How much can a landlord charge for a tenant screening fee in Minnesota?

Minnesota Statutes Section 504B.173 does not set a fixed dollar cap on the applicant screening fee. It instead bars charging a fee when the landlord knows or should have known that no rental unit is available or will be available within a reasonable future time, requires a written receipt on request, and bars cashing the fee until prior applicants have been screened and rejected or have declined the unit. Before collecting any fee, the landlord must give the applicant a written notice stating the name, address, and telephone number of the tenant screening service the landlord will use and the criteria on which the rental decision will be based. If the landlord does not run the reference check or obtain the credit or tenant screening report, the unused portion of the fee must be returned. The figure many landlords charge tracks the report cost, commonly in the range of thirty to fifty dollars, and the statute itself sets no dollar ceiling. Verify the current statute before charging.

Does Minnesota cap the rental application fee at forty dollars?

No. There is no forty-dollar statutory cap in Minnesota, and any guide that states one is incorrect. Minnesota Statutes Section 504B.173 sets no fixed maximum on the applicant screening fee. The related duties are what the statute actually enforces: a written pre-fee disclosure of the screening service and the decision criteria, a refund of the fee when the landlord rejects the applicant for a reason not listed in that disclosure or when a prior applicant takes the unit or when the landlord never runs the report, and a fourteen-day rejection notice. Charging a fee when no unit is available, skipping the disclosure, or keeping a fee that must be returned are the violations.

What must a Minnesota landlord disclose before charging a screening fee?

Under Minnesota Statutes Section 504B.173, before accepting an applicant screening fee the landlord must give the applicant a written notice that contains two things: the name, address, and telephone number of the tenant screening service the landlord will use, and the criteria on which the decision to rent will be based. This up-front disclosure is what makes the later refund and rejection rules enforceable, because the applicant can compare any denial against the criteria that were disclosed. A landlord who collects a fee without first providing this disclosure has violated the statute and is liable for the fee plus a civil penalty of up to one hundred dollars, filing costs, and attorney fees.

When must a Minnesota landlord refund the screening fee?

Minnesota Statutes Section 504B.173 requires the landlord to return the applicant screening fee, or the unused portion of it, in three situations: when the landlord rejects the applicant for any reason not listed in the disclosed criteria; when a prior applicant is offered the unit and agrees to enter into a rental agreement; and when the landlord does not perform a personal reference check or does not obtain a consumer credit report or tenant screening report, in which case the amount not actually used for those purposes must be returned. Because the statute requires the unused portion back, a landlord who collects the fee but never screens must give it back.

How long does a Minnesota landlord have to notify an applicant of rejection?

Minnesota Statutes Section 504B.173 requires a landlord who rejects a rental application to notify the applicant within fourteen days of the rejection, and the notice must identify the criteria the applicant failed to meet. This is separate from, and in addition to, the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act adverse action notice under 15 U.S.C. Section 1681m(a), which is required whenever a consumer report contributes to the denial and is given after the decision, with no federal waiting period. A landlord should send both: the fourteen-day Minnesota rejection notice identifying the failed criteria, and the federal adverse action notice naming the consumer reporting agency with its address and telephone number, stating that the agency did not make the decision, and explaining the applicant's sixty-day free-copy and dispute rights. In Minneapolis or St. Paul, add the ordinance's own fourteen-day denial notice.

Can a Minnesota landlord refuse a Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher holder?

It depends on the city, and this is the most misunderstood point in Minnesota. The Minnesota Human Rights Act, at Section 363A.09, makes status with regard to public assistance a protected class statewide. However, Minnesota appellate courts have held, in Edwards versus Hopkins Plaza, that a landlord's refusal to participate in the voluntary Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher program is not, by itself, discrimination based on status with regard to public assistance, because the Act protects a person's status rather than compelling participation in a voluntary program. A statewide bill to ban source-of-income discrimination outright died in 2024. The clear voucher-acceptance mandates are local: Minneapolis, by a 2017 ordinance the Minnesota Supreme Court upheld in the Fletcher Properties case, and St. Paul both prohibit refusing an applicant because of a Housing Choice Voucher. Outside those cities, confirm the current local rule.

