California's property management industry serves one of the nation's largest rental markets, where effective tenant screening practices play a crucial role in housing access. 

The state's rental costs are significant—with median rents reaching $1,870 per month statewide and climbing to $2,780 in Los Angeles and $3,500 in San Francisco. Over half of California renter households are cost-burdened, spending more than 30% of their income on housing. Nearly one-third are severely cost-burdened, paying over 50% of their income for rent. This affordability gap has contributed to California hosting the largest unhoused population in the United States—approximately 186,000 people experiencing homelessness as of 2023, and representing 28% of the nation's entire homeless population. 

Against this backdrop, California has developed comprehensive tenant screening laws designed to expand housing access while maintaining property manager protections. These laws establish consistent standards for screening processes, including the limiting use of criminal history, putting caps on how much can be charged for applications, and building protections for non-traditional sources of income. These laws go toward the goal of preventing qualified applicants from being unnecessarily excluded from housing opportunities.

Understanding these requirements helps property managers create screening processes that work effectively while reducing legal risk. When property managers follow established guidelines, they can confidently approve qualified applicants and contribute to addressing California's housing access challenges.

In this guide, we'll break down California tenant screening laws, covering state requirements, local ordinances, and practical compliance strategies for property managers operating in California's complex regulatory environment.

Federal baseline requirements

California’s stricter state-level laws are built on the foundation of federal screening requirements: 

• The Fair Housing Act prohibits discrimination based on protected characteristics, including race, color, national origin, religion, sex, disability, and familial status.
• The Fair Credit Reporting Act requires written consent before running reports and mandates providing adverse action notices when denying applications. 
• 2016 guidance from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) requires nuanced consideration of criminal history rather than blanket bans. 

These federal rules set the baseline for screening requirements, but California’s state-level laws go further to promote fair access to housing. 

California state laws

California has some of the strictest tenant screening laws in the country which aim to promote fair housing, protect vulnerable populations, and ensure transparency in the rental process. 

“There's a real policy drive in California to make it easier for people to get into a unit and then not get evicted,” says Sangeetha Raghunathan, General Counsel at Findigs. 

Let’s take a look at how these laws build on federal regulations. 

Fair housing regulations

California’s Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) (Cal. Gov. Code § 12955) expands on the FHA protections to include veteran or military status and source of income, among others. These classes specified in FEHA include:

• Race
• Color
• Religion
• Sex
• Gender
• Gender identity or expression
• Sexual orientation
• Marital status
• Ancestry
• Disability
• Genetic information
• Familial status
• Source of income
• Veteran or military status
• National origin

To comply, apply screening criteria consistently, and avoid making decisions based on a protected characteristic or using any criteria that could unjustly impact a protected group.

Source of income protection under FEHA

Since FEHA covers protections not addressed at the federal level, let’s dive a little deeper into FEHA protections regarding tenant source of income. Under SB 329, FEHA protections were expanded to require housing subsidies to be treated like any other source of income. More recently, SB267 clarified that property managers can only apply minimum income requirements to the resident’s portion of the rent, not the amount covered by subsidies. 

Criminal history reporting

California restricts how criminal history can be used in tenant screening through laws that limit what information consumer credit reporting agencies can include in their reports to property managers, and through fair housing protections that prevent discriminatory use of criminal history.

While you can consider criminal history in screening decisions, state laws control both what information is available to you and how you can use it:

Seven-year limit: California's Consumer Credit Reporting Agencies Act (Cal. Civ. Code § 1785.13) prohibits reporting agencies from including criminal convictions older than seven years in tenant screening reports.

No arrest records: Credit reporting agencies cannot include arrest records that didn't result in convictions.

Disparate impact protection: Under Cal. Code Regs., tit. 2, §§ 12264-12271, criminal history policies that have an unjustified discriminatory effect on protected groups violate California law, even without intent to discriminate. Since certain racial and ethnic groups face higher rates of arrest and conviction, blanket criminal history bans can create illegal disparate impact.

Direct relationship requirement: Any criminal conviction you consider must be "directly related" to housing, meaning it has a direct and specific bearing on the safety of residents, employees, or property.

Individualized assessment: You must provide applicants the opportunity to present mitigating information about their criminal history and consider factors like time passed since conviction, rehabilitation efforts, and the nature of the offense.

Prohibited information: You cannot consider arrests without convictions, infractions, sealed or expunged records, or juvenile matters.

These laws work together to ensure that criminal history screening doesn't become a tool for illegal discrimination while allowing property managers to make safety-based decisions using relevant information.

Eviction record sealing

California law limits how property managers can use eviction records in tenant screening. Under California Code of Civil Procedure § 1161.2, eviction case records are automatically sealed unless the property manager gets a judgment for possession after trial within 60 days of filing the complaint. Tenant screening reports legally cannot include eviction filings that didn't lead to a judgment or cases where the tenant reached a settlement.

This means that if a tenant successfully defends against an eviction—whether by winning at trial, reaching a settlement, or having the case dismissed—and this resolution happens after the 60-day mark, the eviction record remains sealed and cannot appear on tenant screening reports. Only eviction cases where the property manager prevails within 60 days become publicly accessible for screening purposes.

Application fees

California regulates how much you can charge prospective tenants for screening. California Civil Code § 1950.6 caps the screening fee, which should be adjusted annually for inflation based on the Consumer Price Index. As of 2025, the current cap is around $65. 

This law also states that you must choose one of two compliance pathways:

1. Sequential processing: Review applications on a first-come, first-served basis and choose the first qualified applicant. 
2. Refundable system: Refund the full fee to all the applicants you don’t select within seven days of choosing a tenant or 30 days of when the application was submitted, whichever comes first. 

