A Minnesota rental application tells you who will live in your rental, where they have lived and how they will pay the rent. When every applicant answers the same questions, you can compare renters fairly and show that you did.
This guide covers what to ask, how to pre-screen leads, the federal and Minnesota laws that apply, application fees, assistance animals, and how to approve or deny an applicant.
What should a Minnesota rental application ask?
An application collects personal and financial details, so ask only what you need to apply your written rental criteria. Your Minnesota rental application should ask for:
- Applicant and co-signer names, email, phone and date of birth,
- A Social Security number, entered securely,
- The desired move-in date and everyone who will live in the home,
- The current address and current landlord’s contact details,
- Employer, job title and monthly income,
- Any housing voucher or rental assistance,
- Pets, assistance animals, vehicles and smoking, and
- Past evictions and consent to screening.
The Rentari application covers all of this in six short sections. Renters can upload a pay stub, photo ID, bank statement or reference letter, and you choose which background questions to ask, with up to four of your own.
See it first: open the whole application before you send it.
Pre-screen your leads
Not every lead fits your rental. A short pre-screener shows who meets your basic criteria before anyone spends time or money on a full application.
Send the Rentari pre-screener from Leads. Your Minnesota pre-screener asks every lead for:
- Monthly household income,
- Desired move-in date,
- How many people would live there,
- Pets, and what kind,
- Smoking, and
- A self-reported credit band.
When a lead’s answers fit, invite them to apply. Remember: pre-screener answers are what the renter tells you, so verify them with the application and screening.
Federal application laws
Federal law sets the baseline for every screening decision in Minnesota. These five laws shape how you screen applicants:
Fair Housing Act (FHA): You may not treat applicants differently because of these seven protected characteristics:
- Race,
- Color,
- National origin,
- Religion,
- Sex,
- Familial status, or
- Disability
It also bars ads that show a preference and different rental terms for different applicants (42 U.S.C. § 3604).
Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA): Bars credit discrimination, including because income comes from public assistance. Courts differ on whether a lease counts as credit, so count assistance income the same way as wages (15 U.S.C. § 1691).
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA): Covers places open to the public, such as a leasing office. Disability rules for the rental home itself come from the Fair Housing Act (42 U.S.C. § 12182).
Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA): Covers credit, criminal and eviction reports. You need the renter’s consent before screening. Rentari collects it before our screening partner, RentButter, runs the checks (15 U.S.C. § 1681b).
Civil Rights Act of 1866: Bars race discrimination when renting any property, including homes the Fair Housing Act exempts, such as some small owner-occupied buildings (42 U.S.C. § 1982).
Criminal history: HUD warns that blanket bans on applicants with any criminal record can be discriminatory, and an arrest alone does not show that a person did anything.
Further reading: HUD fair housing rights and obligations and FTC guidance for landlords.
Minnesota application laws
Beyond federal law, Minnesota has its own rules on application fees and fair housing. Check both before you send an invite.
Minnesota Law
Minnesota application and screening fees
The rule: Before accepting a screening fee, disclose in writing the name, address and phone number of any tenant screening service you will use and the criteria your decision will be based on. Do not charge a fee when you know or should know no unit is or soon will be available, give a receipt on request, and do not use, cash or deposit the fee until every earlier applicant has been screened and rejected or has turned the unit down (Minn. Stat. § 504B.173).
Return the fee if you reject the applicant for a reason not in your written criteria, or if an earlier applicant takes the unit. Return any part you did not spend on a personal reference check or a credit or screening report (Minn. Stat. § 504B.173, subd. 2).
Tell a rejected applicant within 14 days, naming the criteria they did not meet (Minn. Stat. § 504B.173, subd. 3).
You may not deny an application because of a pending eviction case, a court file that is not public or was expunged or destroyed, or an eviction case that did not end in a writ of recovery of premises and order to vacate (Minn. Stat. § 504B.173, subd. 3a).
A landlord who breaks these rules owes the applicant the fee plus a civil penalty of up to $100, filing costs and attorney's fees. An applicant who gives materially false information or leaves out requested material information owes damages plus a civil penalty of up to $500, filing costs and attorney's fees (Minn. Stat. § 504B.173, subd. 4).
No section of the landlord and tenant chapter sets a dollar limit on the screening fee (Minn. Stat. § 504B.173).
Minneapolis offers two screening routes: use the City's inclusive criteria or make an individual assessment when using stricter criteria. Inclusive criteria restrict criminal, rental and credit history; examples include excluding misdemeanors older than three years and minimum credit scores. With stricter criteria, allow supplemental information, consider it and give a specific denial reason. Check the ordinance's details and exceptions (City of Minneapolis: renter rights guidance).
An applicant may ask the screening service, with proper identification, for the information in their file and its sources. Disclosure is free when a report was used in the past 30 days to deny housing or increase rent or the deposit. A properly identified written request for a mailed copy must be mailed within five business days after receipt (Minn. Stat. 504B.241, subd. 1).