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

Yes, outside Minneapolis and St. Paul. Minnesota has no statewide Fair Chance or ban-the-box housing law and no statewide statute requiring an individualized assessment. What constrains the decision statewide is the Fair Housing Act discriminatory-effects rule at 24 CFR Section 100.500, reinstated effective 1 May 2023: a blanket refusal to rent to anyone with any record is the classic exposure, because criminal records fall disproportionately on Black, Hispanic and American Indian applicants, and the landlord would bear the burden of proving the policy necessary to a substantial, legitimate, nondiscriminatory interest achievable in no less discriminatory way. Do not rely on HUD's 2016 criminal-records guidance: it was withdrawn effective 25 September 2025 by Federal Register Docket No. FR-6617-N-01, and its 2022 implementation memo was withdrawn effective 17 September 2025. The Fair Housing Act and Section 100.500 both survive that withdrawal, though Section 100.500 is the subject of a pending HUD proposal to remove it, which is proposed only and has changed nothing. An individualized assessment weighing the nature and severity of the offense, the number and type of incidents, the time elapsed, the applicant's age at the time, evidence of rehabilitation and relevance to tenancy remains the strongest defense. In Minneapolis and St. Paul it is not merely a defense: the local ordinances make it mandatory whenever the landlord screens more strictly than the ordinance's own criteria, and they impose hard look-back limits, so the property's city controls.

Does the FCRA require a pre-adverse action notice before denying a rental application?

No. This is the single most common error in tenant-screening guidance. The pre-adverse action procedure — give the applicant a copy of the report and the summary of rights, then wait before acting — is 15 U.S.C. Section 1681b(b)(3), and that subsection applies only “in using a consumer report for employment purposes.” Employment purposes is defined at 15 U.S.C. Section 1681a(h) as evaluating a consumer for employment, promotion, reassignment or retention as an employee, and renting a home is none of those. The duty a landlord actually owes is the adverse action notice under 15 U.S.C. Section 1681m(a), given after the decision, stating the consumer reporting agency's name, address and telephone number, that the agency did not make the decision and cannot explain it, that the applicant may get a free copy of the report from the agency within sixty days, and that the applicant may dispute anything inaccurate or incomplete, plus the credit-score disclosure if a score was used. Federal law sets no waiting period, no duty to enclose the report and no duty to enclose the summary of rights in housing, and the widely quoted five business days has no federal source at all. The Federal Trade Commission's own landlord guidance is organized as Before You Get a Consumer Report and After You Take an Adverse Action, with no third step. Where a real pre-denial duty exists it comes from state or local fair-chance housing law; Minnesota has none statewide, but Minneapolis Section 244.2030 and St. Paul chapter 193 each require a landlord who screens more strictly than the ordinance's own criteria to run an individualized assessment and consider the applicant's supplemental evidence before denying.

What are the Minneapolis renter-screening ordinance rules?

The rule is Minneapolis Code of Ordinances Section 244.2030, added by Ordinance No. 2019-038 effective 1 June 2020 and amended by Ordinance No. 2026-007 adopted 23 April 2026. A landlord must make its screening criteria readily available to all applicants before accepting applications, and then take one of two paths. Under the inclusive screening criteria the landlord may not reject an applicant on an arrest in an inactive case that did not result in conviction, a diversion or deferral program, a vacated or expunged conviction, conduct no longer illegal in Minnesota, a juvenile adjudication, a misdemeanor whose sentencing date is older than three years, a felony whose sentencing date is older than seven years, or the listed serious felonies whose sentencing date is older than ten years; nor on a credit score by itself or insufficient credit history; nor on an eviction that was dismissed or decided for the applicant, one settled with no judgment or writ entered one or more years earlier, or a judgment entered three or more years earlier. A minimum income test of three times the rent or higher must allow an exception for a demonstrated history of successful rent payment on less. Under the individualized assessment path the landlord may screen more strictly but must accept and consider all supplemental evidence provided with a completed application and weigh the nature and severity of the incidents, their number and type, the time elapsed and the applicant's age at the time. Either way, written notice is owed within fourteen days of a rejection, and on the assessment path it must explain why the supplemental evidence did not compensate. Section 244.2040 caps the security deposit at a single month's rent, or half a month where more than the first rent installment plus the deposit is due before the end of the first month. St. Paul's parallel rule is Legislative Code chapter 193, created by Ordinance 25-31 and effective 14 May 2026. Confirm the current ordinance for the address.

