How much can a landlord charge to screen a tenant in Connecticut?

Connecticut General Statutes Section 47a-4d caps a tenant screening report fee at fifty dollars, plus an inflation adjustment tied to the Consumer Price Index for urban consumers that the Connecticut Commissioner of Housing sets each year, so the practical ceiling for 2026 is roughly fifty dollars with a small annual increase. A tenant screening report means a credit report, criminal background report, employment history report, rental history report, or any combination used to judge an applicant's suitability. Any landlord who charges the fee must give the applicant a copy of the receipt from the entity that ran it, plus either a copy of the screening report or, if the landlord is prohibited from providing a copy, the information needed to request one from that service provider. Since Public Act 23-207 took effect on October 1, 2023, a landlord may not charge a separate rental application processing fee on top of that. Always verify the current inflation-adjusted figure before charging.

Can a Connecticut landlord charge a rental application fee?

No. Public Act 23-207, effective October 1, 2023, prohibits a Connecticut landlord from charging a prospective tenant a rental application processing fee. The only money a landlord may collect before a tenancy begins is the first month's rent, the security deposit within the statutory limit, a key or key-deposit fee, and a tenant screening report fee capped at fifty dollars plus the annual inflation adjustment under Connecticut General Statutes Section 47a-4d. A separate non-refundable application fee is no longer lawful in Connecticut.

Does a Connecticut landlord have to give the applicant a copy of the screening report?

Almost always, but the statute gives a second route. Section 47a-4d(d) requires a landlord who charges a tenant screening report fee to provide the applicant with (1) a copy of the tenant screening report or, if the landlord is prohibited from providing such a copy, information concerning the report that would allow the applicant to request a copy from the service provider that produced it, and (2) a copy of the receipt or invoice from the entity that conducted the report. Because screening-agency user agreements often forbid a landlord from re-disclosing the report, the second branch is the common compliance path rather than an exception. The receipt is owed in every case. This state duty is separate from and in addition to the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act adverse-action process, so even when the applicant is approved, if a fee was charged the receipt and the report or the request information are owed.

Can a Connecticut landlord refuse a Housing Choice Voucher (Section 8) holder?

Generally no. Connecticut General Statutes Section 46a-64c makes lawful source of income a protected class in housing, and it has been protected since 1989. The definition sits at Section 46a-63(3), which covers income derived from Social Security, supplemental security income, housing assistance, child support, alimony or public or state-administered general assistance. It does not name the Housing Choice Voucher or the security-deposit guarantee program in terms: voucher coverage rests on Connecticut case law (250 Conn. 763) and the security-deposit guarantee on the annotation at 302 Conn. 263. A landlord may not refuse to rent, advertise a no-voucher policy, or apply harsher screening because an applicant will pay part of the rent with a voucher. The landlord may still apply neutral, consistent criteria. Measuring income against the tenant's own share of the rent rather than the full contract rent is the prudent way to do that - no Connecticut statute states the rule in those words, and the nearest authority is 250 Conn. 763's bar on imposing more stringent income requirements on Section 8 applicants - but the voucher itself may never be the reason for the denial.

Can a landlord deny an applicant based on a past eviction in Connecticut?

Usually the record should never reach the landlord in the first place. Nothing in Public Act 23-207 bars a landlord from refusing to rent on eviction history - the word solely appears once in the whole act, in an unrelated property-tax valuation clause - and the act does not seal anything. What Section 47a-26j, codified from Public Act 23-207 section 23 and amended by Public Act 24-88 section 3, effective July 1, 2024, does is require the Judicial Department to remove from its Internet web site, within thirty days, any record or identifying information concerning a summary process action that was withdrawn, dismissed or nonsuited, or finally disposed of with a judgment for the defendant. The court file itself remains a public record obtainable at the courthouse, and Section 47a-26j(b) restores the record to the website if there is any activity in the case or an appeal. The screening consequence sits in Section 47a-26j(d): no person or entity may, for any commercial purpose, disclose a record removed under subsection (a), and commercial purpose is defined to include making consumer reports and any use related to screening a prospective tenant. So a compliant Connecticut screening report should not show a removed record at all, and the statute reaches the screening company rather than the landlord's decision. A pending case is not reached by the statute at all, because the removal duty is triggered only by a withdrawal, dismissal or tenant-favorable disposition.

Can a Connecticut landlord reject an applicant based on a criminal record?