Dispute inaccurate or incomplete information with the screening service. It must reinvestigate and delete information that is inaccurate or cannot be verified; on request, it must notify report recipients from the past six months of deletions. An applicant may add an explanation of an eviction report or unresolved disputed item, which the service may limit to 100 words (Minn. Stat. 504B.241, subds. 2, 3).
A screening service must verify current court-file status through Minnesota Court Records Online no more than 24 hours before issuing its report and accurately record the outcome and available basis of the decision. These are reporting duties; the separate limits on using eviction records to deny an application still apply (Minn. Stat. 504B.241, subd. 4; Minn. Stat. 504B.173, subd. 3a).
Track the Minnesota rejection-criteria notice separately from federal consumer-report duties. If a report contributes to a denial or less favorable rent, deposit or cosigner terms, give the required adverse-action notice. Include the reporting company's name, address and phone number, explain that it did not make the decision and cannot explain your reasons, and state the rights to dispute inaccurate or incomplete information and request a free report from that company within sixty days of the notice. Keep the notices, delivery records, criteria and relevant correction information together. Federal notice compliance does not permit using an eviction record Minnesota prohibits (CFPB: rental denial and screening reports; FTC: landlord consumer-report guidance; Minn. Stat. § 504B.173, subd. 3a).
Local rules: Cities and counties can add their own limits. Check local rules before you set a fee.
In Rentari: You choose an optional application fee when you send the invite. It is paid to you on top of any screening fee.
Minnesota Law
Fair housing in Minnesota
Protected classes: Minnesota's Human Rights Act bars refusing to rent, setting different terms or services, or advertising a limitation because of race, color, creed, religion, national origin, sex, gender identity, marital status, status with regard to public assistance, disability, sexual orientation or familial status (Minn. Stat. § 363A.09, subd. 1).
Exemptions: A resident owner renting rooms in a one-family home is exempt as to sex, gender identity, marital status, public assistance status, sexual orientation and disability; the familial status rule does not apply to an owner-occupied building of four or fewer units or to qualifying housing for older persons (Minn. Stat. § 363A.21, subd. 1; Minn. Stat. § 363A.21, subd. 2).
Retaliation: Coercing, threatening or interfering with anyone exercising these rights is also prohibited (Minn. Stat. § 363A.09, subd. 6).
Pets, ESAs and service animals
Ask about animals on every application, but treat an assistance animal differently from a pet. Here is what to keep in mind:
Pet information: The Rentari application asks whether an animal will live at the property and lets the renter mark an assistance animal.
Not a pet: A service animal or emotional support animal is not a pet. Under federal fair housing law you generally can’t:
- Charge a pet fee, pet deposit or pet rent for one, or
- Apply your pet breed, size or weight limits to it.
Damage: The renter stays responsible for any damage the animal causes.
In Rentari: An assistance animal is routed as a fair housing request and is never charged a pet fee.
Minnesota rules on assistance animals
Pet fees and deposits: You may not deny full and equal access to a person with a disability who uses a service animal, or charge extra for the animal; the tenant is liable for damage the animal does (Minn. Stat. § 363A.09, subd. 5).
Approvals and denials
Apply the same written criteria to every applicant, and handle each decision the same way.
Approval: Choose Accept complete household in the household decision. Your lease draft is ready to review. Before move-in, check Minnesota’s deposit rules:
Lawful reasons to deny: Deny only for reasons in your written criteria that you apply to every applicant, such as income below your standard, credit history, rental history including unpaid rent or eviction judgments, or incomplete or false information. Use criminal history only where Minnesota and local law allow it, and weigh the offense and how long ago it happened.
Adverse action notice: If a screening report contributes to a denial, or to terms such as a co-signer, a higher deposit or higher rent, federal law requires a notice that:
- Names the reporting company and how to reach it,
- Says that company did not make the decision,
- Explains the renter’s right to a free copy of the report within 60 days, and
- Explains the right to dispute the report.
In Rentari: Choose Deny selected applicants and send individual notices in the household decision to send each notice. You make the decision.
Record keeping: Federal law sets no retention period for a private landlord’s applications. A fair housing lawsuit can be filed up to two years after a decision, so keep each application, your written criteria and the decision at least that long (42 U.S.C. § 3613(a)(1)(A)).
Screening reports: When you no longer need a screening report, destroy it securely. The FTC Disposal Rule covers consumer reports (16 C.F.R. Part 682).
Minnesota rental application questions
Can I charge an application fee in Minnesota?
Before accepting a screening fee, disclose in writing the name, address and phone number of any tenant screening service you will use and the criteria your decision will be based on. Do not charge a fee when you know or should know no unit is or soon will be available, give a receipt on request, and do not use, cash or deposit the fee until every earlier applicant has been screened and rejected or has turned the unit down (Minn. Stat. § 504B.173).
Who pays for screening on Rentari?
In most states the renter pays the screening fee at the end of the application and nothing is charged to you. Where a state requires the landlord to pay, the invite tells you. The fee is shown before payment.
Can I ask about criminal history?
You choose whether the application asks about criminal convictions; it is off by default. Check Minnesota and local rules first, and avoid blanket bans.