Does Minnesota require written consent before a tenant background check?

In practice yes, but not for the reason usually given. The FCRA provision that requires a stand-alone written disclosure and written authorization is 15 U.S.C. Section 1681b(b)(2), and by its own terms it governs reports procured for employment purposes, not housing. A landlord's authority to pull the report comes instead from permissible purpose under 15 U.S.C. Section 1681b(a)(3)(F)(i) — a legitimate business need in connection with a business transaction the consumer initiated. Written consent is still effectively required, because every FCRA-compliant screening company demands it by contract before releasing a report and a signed standalone form is the cleanest proof of permissible purpose if the pull is challenged. Two genuine written-disclosure duties do bind a landlord: 15 U.S.C. Section 1681d(a), if the landlord orders an investigative consumer report based on personal interviews, requires written disclosure within three days of the request together with a summary of rights; and Minnesota Statutes Section 504B.173 requires written disclosure of the screening service and the decision criteria before any screening fee is accepted. Pulling a report with no permissible purpose and no authorization is what creates real exposure, under 15 U.S.C. Sections 1681n and 1681o.

What are the protected classes under Minnesota fair housing law?

All seven federal protected classes under the Fair Housing Act apply in Minnesota: race, color, religion, national origin, sex, familial status, and disability. Whether the statutory word sex reaches sexual orientation and gender identity is contested rather than settled: 42 U.S.C. Section 3604 names only sex, and HUD's memorandum of 9 February 2021 applying Bostock versus Clayton County to the Fair Housing Act was withdrawn effective 25 September 2025 under docket FR-6617-N-01, published 17 July 2026, as was the companion memorandum implementing Executive Order 13988, withdrawn effective 17 September 2025 under docket FR-6571-N-01. A Minnesota landlord does not need that federal question resolved, because the Minnesota Human Rights Act protects both classes in its own right: Section 363A.09 names sexual orientation and gender identity in each of its five real-property prohibitions, alongside creed, marital status, status with regard to public assistance and familial status. Age is not on the state housing list. Section 363A.03, subdivision 2 confines the Act's age prohibition to employment and education, and Section 363A.21, subdivision 3 preserves housing-for-older-persons practices; age reaches housing only in Saint Paul, under Legislative Code Section 183.01 read with Section 183.06 on prohibited acts in real property. 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.

How far back can a Minnesota tenant screening report reach?

Under the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act, most negative items on a consumer report have a seven-year reporting window, while bankruptcies may be reported for ten years. Minnesota adds report-accuracy and correction rights under Section 504B.241, which lets an applicant see the information in a tenant screening file, get free disclosure if the report was used within the past thirty days to deny the rental or raise the deposit or rent, and require the screening service to reinvestigate and delete anything inaccurate or unverifiable. In Minneapolis and St. Paul, the local ordinances further limit how far back criminal and eviction records may be used in a screening decision, regardless of how far back the report itself reaches: misdemeanors older than three years, felonies older than seven, and the listed serious felonies older than ten may not be a reason to reject under the ordinances' own criteria, and a landlord who wants to reach further must run a documented individualized assessment.

Can a Minnesota landlord deny an applicant because of an eviction filing?