The law also requires you to:

• Provide the prospective tenant with an itemized receipt that shows how the fee was used.
• Deliver copies of credit reports to applicants within seven days of receiving them.
• Provide written screening criteria with applications and apply them consistently.
• Only charge fees when a unit is available or will be available within a reasonable time.

Positive rent reporting 

Rental payment history is one of the strongest indicators of reliability. Two state laws require landlords to allow tenants the option of reporting their on-time rent payments to credit bureaus: 

• For general rental properties: As of April 1st, 2025, landlords with buildings of 16 or more units must offer positive rent reporting to tenants, per California Civil Code § 1954.07 (AB 2747. This law also applies to smaller properties (15 or fewer units) if they are corporate-owned and the owner holds more than one residential rental property.
• For assisted housing: Under California Civil Code § 1954.06 (SB 1157), landlords of assisted housing developments with 15 or more units must offer rent reporting. While this law initially included a sunset clause, it has since become permanent. 

Both laws allow property managers to charge up to $10 per month or actual cost (whichever is less) for the service, unless there's no cost to provide it.

As Raghunathan explains, “the goal of the state and goal of state regulators is to get people into housing. So there are laws around having property managers  report positive rent payments to credit bureaus, if requested by the tenant.”

Local ordinances

Several major California cities have adopted Fair Chance Housing Ordinances and additional tenant protections that go beyond state requirements.

San Francisco

San Francisco has a Fair Chance Ordinance that includes housing provisions administered by the Human Rights Commission. The ordinance requires sequential screening, which means housing providers cannot review criminal history until after determining that an applicant meets all other qualifications. When criminal history is reviewed, convictions older than seven years cannot be considered, and providers must conduct individualized assessments rather than applying blanket bans.

Oakland

Oakland's Fair Chance Access to Housing Ordinance (OMC Chapter 8.25) represents the strongest fair chance law nationally because it completely bans criminal background screenings, with limited exceptions:

• Owner-occupied properties (single-family homes or properties with 3 units or fewer where the owner lives on-site)
• Federal requirements for certain convictions (like methamphetamine manufacturing)
• State lifetime sex offender registry checks, but only after making a conditional offer and obtaining written consent

Berkeley

Berkeley's Ronald V. Dellums Fair Chance Access to Housing Ordinance (BMC 13.106) mirrors Oakland's approach by completely banning criminal history screening, with similar limited exceptions for owner-occupied properties and federal requirements. Unlike California state law, which allows consideration of criminal history from the past seven years, Berkeley prohibits any use of criminal history information in housing decisions.

San Diego

San Diego follows state laws for criminal screening. The city's 2023 Residential Tenant Protections Ordinance focuses on eviction protections and includes just cause eviction rules, relocation assistance for no-fault evictions, and source of income protections that prohibit landlords from discriminating against tenants who receive rental assistance from federal, state, local, or nonprofit programs.

Los Angeles

While a proposed ordinance has been in committee since April 2024, as of June 2025, LA does not have a Fair Chance Housing Ordinance. If passed, it will be comprehensive, completely banning criminal history inquiries. 

Practical compliance tips

From federal to local tenant screening laws, property managers juggle complex requirements, all aimed at promoting fair access to housing. There are, however, certain steps you can take that will help you comply across the board. 

Best practices

• Know your territory. Start by mapping each property you manage and researching local ordinances in those cities. 
• Document everything. Keep detailed records of screening criteria, adverse action notices, individualized assessments, and any mitigating information applicants provide. 
• Standardize where possible, but customize where required. For example, you’ll need to remove all questions about criminal history for properties in Oakland and Berkley, and keep an eye on updates in Los Angeles. 

Avoid common pitfalls

With federal, state, and local requirements competing for attention, it’s easy to make mistakes. Keep an eye out for these common ones:

Criminal background mistakes:

• Using arrest records without convictions. Looking back more than seven years for convictions
• Applying blanket "no felons" policies
• Asking any criminal history questions in Oakland or Berkeley

Fees and processing errors:

• Charging over the limit for application fees
• Collecting fees when no units are available
• Not processing applications in the order you received them
• Forgetting to refund unused screening fees

Use a screening partner with built-in protections

Keeping up with California’s evolving laws can be challenging while you’re trying to manage your other responsibilities. A screening partner like Findigs can help. Findigs simplifies compliance by automatically adapting to local laws and ordinances for each property’s location as those ordinances change. “You shouldn't be surprised by any legislation,” Raghunathan explains, “at Findigs, that's one of our strengths, we aren't surprised if something new comes into play.” In other words, we’ll handle updates to compliance requirements, so you can focus on managing your properties. 

Beyond staying current with regulations, Findigs automatically maintains detailed records of every screening decision and process step. This comprehensive documentation shows you applied consistent criteria to all applicants—critical protection in case of disputes or compliance audits. While you focus on managing your properties, we handle both the compliance updates and the record-keeping requirements that support your legal protection.

Preparing for the future of California tenant screening laws

California’s tenant screening laws are multi-faceted, but that doesn’t mean they need to be overwhelming. As the state’s efforts towards more access to housing develop, your job is to know your territory, document your process, and stay up to date. Whether you decide to handle compliance internally or partner with a screening platform like Findigs, remember that investing in getting it right outweighs the risk of costly violations. 

If you’d like to see how Findigs can streamline your compliance efforts, book a demo today.

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Disclaimer: As a friendly reminder, this blog post is meant to be used for educational purposes only and is not legal advice.  The legal requirements and regulations discussed are accurate to the best of our knowledge as of the time of publishing on 07.08.2025; however you should always research and consult legal counsel regarding the most up-to-date laws for your jurisdiction.