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Which parts of a landlord form are governed by federal law rather than state law?

Five bodies of federal law reach into ordinary landlord paperwork, and everything else on a form is set by your state or your city. That is the division to hold in mind when you download a national template: the federal layer fixes what a document must contain and must not ask no matter where the property sits, and the state layer fixes how many days a notice runs, how it must be served, and which extra disclosures ride along with the lease.

The federal layer is a floor, not a ceiling. States and cities can require more, and many do: some regulate lead paint further, some limit what a landlord may consider from a criminal record, and a growing number add protected classes the federal statute does not name, such as source of income, marital status, age, or sexual orientation. None of that is visible on a national form. What a national form can do reliably is get the federal layer right, because that layer really is the same in every state.

Federal rule	What triggers it	Citation
Lead-based paint disclosure on the lease	Leasing target housing built before 1978	42 U.S.C. 4852d; 24 CFR 35.82 to 35.92
Lead pamphlet before renovation work	Renovation performed for compensation in target housing	40 CFR 745.82 to 745.86
Screening authorization and adverse action notice	Obtaining or using a consumer report on an applicant	15 U.S.C. 1681b, 1681c, 1681m
Application questions and advertising language	Any covered dwelling, with narrow exemptions	42 U.S.C. 3603, 3604; 24 CFR 100.202
Military lease termination notice	Servicemember lessee with qualifying orders	50 U.S.C. 3955
Disposal of applicant screening files	Possessing consumer report information for a business purpose	16 CFR 682.1 to 682.3

What must a lead-based paint disclosure contain when the transaction is a lease?

A lease-side lead disclosure has six required elements, set out at 24 CFR 35.92(b) as items that must appear either as an attachment to the lease or within the contract itself, in the language of the contract. Missing one of the six is what turns a signed disclosure into a defective one.

• The Lead Warning Statement in the wording the regulation supplies for lessors, beginning “Housing built before 1978 may contain lead-based paint” and closing by telling the lessee that a federally approved pamphlet on lead poisoning prevention must also be received.
• A statement by the lessor disclosing known lead-based paint or hazards, or indicating no knowledge of any, with any additional information available about the basis for the determination, the location, and the condition of the painted surfaces.
• A list of any records or reports available to the lessor that were provided to the lessee, with an affirmative indication if none are available.
• A statement by the lessee affirming receipt of the disclosure, the records list, and the lead hazard information pamphlet required under 15 U.S.C. 2696.
• Where an agent acts on the lessor’s behalf, a statement that the agent has informed the lessor of the obligations under 42 U.S.C. 4852d and is aware of a duty to ensure compliance.
• The signatures of the lessors, agents, and lessees certifying accuracy to the best of their knowledge, each with the date of signature.

Timing is a separate duty. Under 24 CFR 35.88(b), if disclosure happens after the applicant has already made an offer to lease, the lessor must complete it before accepting the offer and allow the applicant to review the information and possibly amend the offer. The consequence of getting any of this wrong is unusually sharp for a paperwork rule: under 42 U.S.C. 4852d(b)(3) a person who knowingly violates the section is jointly and severally liable to the lessee for three times the damages incurred, and 4852d(b)(4) allows a court to award court costs, reasonable attorney fees, and expert witness fees to a prevailing plaintiff.

Does the ten-day inspection opportunity apply to tenants?

No. That opportunity is a purchaser right, and the regulation proves it structurally rather than by implication. The seller-side element list at 24 CFR 35.92(a) includes paragraph (a)(5), requiring a statement by the purchaser that he or she either received or waived the opportunity to conduct the risk assessment or inspection required by 24 CFR 35.90(a). The lessor-side list at 35.92(b) runs to six paragraphs and contains no counterpart to that item at all. A landlord form asking a tenant to acknowledge or waive a ten-day inspection period has imported a sales requirement into a lease, which at best muddies the record and at worst signals that the rest of the document was copied without being checked.

Do landlords owe a lead notice before repairs and renovation work?

Yes, when the work is a renovation performed for compensation in target housing, and it is a separate obligation from the one attached to the lease. Under 40 CFR 745.82(a), Subpart E applies to all renovations performed for compensation in target housing and child-occupied facilities, subject to exceptions including a written determination by a certified inspector or risk assessor that the affected components are free of lead at or above the regulatory threshold.

The paperwork sits at 40 CFR 745.84. No more than 60 days before beginning renovation activities in a residential dwelling unit, the firm performing the renovation must give the owner the pamphlet and then either obtain a written acknowledgment of receipt or a certificate of mailing at least seven days before the renovation. Where the owner does not occupy the unit, which is the ordinary rental case, the firm must additionally give an adult occupant the pamphlet and either obtain that occupant’s written acknowledgment or certify in writing that the pamphlet was delivered and acknowledgment could not be obtained. That certification has its own required contents: the unit address, the date and method of delivery, the names of the people who delivered it, the reason acknowledgment was not obtained, and the signature and date of a representative of the firm. Common areas of multi-unit target housing carry a parallel 60-day duty under 745.84(b).