Not if the filing is pending, non-public or expunged, or never produced a writ of recovery. Since 1 January 2025, Minn. Stat. § 504B.173, subd. 3a bars a landlord statewide from denying a rental application based on a pending eviction action, any court file that is not public or has been expunged or destroyed, or any eviction action that has not resulted in a writ of recovery of premises and order to vacate. That last category covers every dismissed, withdrawn, settled or tenant-won case. Violating the section makes the landlord liable for the screening fee plus a civil penalty of up to one hundred dollars, filing costs and attorney fees. Separately, Minn. Stat. § 504B.241, subd. 4 requires the screening service to re-check Minnesota Court Records Online within 24 hours before issuing the report, and Minn. Stat. § 484.014 now expunges most qualifying eviction files automatically, including three years after an eviction was ordered.

Can a Minnesota applicant see and correct their screening report?

Yes. Minnesota Statutes Section 504B.241 gives an applicant the right to obtain the nature and substance of the information a residential tenant screening service holds on them, along with the sources, on proper identification. The disclosure is free if the report was used within the past thirty days to deny the rental or to increase the security deposit or rent. If the applicant disputes the accuracy of anything, the service must reinvestigate, and information found to be inaccurate or that can no longer be verified must be deleted, with prior recipients notified. This state right runs alongside the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act dispute process.

Where can a Minnesotan file a fair housing complaint?

An applicant who believes a screening decision was discriminatory can file with the Minnesota Department of Human Rights 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 can 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. Keep written records of the application, the disclosed criteria, and any communications.

What penalties apply for tenant screening violations in Minnesota?

The exposure is layered. Under Minnesota Statutes Section 504B.173, a landlord who violates the screening-fee rules is liable to the applicant for the screening fee plus a civil penalty of up to one hundred dollars, civil filing costs, and reasonable attorney fees, while an applicant who supplies materially false information faces a civil penalty of up to five hundred dollars plus costs and fees. Under the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act, 15 U.S.C. Section 1681n gives an applicant harmed by a willful violation either actual damages or statutory damages of one hundred to one thousand dollars — the statute states them as alternatives, not as a sum — plus any punitive damages the court allows, while 15 U.S.C. Section 1681o gives actual damages only for a negligent violation; both carry costs and mandatory reasonable attorney fees. Under the Fair Housing Act and the Minnesota Human Rights Act, a discrimination finding can bring actual and punitive damages, civil penalties, and attorney fees.

What is the best way to screen tenants in Minnesota?

A defensible Minnesota screening process combines a standardized application, the Section 504B.173 written disclosure of the screening service and criteria before any fee is collected, a standalone signed applicant authorization taken before the pull (required by screening-company contract and the cleanest proof of permissible purpose, rather than by the FCRA, whose stand-alone-disclosure rule at 15 U.S.C. Section 1681b(b)(2) is employment-only), an FCRA-compliant consumer reporting agency, written criteria applied consistently, credit and income verification, rental-history and eviction checks, an individualized criminal-history assessment that respects the Minneapolis Section 244.2030 and St. Paul chapter 193 look-back limits, and both the fourteen-day Minnesota rejection notice and the federal adverse action notice under 15 U.S.C. Section 1681m(a) when a report drives a denial. That federal notice is given after the decision: the FCRA imposes no pre-adverse action notice, no duty to enclose the report or a summary of rights, and no waiting period on a landlord. Our how to screen a tenant step-by-step guide walks each stage in order. Verify the current statute before relying on any single figure here.

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

Screening and deposits connect because the landlord collects the deposit from the approved applicant. Minnesota has no statewide dollar cap on the deposit amount, but it does require the landlord to pay interest and return the deposit with a written statement within three weeks after the tenancy ends. Minneapolis Section 244.2040 and St. Paul Section 193.02 each cap the deposit at a single month's rent for covered rentals, and Minneapolis cuts that to half a month where the tenant must pay more than the first rent installment plus the deposit before the end of the first month. Note also that requiring a larger deposit than another applicant would pay because of information in a screening report is itself an adverse action under 15 U.S.C. Section 1681a(k)(1)(B)(iv), so it triggers the Section 1681m(a) adverse action notice, not just an outright rejection. Review our Minnesota security deposit laws guide for compliant deposit handling.

