Philadelphia tenant screening guide: background checks, fair housing, and how to find good renters

Tenant screening is one of the most consequential decisions a Philadelphia landlord makes, and one of the most legally constrained. Federal Fair Housing Act requirements, the Philadelphia Fair Practices Ordinance (PFPO), the Philadelphia Ban the Box ordinance for housing, source-of-income discrimination protections, and the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) all impose rules on what you can ask, how you can use the answers, and what you must disclose when you decline an applicant. Getting this wrong exposes you to discrimination complaints, PCHR enforcement, private lawsuits, and statutory damages.

This guide covers the full Philadelphia tenant screening process: what to include in your rental application, how to run credit and background checks legally and cost-effectively, what Fair Housing and PFPO prohibit, how Philadelphia's criminal history restrictions work, how to evaluate eviction history, income verification standards, Section 8 and Housing Choice Voucher requirements, and the notice requirements when you decline an applicant. A screening checklist and tenant screening service comparison table are at the end.

Philadelphia rental application requirements

There is no mandatory standard rental application form in Philadelphia, but your application should collect the information you need to screen applicants while avoiding questions that violate fair housing law or PFPO. A proper Philadelphia rental application includes:

• Full legal name and contact information for each adult applicant
• Current and prior addresses for at least the past two years, with landlord contact information for reference checks
• Current employer and income information: employer name, contact, position, and gross monthly income from all sources
• Authorization to run a credit report and background check (required by FCRA before pulling a consumer report)
• Screening fee disclosure: Philadelphia law requires you to disclose your written screening criteria to every applicant before collecting a screening fee, and you must return the fee if the unit was not actually available when you advertised it
• Co-applicants and guarantors if you allow them
• Pet and vehicle information if relevant to your property

What to leave off your application: questions about race, color, national origin, religion, sex, familial status, or disability are prohibited by the Fair Housing Act. The PFPO adds sexual orientation, gender identity, source of income, and several other categories. Do not ask about criminal history on the initial application in Philadelphia (more on this below under Ban the Box).

Screening fee rules in Philadelphia

Philadelphia has specific rules about rental application and screening fees. Under the Philadelphia Fair Practices Ordinance and related regulations:

• Disclose criteria first: You must provide applicants with your written screening criteria before collecting any application or screening fee. If a prospective tenant can self-screen against your criteria and determine they would not qualify, you cannot charge them a fee to apply anyway.
• Return the fee if the unit is unavailable: If you advertise or represent a unit as available and it is not actually available, you must return the screening fee to applicants who paid it.
• Actual cost only: The screening fee can only cover the actual cost of the credit and background check. You cannot profit on screening fees.
• Provide a copy of the report: Under FCRA, if you use a consumer report to take adverse action against an applicant, you must provide them with a copy of the report and information about their right to dispute inaccuracies.

Credit and background check services: costs and what to look for

Philadelphia landlords have several options for running tenant credit and background checks. Most landlords use one of the national tenant screening services, which pull credit data from one or more of the three major bureaus (Equifax, Experian, TransUnion) and run a background check that may include criminal history, eviction history, and sex offender registry searches.

Service	Approx. Cost	Who Pays	Key Features
RentSpree	$35–$45 per applicant	Applicant pays direct	TransUnion credit + background + eviction; landlord sees full report; FCRA compliant
MyRental (CoreLogic)	$19–$39 per report	Landlord or applicant	Credit + background + eviction + income verification; scoring model included
Avail / Rentec Direct	$30–$55 per applicant	Applicant pays direct	Full-service landlord platforms with integrated screening; TransUnion or Experian data
SmartMove (TransUnion)	$25–$40 per applicant	Applicant pays direct	TransUnion credit + background + eviction; applicant initiates directly; FCRA compliant
Buildium / AppFolio	$18–$30 per report	Landlord pays (billed to applicant possible)	Property management platform screening; bulk pricing for multi-unit landlords

For most independent Philadelphia landlords with one to ten units, applicant-pays services like RentSpree or SmartMove are the most practical approach. The applicant authorizes and pays for the report directly, which keeps your FCRA exposure lower and reduces the risk of someone claiming you ran their credit without proper authorization.

