Discrimination
Landlords may use different screening criteria, but they cannot apply these criteria in a discriminatory manner. For example, it is illegal for a landlord to ask you about your race, religion, age (other than making sure you are over 18 years old), sexual preference, or whether you are pregnant. For more information about who is protected by discrimination laws, see Chapter 7: Discrimination.
Landlords may not automatically exclude any person with any criminal conviction or eviction record but should consider the nature and severity of an individual's record when screening.39 For example, landlords should not request criminal background checks for some applicants and not others. Landlords should consider the amount of time that has passed since the conviction and the nature and severity of the conviction. If a landlord denies your application based upon prior eviction cases, this may be illegal discrimination. You can appeal denial even if a landlord does not allow or encourage appeals.
In addition, your credit history is supposed to help evaluate whether you are likely to pay your rent going forward. However, screening applicants out because you have poor credit can act to disproportionately exclude applicants with vouchers – when your ability to pay the rent is at least partially covered by their voucher.40
40. See Louis v. SafeRent Solutions, LLC, 985 F.Supp.3d 19, 39 (D. Mass. July 26, 2023) (plaintiffs sufficiently pled disparate impact claim that a scoring system relying heavily on credit history disproportionately impacted voucher holders and other protected classes).