Home › Tenant Screening Laws › Minnesota

Minnesota Tenant Screening Laws: The Landlord and Applicant Guide

FCRA Permissible Purpose · Section 1681m(a) Adverse Action Notice · Section 504B.173 Screening-Fee Rule · Minnesota Human Rights Act · Minneapolis and St. Paul Ordinances

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

Minnesota 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 Minnesota’s own rules under Minnesota Statutes Section 504B.173 and Section 504B.241, which add a specific screening-fee disclosure, a refund duty, a fourteen-day rejection notice, and report-correction rights. On top of the statewide floor sit two of the strictest local renter-screening ordinances in the nation, in Minneapolis and St. Paul. The Minnesota landlords who screen properly almost never face a lawsuit. The ones who skip the pre-fee disclosure, the consistent written criteria, or the adverse action notice pay for that shortcut, and the mandatory attorney-fee provisions are what make the bill so large.

This guide walks the whole framework in plain English: what the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act actually requires of a landlord — and the widely repeated “pre-adverse action notice” that it does not — Minnesota’s screening-fee rule and pre-fee disclosure under Section 504B.173, the applicant’s report-correction rights under Section 504B.241, fair-housing protection under the federal Fair Housing Act and the Minnesota Human Rights Act, the accurate source-of-income and Section 8 analysis, the Minneapolis Section 244.2030 and St. Paul chapter 193 renter-screening ordinances, the Fair Housing Act discriminatory-effects rule at 24 CFR Section 100.500 that outlived HUD’s withdrawn 2016 criminal-records guidance, the rights every applicant holds, a day-by-day screening workflow, a compliance playbook, real scenarios, and a Minnesota-specific set of frequently asked questions.

Because Minnesota’s biggest cities add protections on top of the statewide baseline, the safest posture for a landlord is the written pre-fee disclosure, 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 as a starting point and verify the current statute and local ordinance before you screen, charge a fee, or dispute a decision.

Minnesota tenant screening rules at a glance

No statewide dollar cap on the applicant screening fee was found in Minn. Stat. 504B.173; a landlord may not charge one when it knows or should have known that no rental unit is available or will be available within a reasonable future time, must give a receipt on request, must disclose the screening service and criteria in writing first, must refund it when the applicant is rejected for an undisclosed reason or a prior applicant takes the unit, and must return any unused portion when no report is run (Minn. Stat. 504B.173, subds. 1-3). See the Minnesota application fee guide.
No statewide portable or reusable screening report rule was found; instead a screening service must re-check Minnesota Court Records Online within twenty-four hours before issuing a report and must let an applicant see and correct the file (Minn. Stat. 504B.241).
No statewide criminal-history lookback or fair-chance housing statute was found, but Minneapolis Code 244.2030 and St. Paul Legislative Code ch. 193 bar reliance on most misdemeanors older than three years and most felonies older than seven unless the landlord runs a documented individualized assessment.
A landlord may not deny an application based on a pending eviction, a non-public or expunged court file, or any eviction that did not end in a writ of recovery, and must notify a rejected applicant within fourteen days of the criteria not met (Minn. Stat. 504B.173, subds. 3 and 3a).
The Minnesota Human Rights Act protects status with regard to public assistance, marital status, sexual orientation and gender identity in rentals (Minn. Stat. 363A.09), and a rental application must offer an SSN-or-ITIN option (Minn. Stat. 504B.117).
The federal Fair Credit Reporting Act is the baseline for every screening report, including the adverse action notice owed after a report-based denial (15 U.S.C. 1681m(a)).