Sometimes, but never as a blanket ban. Connecticut has no statewide fair-chance housing statute forcing a set procedure on private landlords, and the federal document that used to supply one is gone: HUD's 2016 criminal-records guidance was withdrawn effective September 25, 2025, and its 2022 implementation memorandum effective September 17, 2025. What still applies is the Fair Housing Act and HUD's discriminatory-effects rule at 24 CFR section 100.500, reinstated effective May 1, 2023, under which a blanket refusal to rent to anyone with any record can be challenged as disparate-impact discrimination because criminal records disproportionately affect Black and Hispanic applicants. Section 100.500 is a burden-shifting litigation standard and requires no individualized assessment, so weighing the nature and severity of the offense, how long ago it occurred, evidence of rehabilitation and relevance to the tenancy, applied the same way to everyone, is prudent risk management and the record behind a defense rather than a federal requirement. Separately, General Statutes Section 46a-80c (Public Act 21-32, effective January 1, 2023) makes it a discriminatory practice to refuse to rent, to discriminate in terms or conditions, or to misrepresent availability on the basis of erased criminal history record information; Section 46a-80a(4) defines that term to include not only erased convictions but youthful-offender records and continuances more than thirteen months old, and Section 46a-80c(b) carves out an owner-occupied room rental and an owner-occupied building of not more than four units. Records of certain cannabis-possession convictions that have been erased may not be used against an applicant either.

What are the protected classes under Connecticut fair housing law?

Connecticut General Statutes Section 46a-64c protects a broad list well beyond the seven federal Fair Housing Act classes. In addition to race, color, religion, national origin, sex, familial status, and disability, Connecticut protects lawful source of income, marital status, age, ancestry, gender identity or expression, veteran status, learning disability, and status as a victim of domestic violence, which Public Act 22-82 added to Section 46a-64c(a)(1), the subdivision barring refusal to rent or negotiate. Section 46a-81e separately protects sexual orientation and civil union status. Whether the statutory word sex also covers sexual orientation and gender identity is now an open federal question. HUD withdrew its February 9, 2021 memorandum applying Bostock v. Clayton County to the Fair Housing Act effective September 25, 2025 (Docket FR-6617-N-01, 91 Federal Register 44867, published July 17, 2026), and withdrew the February 11, 2021 memorandum implementing Executive Order 13988 effective September 17, 2025 (Docket FR-6571-N-01). The statutory text of the Act is unchanged and Bostock was a Title VII employment case, so the withdrawal removes the interpretation HUD had stated without settling the question the other way. In Connecticut the federal question does not change the answer for a landlord, and the state protection sits in two separate statutes: gender identity or expression is protected by General Statutes Section 46a-64c, and sexual orientation by Section 46a-81e. Refusing an applicant on either ground is unlawful in Connecticut however the federal question resolves, with one wrinkle: Section 46a-64c(b)(1) still exempts a room let in the owner's own single-family home and an owner-occupied two-family dwelling, while Section 46a-81e's own owner-occupied exemption, which was not identical in scope, was deleted outright by Public Act 23-207, so an owner-occupier who is exempt as to gender identity or expression is still bound as to sexual orientation. Screening criteria must be facially neutral, predictive of tenancy success, applied consistently, and must not produce a disparate impact on any protected class. A criterion that looks neutral but disproportionately excludes a protected group can still be unlawful.

Does Connecticut require written consent before running a tenant screening report?

Yes in practice, though not from the source usually named. A landlord's authority to pull the report is permissible purpose under Fair Credit Reporting Act section 604(a)(3)(F)(i), which the landlord certifies to the screening company, and screening companies generally require a signed authorization for any report that includes credit. The FCRA's own stand-alone-document written-authorization rule, at section 604(b)(2), governs a report pulled for employment purposes and does not reach a tenancy. The consent must be clear and conspicuous, and the best practice is a standalone consent form rather than a clause buried in the rental application. An applicant may decline and withdraw. Pulling a report on nothing more than an oral okay breaches the agency's user agreement and leaves the landlord with no proof of permissible purpose, and a willful Fair Credit Reporting Act violation exposes the landlord to either actual damages or statutory damages of one hundred to one thousand dollars, plus the costs and reasonable attorney fees of a successful action.

Does a Connecticut applicant get a copy of the screening report if rejected?

