Where do I look for laws about screening prospects?
Those laws that most heavily affect tenant screening are the Fair Housing laws, general anti-discrimination laws, and the credit reporting laws. In addition, in some jurisdictions, there are laws that control what type of rental arrangement you may demand of a prospect, which may limit, say, your ability to compensate for marginal qualifications with an increased deposit or advance rental payment. Because of our system of government, laws and regulations concerning these can be enacted by the Federal government; the 50 state governments and the District of Columbia, plus Puerto Rico and other territories; the 3000+ county governments; and who knows how many regional, city, town, village, and borough governments. Federal and state laws can be found using the search engines and other materials in our Landlord Law section. For the lower levels of government, you will need to resort to local law libraries, other Internet resources, direct contact with the relevant governing bodies, and att