What to look for in a credit report

Credit score alone is not a reliable screening standard. A complete credit review for a tenant applicant should examine:

• Credit score trend: A score of 620–650 with an upward trend over 12 months tells a different story than a score of 680 with a sharp decline.
• Debt-to-income ratio: Outstanding debt obligations relative to stated income. High revolving balances on a low income signal cash-flow risk.
• Collections accounts: Prior rental-related collections (utility companies, prior landlords) are the highest-risk items. Medical collections are less predictive of rental payment behavior.
• Public records: Judgments and tax liens on the credit report signal past payment problems.
• Payment history: Late payments on installment loans or credit cards. Pattern matters more than isolated incidents.

Fair Housing Act: what you cannot do

The federal Fair Housing Act prohibits discrimination in the rental of housing based on race, color, national origin, religion, sex, familial status (having children under 18, or being pregnant), and disability. In Philadelphia, these seven federal protected classes are the floor, not the ceiling.

Under the Fair Housing Act, prohibited conduct in screening includes:

• Using different screening standards for applicants of different protected classes
• Advertising with language that indicates a preference for or against any protected class ("quiet professional couple," "no families," "English speakers preferred")
• Refusing to make reasonable accommodations for tenants with disabilities (allowing a service or support animal even if you have a no-pet policy, for example)
• Applying a facially neutral screening policy that has a disparate impact on a protected class without a legitimate business justification (more on this below)
• Asking about disability, asking an applicant to describe their disability, or requiring medical documentation beyond what is necessary to evaluate a reasonable accommodation request

Philadelphia Fair Practices Ordinance: additional protected classes

The Philadelphia Fair Practices Ordinance (PFPO) extends fair housing protections significantly beyond the federal minimum. In Philadelphia, it is illegal to discriminate in housing based on:

• Race, color, religion, national origin, ancestry, sex (including pregnancy and sexual harassment)
• Sexual orientation (including gay, lesbian, bisexual)
• Gender identity (including transgender status)
• Source of income (see Section 8 / HCV vouchers below)
• Age (40 and over)
• Disability (physical or mental)
• Marital status
• Familial status
• Domestic or sexual violence victim status

PFPO complaints are filed with the Philadelphia Commission on Human Relations (PCHR). The PCHR has enforcement authority and can award compensatory damages, attorneys' fees, and civil penalties. Private lawsuits for PFPO violations are also available to aggrieved applicants.

Source-of-income discrimination: Section 8 and HCV vouchers in Philadelphia

One of the most important and frequently misunderstood rules for Philadelphia landlords: it is illegal under the PFPO to refuse to rent to an applicant because they hold a Housing Choice Voucher (Section 8 voucher) or other housing subsidy. Source of income is a protected class in Philadelphia.

This means you cannot:

• Advertise "no Section 8" in your listing
• Decline to show a unit to an HCV holder
• Apply a stricter credit or income standard to HCV holders than to market-rate applicants
• Decline an HCV holder who otherwise meets your legitimate screening criteria

What you can do: apply your standard income verification and credit criteria to HCV holders just as you would to any other applicant, evaluate the total household payment (tenant portion plus PHA HAP payment) against your rent, require the PHA inspection that is standard under the HCV program, and decline an applicant based on legitimate non-income screening factors (eviction history, criminal history within the law, negative landlord references).

For a full guide to Philadelphia's Housing Choice Voucher program for landlords, see the Philadelphia Section 8 landlord guide.

Criminal record screening restrictions: Philadelphia Ban the Box for housing

Philadelphia enacted a Ban the Box ordinance for housing (formally, the Fair Criminal Record Screening Standards ordinance) that significantly restricts how landlords may use criminal history in tenant screening. A 2021 amendment strengthened these rules. Key requirements:

No criminal history questions on the initial application

You may not ask about criminal history on your initial rental application. This is the "box ban" itself: the checkbox asking about prior convictions cannot appear on your screening application. You may only inquire about criminal history after you have made a conditional offer of tenancy to the applicant.