Yes, twice over. When a landlord takes an adverse action based even in part on a consumer report, the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act requires an adverse action notice identifying the consumer reporting agency and giving the applicant the right to a free copy of the report from that agency, generally within sixty days. Independently, Connecticut General Statutes Section 47a-4d(d) requires any landlord who charged a screening fee to hand over the receipt and either a copy of the report or, where the landlord is prohibited from providing a copy, the information needed to request one from the service provider that produced it, regardless of the outcome. Federal law adds no pre-adverse step in housing: the copy-of-the-report-and-summary-of-rights procedure is section 604(b)(3), which applies only to a report used for employment purposes, and no federal rule makes a landlord wait before deciding.

Where can a Connecticut applicant file a fair housing complaint?

An applicant who believes a screening decision was discriminatory can file with the Connecticut Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities, known as the CHRO, at the state level, or with the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development at the federal level. Both agencies investigate housing discrimination complaints and there are filing deadlines, so a complaint should be made promptly. A tenant may also raise a fair-housing or Fair Credit Reporting Act violation as a claim or defense in court, where damages, civil penalties, and attorney fees may be available.

What penalties apply for tenant screening violations in Connecticut?

The exposure is layered. Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, a willful violation carries either actual damages or statutory damages of one hundred to one thousand dollars, not both, plus any punitive damages the court allows; a negligent violation carries actual damages only; and both carry the costs and reasonable attorney fees of a successful action, which is what drives class actions. Under Connecticut fair housing law enforced by the CHRO, a discrimination finding can bring compensatory damages, civil penalties, injunctive relief, and attorney fees, and repeat federal Fair Housing Act violations can carry escalating civil penalties. Because the attorney-fee provisions shift the cost to the landlord, a single dropped consent form or missing adverse action notice can become expensive.

How far back can a Connecticut tenant screening report reach?

Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, Section 1681c, most negative items on a consumer report have a seven-year reporting window, while bankruptcies may be reported for ten years. Civil judgments, paid tax liens, and most collection accounts fall under the seven-year rule. In Connecticut, a summary process record the Judicial Department has removed from its website under Section 47a-26j may not be disclosed for tenant-screening purposes at all under Section 47a-26j(d), and erased criminal records are separately off limits under Section 46a-80c regardless of age. A landlord should never base a decision on information older than the law allows, and an applicant can dispute stale or inaccurate items with the consumer reporting agency, which must investigate, generally within thirty days.

What is a tenant screening report under Connecticut law?

Connecticut General Statutes Section 47a-4d defines a tenant screening report as a credit report, a criminal background report, an employment history report, a rental history report, or any combination of those, that a landlord uses to determine the suitability of a prospective tenant. That definition matters because the fifty-dollar fee cap, the annual inflation adjustment, and the Section 47a-4d(d) duty to give the applicant the receipt plus either the report or the information needed to request it all attach to any report that fits it, not just a credit pull.

Must Connecticut screening criteria be applied consistently to every applicant?

Yes, and consistency is the single most protective habit a landlord can adopt. Applying a written credit-score minimum, income ratio, and rental-history standard uniformly to every applicant in the same posture defeats a fair-housing discrimination claim, because there is no room for the criteria to be bent for or against a protected class. Inconsistent application, by contrast, is powerful evidence of discrimination even where no bias was intended. Publish the criteria up front, apply them identically, and document any individualized analysis for borderline cases.

What is the best way to screen tenants in Connecticut?

A defensible Connecticut screening process combines a standardized application with no separate application fee, a screening report fee kept within the Section 47a-4d fifty-dollar cap, a standalone written consent form, an FCRA-compliant consumer reporting agency, written criteria applied consistently, credit and income verification, rental-history and eviction checks that respect the Section 47a-26j removed-record rules, an individualized criminal-history assessment where relevant, and a proper section 615(a) adverse action notice after the decision when a report drives a rejection, along with the copy of the report and receipt Connecticut requires. Our how to screen a tenant step-by-step guide walks each stage in order.

What should a Connecticut landlord know about security deposits when screening?

Screening and deposits connect because a landlord collects the deposit from the approved applicant, and Connecticut has specific rules on deposit amounts, interest, and the return deadline. Note also that requiring a higher deposit because of information in a screening report is itself an adverse action under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, so it triggers the adverse action notice, not just an outright rejection. Review our Connecticut security deposit laws guide for compliant deposit handling, and treat any report-driven deposit increase as a step that must be disclosed to the applicant.