What does federal law require of a landlord who runs a tenant screening report?

The Fair Credit Reporting Act attaches the moment a landlord obtains or uses a consumer report on an applicant, and it imposes duties at two points: before the report is pulled, and after a decision goes against the applicant.

What makes pulling the report lawful?

A consumer reporting agency may furnish a report only in the circumstances listed at 15 U.S.C. 1681b(a) “and no other.” Two matter to landlords. Section 1681b(a)(2) permits furnishing in accordance with the written instructions of the consumer, which is what a signed screening authorization supplies. Section 1681b(a)(3)(F)(i) permits furnishing to a person with a legitimate business need in connection with a business transaction initiated by the consumer, the standing basis for screening someone who applied to rent from you. The obligation runs the other way too: under 15 U.S.C. 1681b(f), a person shall not use or obtain a consumer report unless it is obtained for an authorized purpose and that purpose is certified through a general or specific certification.

What must an adverse action notice contain?

A rental denial based even in part on a consumer report is an adverse action, because the definition at 15 U.S.C. 1681a(k)(1)(B)(iv) reaches an action or determination made in connection with an application made by, or a transaction initiated by, a consumer that is adverse to that consumer’s interests. Once it applies, 15 U.S.C. 1681m(a) requires four things.

• Oral, written, or electronic notice of the adverse action to the applicant.
• Written or electronic disclosure of any numerical credit score used in taking the action, with the associated information identified in 15 U.S.C. 1681g(f)(1).
• The name, address, and telephone number of the consumer reporting agency that furnished the report, including its toll-free number if it maintains files nationwide, plus a statement that the agency did not make the decision and cannot give the specific reasons for it.
• Notice of the applicant’s right to a free copy of the report from that agency under 15 U.S.C. 1681j, with an indication of the 60-day period for requesting it, and of the right to dispute the accuracy or completeness of the information under 15 U.S.C. 1681i.

Which FCRA rules do not apply to landlords?

The standalone-disclosure and pre-adverse-action procedures that circulate on screening forms come from 15 U.S.C. 1681b(b), drafted for consumer reports obtained “for employment purposes.” That subsection is where the requirement for a disclosure “in a document that consists solely of the disclosure” lives, and where the two-step procedure of giving the consumer a copy of the report before acting lives. Both are keyed to employment, not tenancy. A landlord who follows them anyway breaks nothing, but one who assumes the two sets of rules are identical will misread both. The tenancy duty is the 1681m(a) notice above.

What can a screening report legally contain?

Federal law caps how far back a consumer report reaches, which sets the outer edge of what any screening form can promise to surface. Under 15 U.S.C. 1681c(a), an agency generally may not report bankruptcies antedating the report by more than ten years, or civil suits, civil judgments, and records of arrest antedating it by more than seven years or until the governing limitations period expires, whichever is longer. Paid tax liens, accounts placed for collection, and any other adverse item carry the same seven-year cutoff, with one carve-out in the text: records of convictions of crimes are excluded from that limit.

What is the liability if a landlord gets the FCRA wrong?

The FCRA splits liability in two, and the difference between the halves is the availability of statutory damages. Under 15 U.S.C. 1681n(a), a person who willfully fails to comply is liable for actual damages sustained by the consumer or damages of not less than $100 and not more than $1,000, plus such punitive damages as the court may allow, plus costs and reasonable attorney fees in a successful action. A separate branch at 1681n(a)(1)(B) covers a natural person who obtains a report under false pretenses or knowingly without a permissible purpose, and sets recovery at actual damages or $1,000, whichever is greater.

Negligent noncompliance is narrower. Under 15 U.S.C. 1681o(a), a person negligent in failing to comply is liable for actual damages sustained by the consumer, plus costs and reasonable attorney fees in a successful action. There is no statutory damages figure and no punitive damages in that section. A sloppy denial letter with no demonstrable harm behind it therefore sits in a very different place from a pattern of pulling reports without authorization.

Which questions on an application form create fair housing liability?

A rental application can violate federal law by what it asks, before anyone has been accepted or rejected. The Fair Housing Act makes it unlawful under 42 U.S.C. 3604(a) to refuse to rent, refuse to negotiate, or otherwise make unavailable or deny a dwelling because of race, color, religion, sex, familial status, or national origin, and under 3604(b) to discriminate in the terms, conditions, or privileges of a rental on those same grounds.