Conditional offer first, then criminal history evaluation

The required sequence is: (1) evaluate the applicant on all non-criminal-history criteria, (2) if the applicant meets your criteria, make a conditional offer of tenancy, (3) only then may you conduct a criminal background check and evaluate the results.

Individualized assessment required

If a criminal record comes back and you are considering withdrawing the conditional offer, you must conduct an individualized assessment. You cannot use a blanket policy of rejecting any applicant with any criminal record. The individualized assessment must consider:

• The nature and severity of the offense
• The time elapsed since the offense
• The age of the applicant at the time of the offense
• Evidence of rehabilitation or good conduct since the offense
• The relevance of the criminal conduct to the safety of other tenants or the property

Certain records are off-limits entirely

Under Philadelphia's ordinance, you may never use the following in a housing screening decision, regardless of individualized assessment:

• Arrests that did not result in conviction
• Convictions that have been expunged or pardoned
• Juvenile adjudications
• Offenses for which the sentence was fully served more than seven years ago (with limited exceptions for particularly serious violent offenses, which your attorney can advise on)

Eviction history: how to check and how to use it

Prior eviction history is one of the most predictive screening factors for future tenant behavior, and Philadelphia landlords are generally permitted to consider it, subject to fair housing constraints. Here is how to check eviction history and what the constraints are.

Philadelphia Municipal Court records

Eviction cases in Philadelphia are filed in Philadelphia Municipal Court (specifically, the Landlord-Tenant Division). Court records are public. You can search Philadelphia Municipal Court records online at the Pennsylvania Unified Judicial System (UJS) portal. Search by the applicant's name to see if any landlord-tenant cases appear. Note that a case appearing on the docket does not necessarily mean the tenant was evicted: the landlord may have withdrawn the complaint, the tenant may have prevailed, or the matter may have been settled. Review the outcome before treating any case as a prior eviction.

National eviction databases

Most tenant screening services include an eviction history search that checks national rental industry databases (such as EVICTMAX or UD Registry). These databases aggregate court records from jurisdictions that make records electronically available. They are not comprehensive: smaller jurisdictions and older records may not appear. For applicants with rental history outside Philadelphia, supplemental searches of the relevant state or local court records may be necessary.

Fair housing constraints on eviction history use

Using eviction history as a screening factor can create disparate impact liability if the policy disproportionately excludes applicants of a protected class. The practical implication: if you use a blanket policy of rejecting any applicant with any eviction filing (including cases that were dismissed or that occurred many years ago), you may face disparate impact claims. A more defensible approach: distinguish between evictions involving non-payment (the most predictive of future default), the recency of the filing, whether the case resulted in a judgment for the landlord, and whether the applicant can provide context (such as a landlord-tenant dispute that was resolved in the tenant's favor).

Income verification: the 2.5x to 3x rent rule

A common and legally defensible income standard for Philadelphia landlords is requiring gross household income of 2.5 to 3 times the monthly rent. At $1,500/month rent, this means requiring $3,750 to $4,500 in gross monthly income. This standard should be applied consistently to all applicants, including HCV holders (counting the total household payment: tenant portion plus PHA HAP payment, not just the tenant-paid portion).

How to verify income

Acceptable income verification methods vary by applicant employment type:

• W-2 employees: Two to three recent pay stubs, plus the prior year W-2. Verify the employer is real and that employment is current via direct call to the HR department.
• Self-employed applicants: Prior two years of federal tax returns (Schedule C or business returns), plus a current bank statement showing regular deposits consistent with stated income.
• Social Security, disability, pension, or other fixed income: Award letters or benefit statements. These are legitimate income sources and cannot be treated differently than wage income.
• Section 8 / HCV income: The PHA Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) constitutes income for this purpose. The tenant's voucher amount plus any other income should be counted together.
• Bank statement verification: For applicants with irregular income or multiple income streams, recent bank statements (two to three months) showing average monthly deposits can supplement or replace pay stubs.