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Connecticut Tenant Screening Laws: The Landlord and Applicant Guide

FCRA Permissible Purpose · Adverse Action Notices · Section 47a-4d Fifty-Dollar Fee Cap · No Application Fee · Eviction-Record Removal · Source-of-Income Protection

Updated Q3 2026 By Tenant Screening Background Check Editorial Team Applies Connecticut ~17 min read

Connecticut tenant screening sits at the crossroads of two bodies of law: the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act, which governs how a consumer report may be pulled and used everywhere in the country, and Connecticut’s own rules, which recently grew teeth. Since Public Act 23-207, Connecticut caps a tenant screening report fee at fifty dollars under General Statutes Section 47a-4d, bans a separate rental application fee, forces the landlord to hand the applicant a copy of the report (or, where the landlord is barred from copying it, the information needed to request one), and requires the Judicial Department to remove many eviction case records from its website. Layered on top is one of the older and stronger source-of-income protections in the country. The Connecticut landlords who screen properly follow the law at each step; the ones who charge an illegal application fee or skip an adverse action notice pay for that shortcut, and the mandatory attorney-fee provisions make the bill large.

This guide walks the whole framework in plain English: the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act requirements every landlord must meet, Connecticut’s fifty-dollar screening-report fee cap and the copy-of-report and receipt duty under Section 47a-4d, the Public Act 23-207 ban on application fees, the July 2024 Section 47a-26j eviction-record website-removal rules, lawful-source-of-income protection under General Statutes Section 46a-64c and the Housing Choice Voucher, the 24 CFR 100.500 disparate-impact rule for criminal history, the rights every applicant holds, a day-by-day screening workflow, a compliance playbook, real scenarios, and a Connecticut-specific set of frequently asked questions.

Because Connecticut layers state protections on top of the federal baseline, the safest posture for a landlord is a lawful fee, written consent, consistent written criteria, and proper adverse action notices every single time, and the strongest position for an applicant is to know exactly which rights the law confers. Treat every figure here, including the inflation-adjusted fee ceiling, as a starting point and verify the current statute before you screen, charge a fee, or dispute a decision.

Connecticut tenant screening rules at a glance

A landlord may charge no application processing fee and may charge a tenant screening report fee of no more than fifty dollars plus an annual consumer-price-index adjustment determined by the Commissioner of Housing, and must give the applicant the receipt and the report or, if prohibited from providing the report, the information needed to request it (C.G.S. 47a-4d(b)-(d), P.A. 23-207); no published adjusted figure was found. See the Connecticut application fee guide.
No statewide portable or reusable screening report rule was found in the Connecticut General Statutes.
Connecticut has no statewide fair-chance housing procedure, but refusing to rent on the basis of erased criminal history record information, including youthful-offender records and continuances more than thirteen months old, is a discriminatory practice, with small owner-occupied exemptions (C.G.S. 46a-80a(4), 46a-80c).
Lawful source of income, including housing assistance, is a protected class (C.G.S. 46a-63, 46a-64c), and withdrawn, dismissed and tenant-won eviction cases are removed from the Judicial Branch website and may not be disclosed for tenant screening (C.G.S. 47a-26j).
The federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (15 U.S.C. 1681 et seq.) is the baseline: a permissible purpose to obtain the report and an adverse action notice under section 1681m(a) whenever a report contributes to a denial or worse terms.

Connecticut Tenant Screening at a Glance

Primary Authority

FCRA — fifteen U.S.C. section 1681 & Fair Housing Act

Connecticut Authority

General Statutes section 47a-4d, section 46a-64c & section 46a-81e

Screening-Report Fee Cap

Fifty dollars plus annual CPI adjustment — verify current

2023-2024 Update

Public Act 23-207 — no application fee; Section 47a-26j eviction-record website removal

Bottom line: A Connecticut landlord must satisfy the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act — permissible purpose and an adverse action notice under section 615(a) whenever a consumer report contributes to a denial, a larger deposit, a higher rent or a co-signer requirement — and Connecticut’s own rules on top of it. General Statutes Section 47a-4d caps a tenant screening report fee at fifty dollars plus an inflation adjustment the Commissioner of Housing sets each year — verify the current figure — and requires the landlord to give the applicant a copy of the receipt and a copy of the report or, if the landlord is prohibited from providing it, the information needed to request it from the service provider. Public Act 23-207 bars any separate rental application processing fee and, from July 1, 2024, requires the Judicial Department to remove certain summary process records from its website under Section 47a-26j and bars any person from disclosing a removed record for tenant-screening purposes; it does not bar a landlord from considering eviction history and it seals nothing. General Statutes Section 46a-64c protects lawful source of income, so a no-Section-8 policy is unlawful. Criminal history may be considered, but a blanket ban invites a Fair Housing Act disparate-impact claim under 24 CFR section 100.500 — HUD’s own 2016 criminal-records guidance was withdrawn effective September 25, 2025 and is no longer authority — and erased criminal history record information may not be used under General Statutes Section 46a-80c. These are general rules; verify the current statute, the inflation-adjusted fee figure, and any local ordinance before you screen.

