New Application Criteria Guidelines + Form
Your Rental Application and Criteria Notice is one of your most important tools when looking for a new tenant. It’s how you set the bar for finding the most responsible tenants possible for your rental property. What does their financial history look like? Have they been responsible tenants in the past? What is their current income? State law and many local laws dictate the information you must provide prospective tenants about your screening process, what information you can and cannot use when making decisions about offers of tenancy, what types of documentation you must accept when validating income and fiscal responsibility, Tacoma even tells you how to set your income requirements!
As an owner or leader of a property management firm, this is homework you must do for yourself so that it reflects your specific business needs and the legal requirements where each property is located. Often, housing providers must maintain different versions of criteria notices for each property. While we cannot provide this document for you, we have worked hard to give you detailed guidelines, now reflecting the laws of the state of Washington and nine different cities. These guidelines are organized to align with a convenient form blank where you can enter your details into the following sections:
1. Information accessed for screening.
2. Instructions to apply.
3. Terms and policies to be offered.
4. Required documentation and fees to be included with each application.
5. Minimum criteria for acceptance:
5.1 Minimum income requirement.
5.2 Financial history.
5.3 Rental history.
5.4 Employment history.
5.5 Criminal history/sex offender registry.
5.6 Other.
RHAWA members can find this useful tool on our forms page at rhawa.org/rental-forms-leases-notices under Screening.
The new Rental Application and Criteria Notice form aligns with detailed guidelines that include all state and local law requirements.
Formal legal advice and review is recommended prior to selection and use of this information. RHAWA does not represent your selection or execution of this information as appropriate for your specific circumstance. The material contained and represented herein, although obtained from reliable sources, is not considered legal advice or to be used as a substitution for legal counsel.