Reference checks

Direct landlord reference calls are among the most valuable screening steps and the one most frequently skipped. A reference call with the prior landlord should ask:

• Did the tenant pay rent on time?
• Were there any lease violations, complaints from neighbors, or L&I violations at the unit during their tenancy?
• Did the tenant give proper notice before vacating?
• Was the unit returned in good condition?
• Would you rent to this person again?

Call the landlord reference using the number you find independently (search the property on Atlas or Google), not only the number the applicant provides. An applicant can easily list a friend as a prior landlord reference. Verify the ownership of the prior address independently before relying heavily on the reference.

Consistent screening criteria and disparate impact liability

Disparate impact liability under the Fair Housing Act means that even a facially neutral screening policy can violate the law if it has a disproportionate effect on a protected class without a legitimate business justification proportionate to the discriminatory effect. Courts and HUD have applied this doctrine to screening policies including minimum credit score requirements, criminal history restrictions (see above), and income-to-rent ratios.

The practical implication for Philadelphia landlords: document your screening criteria in writing before you begin accepting applications, apply them consistently to every applicant, and maintain records showing that you applied the same standards regardless of the applicant's protected class status. Inconsistent application of screening criteria, regardless of intent, creates discrimination liability.

Adverse action notice requirements under FCRA

The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) imposes specific notice requirements when you decline an applicant based in whole or in part on a consumer report (credit report, background check, eviction history report, or any other report from a consumer reporting agency). These requirements apply whenever you use a third-party screening service.

If you take adverse action against an applicant based on a consumer report, you must provide an adverse action notice that includes:

• Notice that the adverse action was taken based in whole or in part on information in a consumer report
• The name, address, and phone number of the consumer reporting agency that provided the report
• A statement that the consumer reporting agency did not make the adverse action decision and cannot explain why it was taken
• Notice of the applicant's right to obtain a free copy of the report within 60 days from the reporting agency
• Notice of the applicant's right to dispute the accuracy of the report with the reporting agency

Most tenant screening services provide an adverse action notice template. Use it. Failure to provide an adverse action notice is a standalone FCRA violation, independent of any fair housing issue, and carries potential liability of $100 to $1,000 per violation for negligent violations, and actual damages plus attorneys' fees for willful violations.

LGBTQ+ protections under PFPO

The Philadelphia Fair Practices Ordinance explicitly prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity in housing. This means landlords may not treat applications from LGBTQ+ individuals differently in screening, in rental terms, or in access to housing. Enforcement is handled by the PCHR. Landlords who display discriminatory attitudes in advertising, communications, or during showings can face PCHR complaints even if no lease is ultimately signed.

Landlord screening checklist

• Prepare written screening criteria before advertising the unit and provide them to every applicant before collecting a screening fee
• Remove any "no Section 8" language from all listings and communications; apply the same criteria to HCV holders as to market-rate applicants
• Do not ask about criminal history on the initial application; conduct criminal background check only after a conditional offer is made
• Run credit and background check via a FCRA-compliant tenant screening service with applicant authorization; provide applicant with a copy of the report if adverse action is taken
• Verify income using pay stubs, tax returns, benefit letters, or bank statements; confirm employment independently by calling the employer HR department
• Call prior landlord references using independently verified contact numbers, not only applicant-provided numbers
• Apply the same screening criteria in the same way to every applicant; document the criteria and your evaluation of each applicant in writing
• Provide an FCRA-compliant adverse action notice to every applicant declined based on a consumer report

Flagstone and pre-tenancy property compliance

A well-screened tenant in a rental unit with unresolved L&I violations, an expired rental license, or open permit issues is still a liability. Flagstone property reports pull the full L&I violation history, rental license status, permit history, and 311 complaint record for any Philadelphia address so landlords can ensure their properties are in compliance before putting them on the market. Run a free report on any address before listing.

For related guides on Philadelphia landlord compliance, see the rental license guide, the landlord-tenant law guide, the eviction process guide, the Section 8 landlord guide, and the fair housing and lead paint guide.