The FCRA Framework in Connecticut

The Fair Credit Reporting Act, codified at fifteen U.S.C. section 1681, is the federal statute that governs tenant screening nationwide, and a Connecticut landlord must comply with it regardless of any state-law differences, then add Connecticut’s own rules under General Statutes Section 47a-4d and Section 46a-64c. Getting both layers right prevents almost all screening-related liability. Two federal requirements sit at the core, permissible purpose and the adverse action notice, and two load-bearing practices sit beside them.

Permissible Purpose

A landlord has a permissible purpose under Fair Credit Reporting Act section 604(a)(3)(F)(i), fifteen U.S.C. section 1681b(a)(3)(F)(i), to pull a consumer report on a rental applicant: a legitimate business need in connection with a business transaction the consumer initiated. A lease renewal or a review of an existing tenancy sits in the neighboring clause (F)(ii). That is the threshold right to obtain the report at all, but it does not eliminate any of the other requirements — it only opens the door to a report the landlord must then handle correctly.

Applicant Authorization

Take the applicant’s signed authorization before pulling a report that includes credit, and keep it. The landlord certifies a permissible purpose to the consumer reporting agency, and screening companies generally require a signed authorization for any report that includes credit; the signed form is also the evidence that the applicant initiated the transaction under section 604(a)(3)(F)(i). The authorization should be clear and conspicuous, and the best practice is a standalone form rather than a clause buried in the rental application. One attribution point is worth getting right, because most landlord guidance gets it wrong: the Fair Credit Reporting Act’s stand-alone-document disclosure and written-authorization formality lives in section 604(b)(2), fifteen U.S.C. section 1681b(b)(2), which by its own words governs a report procured for employment purposes and does not reach a tenancy. The practice is right; the source is permissible purpose and the agency’s user agreement, not section 604(b)(2). An applicant may decline consent and withdraw the application.

Consistent Criteria

Written screening criteria must be applied consistently to every applicant. Inconsistency creates disparate-treatment exposure under the Fair Housing Act and Connecticut fair-housing law, because bending the rule for one applicant and not another is powerful evidence of discrimination even where none was intended.

No Federal Pre-Adverse Step in Housing

The Fair Credit Reporting Act imposes no pre-adverse action step on a landlord. The two-step procedure that circulates in landlord guidance — hand the applicant a copy of the report and the summary of rights, then wait before acting — is section 604(b)(3), fifteen U.S.C. section 1681b(b)(3), and that subsection applies only in using a consumer report for employment purposes. Section 603(h) defines employment purposes as evaluating a consumer for employment, promotion, reassignment or retention as an employee, and renting a home is none of those four things. So in housing there is no waiting period before the decision, no duty to enclose the report, and no duty to enclose the summary of rights — furnishing that summary is a duty of the consumer reporting agency under section 609(c)(2), and the applicant’s route to the report is the free copy from the agency described below. Because there is no federal waiting period to observe, the commonly repeated figure of at least five business days has no statutory source in a housing decision at all.

Adverse Action Notice

This is the landlord’s real federal notice duty, and it runs after the decision, not before it. Under Fair Credit Reporting Act section 615(a), fifteen U.S.C. section 1681m(a), any person who takes an adverse action based in whole or in part on information in a consumer report must give the consumer notice of the adverse action, which may be oral, written or electronic; the name, address and telephone number of the consumer reporting agency that furnished the report, including its toll-free number where the agency reports nationwide; a statement that the agency did not make the decision and is unable to give the specific reasons for it; and notice of the applicant’s right to obtain a free copy of the report from that agency within sixty days and to dispute anything inaccurate or incomplete in it. If a numerical credit score was used in the decision, section 615(a)(2) adds a duty to disclose the score, its source, the date it was created, the range of scores under that model, and the