Free Texas Tenant Selection Criteria Disclosure

At the moment you hand over the application, not when the fee is paid and not after screening. Tex. Prop. Code § 92.3515(a) says that at the time an applicant is provided with a rental application, the landlord shall make available to the applicant printed notice of the tenant selection criteria and the grounds on which the application may be denied, including criminal history, previous rental history, current income, credit history, or failure to provide accurate or complete information on the application form. The trigger is the application itself. If you take applications online, the practical fix is to place the printed criteria and the acknowledgment on the same screen as the application.

Yes. Section 92.3515(d) allows the acknowledgment to be part of the rental application provided the notice is underlined or in bold print. Section 92.3515(c) fixes the substance: the acknowledgment must include a statement substantively equivalent to language telling the applicant that signing indicates they had the opportunity to review the tenant selection criteria, that the criteria may include factors such as criminal history, credit history, current income, and rental history, and that if they do not meet the criteria or provide inaccurate or incomplete information the application may be rejected and the application fee will not be refunded. Reword it if you must, but keep it substantively equivalent.

You lose your proof, not your right to screen. Section 92.3515(b) says that if you make the notice available, the applicant shall sign an acknowledgment indicating it was made available, and that if the acknowledgment is not signed there is a rebuttable presumption that the notice was not made available. Rebuttable means you can still prove delivery some other way, but the burden shifts onto you. There is no statutory procedure for a refusal, so what you do next is practice rather than law: date and initial the file, note who presented the criteria and when, and keep the unsigned copy with the application.

Only in one situation. Section 92.3515(e) says that if you reject an applicant and you have not made the § 92.3515(a) notice available, you shall return the application fee and any application deposit. Give the notice properly and the fee stays put, because § 92.351(1-a) defines an application fee as a nonrefundable sum given to offset screening costs. An application deposit is different: § 92.351(1) defines it as a sum refundable to the applicant if the applicant is rejected. Section 92.3515(f) adds that if the applicant asks for the refund by mail, you must mail the check to the address the applicant furnishes.

Section 92.3515 does not require you to state reasons, only to have made the criteria and the grounds for denial available in advance. Federal law is the part landlords miss. If your decision was based in whole or in part on information in a consumer report, 15 U.S.C. § 1681m(a) requires you to give the applicant notice of the adverse action, the name, address, and telephone number of the consumer reporting agency that furnished the report, a statement that the agency did not make the decision and cannot give the specific reasons, and notice of the right to a free copy of the report and to dispute its accuracy.

Seven days. Section 92.352(a) provides that the applicant is deemed rejected if you do not give notice of acceptance on or before the seventh day after the date the applicant submits a completed rental application on a form you furnished, or after the date you accept an application deposit if you furnished no form. Section 92.353(a) presumes notice was given if it went by telephone to the applicant, a co-applicant, or a person living with them on or before the required date, or by United States mail postmarked on or before that date. Section 92.353(c) extends a required date falling on a Saturday, Sunday, or state or federal holiday to the end of the next day.

Yes. Section 92.352(b) states that a landlord’s rejection of one co-applicant shall be deemed a rejection of all co-applicants. Section 92.351(3) defines a co-applicant as a person who applies for rental of a dwelling with other applicants and who plans to live in the dwelling with them. So you cannot approve a household on the condition that one adult drops off the lease and treat the rest as accepted; in the eyes of the subchapter that is a rejection of everyone, which pulls in the § 92.3515(e) refund exposure and the § 92.352(a) seven-day clock. Setting your criteria to score the household, not each adult in isolation, avoids the trap.

No. Tex. Prop. Code § 92.355 provides that a provision of a rental application purporting to waive a right or exempt a party from a liability or duty under the subchapter is void. That covers clauses declaring an application deposit nonrefundable in all events, disclaiming the seven-day acceptance rule, or having the applicant agree that the criteria notice was unnecessary. The teeth are in § 92.354: a landlord who in bad faith fails to refund an application fee or deposit in violation of the subchapter is liable for $100, three times the amount wrongfully retained, and the applicant’s reasonable attorney’s fees. Deleting the waiver language is cheaper than defending it.