Disability is handled separately, which is the detail most often flattened on landlord pages. It is not in the list in subsections (a) and (b). It appears at 42 U.S.C. 3604(f), which prohibits discrimination in rental because of a handicap of the renter, of a person intending to reside in the dwelling, or of anyone associated with the renter, and defines discrimination at 3604(f)(3) to include refusing reasonable modifications at the disabled person’s expense and refusing reasonable accommodations in rules, policies, practices, or services. Familial status is defined at 42 U.S.C. 3602(k) as one or more individuals under eighteen domiciled with a parent or legal custodian, and the protection expressly extends to a person who is pregnant or securing legal custody.

The question-level rule sits in the regulation. 24 CFR 100.202(c) makes it unlawful to inquire whether an applicant, a person intending to reside in the dwelling, or anyone associated with them has a handicap, or to inquire into the nature or severity of one. The same paragraph names what stays permissible provided the inquiry is made of all applicants: ability to meet the requirements of tenancy, qualification for a dwelling or priority reserved for persons with handicaps, whether the applicant is a current illegal abuser or addict of a controlled substance, and whether the applicant has been convicted of the illegal manufacture or distribution of a controlled substance. A form asking about medical conditions, medications, disability status, or why an assistance animal is needed has crossed a line the regulation draws explicitly. Separately, 24 CFR 100.202(d) states that nothing in the subpart requires a dwelling be made available to someone whose tenancy would constitute a direct threat to the health or safety of others or result in substantial physical damage to the property of others.

Do the small-landlord exemptions cover the advertisement?

No, and the statute says so in its first clause. 42 U.S.C. 3603(b) exempts certain transactions from section 3604 with the parenthetical “other than subsection (c).” The exemptions are narrow: a single-family house sold or rented by a private individual owner who owns no more than three such houses, subject to further conditions including that no broker or agent is used, and rooms or units in a dwelling housing no more than four families where the owner actually occupies one. Because 3604(c) is carved out, the ban on making, printing, or publishing any notice, statement, or advertisement indicating a preference, limitation, or discrimination still applies, and that subsection lists handicap among its grounds where (a) and (b) do not. An owner genuinely exempt from the rental provisions is still bound by the wording of the listing.

Which federal rule can end a lease early no matter what the lease says?

The Servicemembers Civil Relief Act lets a qualifying servicemember terminate a residential lease, and no clause in your document overrides it. Under 50 U.S.C. 3955(b)(1) the section covers a lease of premises occupied or intended to be occupied by a servicemember or dependents where the lease was executed before entry into military service, or where the servicemember executed it and then received orders for a permanent change of station or to deploy for not less than 90 days.

The mechanics are form-shaped. Under 3955(c)(1)(A) termination is made by the lessee delivering written notice plus a copy of the military orders to the lessor or the lessor’s agent, and 3955(c)(2) permits delivery by hand, by private business carrier, by mail with return receipt requested, or by electronic means reasonably calculated to ensure actual receipt. Under 3955(d)(1)(A), for a lease providing for monthly rent, termination is effective 30 days after the first date the next rental payment is due and payable after the notice is delivered.

What should a landlord keep from a form file, and for how long?

There is no single federal retention period for landlord records, so the honest answer has three parts: two specific federal figures, one federal destruction duty, and a state-law question you have to answer locally.

Both federal figures are three years. Under 24 CFR 35.92(c)(1), the lessor and any agent must retain a copy of the completed lead attachment, or of the lease containing the required information, for no less than three years from the commencement of the leasing period; 35.92(c)(2) adds that this is not intended to limit civil suits or affect a lessee’s rights under 42 U.S.C. 4852d(b)(3), so three years is a floor for records, not a shelf life for liability. Under 40 CFR 745.86(a), firms performing renovations must retain all records necessary to demonstrate compliance for three years following completion, and the rule states expressly that this does not supersede longer obligations under other provisions, including state or tribal law.

The third is not a retention rule but a destruction rule, and it is the one most often missed. The FTC Disposal Rule at 16 CFR 682.3(a) requires any person who possesses consumer information for a business purpose to dispose of it by taking reasonable measures to protect against unauthorized access or use in connection with disposal. “Consumer information” is defined at 16 CFR 682.1(b) as any record about an individual, in paper, electronic, or other form, that is a consumer report or is derived from one, and 16 CFR 682.2(b) applies the rule to any person under FTC jurisdiction holding it for a business purpose. The examples given are concrete: burning, pulverizing, or shredding papers so the information cannot practicably be read or reconstructed, destroying or erasing electronic media to the same standard, or contracting with a record destruction business after due diligence. A box of rejected applications in a garage, or an old laptop sold with the screening folder still on it, is the failure mode this rule was written for.

Everything beyond those three points is state law. The period that actually matters is your state’s limitations period for the kind of claim you might face or bring, and it differs by state and by cause of action, so it is a question to settle for your own jurisdiction rather than one a national page can answer. The workable default: treat the three-year federal floors as minimums, keep the tenancy file intact for as long as a related claim could still be brought where the property sits, and dispose of the screening portion under 16 CFR 682.3 when you do let it go.