In a growing list of cities and states, asking about criminal history at the wrong moment, charging too much to apply, or turning away a voucher is a violation on its own. Pick where your rental is and see the rules in the order you will meet them, each with its official source.
Fair Screening Kit: a written screening policy, application disclosures, conditional-offer and response letters, an individualized-assessment worksheet and an FCRA adverse action letter for your jurisdiction, plus a listing-language check. One payment, no subscription.
Build my kit — $39Fair-chance laws rarely ban criminal background checks outright. What they regulate is sequence: in New York City, New Jersey, Washington DC and Detroit you may not ask until you have made a conditional offer; in Cook County you must prequalify the applicant on everything else first. A landlord who asks on the application form has violated the law before reading a single answer.
The second thing they regulate is what happens before a denial: a copy of the report, a fixed number of days for the applicant to respond, an individualized assessment against listed factors, and a written reason. Those steps are where most landlords get caught, because a denial letter that skips them is evidence on its own.
HUD withdrew its 2016 guidance on criminal records in housing, effective September 25, 2025 (91 FR 44867), and has proposed removing its disparate-impact regulation. The Fair Housing Act itself has not changed, the FCRA adverse action notice is still required, and the state and city laws on this page are unaffected. For most small landlords, those local laws are now the rules that actually bind.