New Hampshire tenant screening laws

Before collecting any application or renewal fee, tell the applicant in writing the amount of the fee and whether a satisfactory criminal background and credit check is required. If you collect the fee and do not rent to that applicant, return within 30 days of receiving the fee anything beyond the documented cost of the checks and reasonable administrative costs (RSA 540-A:3, VIII).

• The law does not require you to run a criminal or credit check, and does not stop you renting to an applicant who fails one (RSA 540-A:3, VIII).
• A landlord who breaks this rule must return all money the applicant paid with the application, plus court costs (RSA 540-A:4, IX(f)).
• If you commission an investigative consumer report based on personal interviews about character, reputation, personal characteristics or way of life, state law requires a clear written disclosure no later than three days after first requesting it. Include the right to request the investigation's nature and scope. Confirm the report type with the provider before ordering (RSA 359-B:3, IV-V; 359-B:6, I).
• When the consumer makes a written scope request within a reasonable time after that disclosure, give a complete, accurate written description of the investigation's nature and scope within five days after the later of receiving the request or first requesting the report. Keep the dated request, disclosure and response together, and review independent federal duties (RSA 359-B:6, II).

New Hampshire bars discrimination in renting because of age, sex, gender identity, race, religion, color, marital status, familial status, physical or mental disability or national origin. The equal housing right also protects sexual orientation, and rental ads may not state a preference based on it (RSA 354-A:10; RSA 354-A:8).

• Allow reasonable modifications at the tenant's expense and reasonable accommodations in rules and policies for people with disabilities. For a rental you may, where reasonable, require the tenant to restore the interior at the end of the tenancy (RSA 354-A:11, III).
• Exemptions include a building with no more than four households when the owner lives in one of them, and rooms in a private home where the owner or the owner's family lives, though the listing rule still applies to the first (RSA 354-A:15, II; RSA 354-A:15, III).
• Housing for older persons that meets the statute's test is exempt from the familial status rules (RSA 354-A:15, VIII).
• You may not evict a tenant solely because the person has AIDS or is regarded as having it (RSA 354-A:12, IV).