Minnesota Tenant Screening at a Glance

Primary Authority

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

Minnesota Authority

Section 504B.173 fee rule & Section 504B.241 report rights

Screening Fee Rule

No dollar cap — disclose, receipt & refund

Local Ordinances

Minneapolis § 244.2030 & St. Paul ch. 193 — the only pre-denial duties in Minnesota

Bottom line: A Minnesota landlord must satisfy the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act — permissible purpose and an adverse action notice under 15 U.S.C. Section 1681m(a) whenever a consumer report contributes to a denial, a higher deposit, a higher rent or a co-signer requirement — and Minnesota’s own rules on top of it. The FCRA imposes no “pre-adverse action” step on a landlord: that two-step procedure lives in 15 U.S.C. Section 1681b(b)(3), which applies only “in using a consumer report for employment purposes.” Minnesota Statutes Section 504B.173 does not set a dollar cap on the applicant screening fee; it bars a fee when no unit is available, requires a written disclosure of the screening service and the decision criteria before any fee is collected, requires a refund when the applicant is rejected for a reason not disclosed or the report is never run, and requires a rejection notice within fourteen days identifying the failed criteria. Section 504B.241 lets an applicant see and correct the screening report. The Minnesota Human Rights Act, at Section 363A.09, protects a long list of classes, including status with regard to public assistance, though whether that compels acceptance of a Section 8 voucher is a local, not a clearly statewide, question. Minneapolis (Code of Ordinances Section 244.2030) and St. Paul (Legislative Code chapter 193) add look-back limits on criminal and eviction records, cap the security deposit at a single month’s rent, and — this is the genuine pre-denial duty in Minnesota — require a landlord who screens more strictly than the ordinance’s own criteria to run a documented individualized assessment before denying. Those duties come from city law, not from the FCRA. These are general rules; verify the current statute and any local ordinance before you screen.

The FCRA Framework in Minnesota

The Fair Credit Reporting Act, codified at fifteen U.S.C. section 1681, is the federal statute that governs tenant screening nationwide, and a Minnesota landlord must comply with it regardless of any state-law differences, then add Minnesota’s own rules under Section 504B.173 and Section 504B.241. Getting both layers right prevents almost all screening-related liability. Two federal duties sit at the core, permissible purpose and the adverse action notice, alongside two load-bearing practices — and a further point, the one nearly every screening guide gets wrong, is what the FCRA does not require of a landlord.

Permissible Purpose

A landlord may obtain a consumer report on a rental applicant because the landlord has a legitimate business need for the information in connection with a business transaction that is initiated by the consumer — Fair Credit Reporting Act section 604(a)(3)(F)(i), 15 U.S.C. Section 1681b(a)(3)(F)(i). The parallel clause at section 604(a)(3)(F)(ii) covers reviewing an existing account, which is how a landlord may re-screen at lease renewal. The screening company will require the landlord to certify that purpose in writing before it releases anything. Permissible purpose is the threshold right to obtain the report at all; it does not eliminate any of the other duties — it only opens the door to a report the landlord must then handle correctly.

Written Consent and Authorization

Take written authorization from every applicant before pulling a consumer report — but be precise about where the duty comes from, because this is the second thing screening guides routinely misstate. The FCRA’s stand-alone written disclosure and written authorization rule is section 604(b)(2), 15 U.S.C. Section 1681b(b)(2), and by its own terms it governs a report procured “for employment purposes.” A landlord’s authority to obtain the report comes from permissible purpose, not from that subsection. Written consent is nevertheless close to mandatory in practice: every FCRA-compliant consumer reporting agency requires it by contract as a condition of releasing the report, and a signed standalone form is far better evidence of permissible purpose than a clause buried in the rental application if the pull is ever challenged.

One genuine federal pre-report duty can reach a landlord directly. If the landlord orders an investigative consumer report — one built on personal interviews about character, general reputation, personal characteristics or mode of living rather than on database records — section 606(a), 15 U.S.C. Section 1681d(a), requires a clear and accurate written disclosure of that fact,