How to legally reject a rental applicant without violating Fair Housing

You have three applications on the table. One looks great on paper. One is borderline. One gives you a funny feeling you can’t quite explain.

Saying no feels like a simple business call, but legally it’s a paper-trail problem. This post is for small landlords, accidental landlords, and investors in New Orleans who want to turn down an applicant without landing in a fair housing complaint. The rejection is the easy part. Understanding your tenant screening process before you post a listing is what keeps the rejection clean.

We’ll cover who Louisiana protects, how to set criteria, which reasons hold up, the notice you may owe, and the records worth keeping. This is general information, not legal advice. For a specific applicant, call an attorney.

In This Guide

The Risk Starts Before the Application

Most owners think fair housing trouble begins when they say no. It usually begins earlier. The rejection letter is just where it becomes visible.

Here’s where problems tend to start:

• The listing: Wording that shows a preference or limit, like “quiet building, no kids.”
• The showing: Questions about who lives with the applicant, where they’re from, or their family plans.
• Response time: Answering one inquiry in an hour and another in three days.

Louisiana law bars rental ads, notices and statements that show a preference or limitation based on a protected class. That includes rejection letters and stated screening criteria. And the advertising ban applies even to landlords who are otherwise exempt.

So the “no kids” listing is a violation before a single application comes in. You can’t fix that with a good rejection letter.

Know Who Louisiana Protects

Don’t assume the state list matches the federal one. Louisiana’s list is longer in places. Under state law, a landlord cannot refuse to rent, refuse to negotiate, or otherwise deny a home because of:

• Race
• Color
• Religion
• Sex
• Familial status
• National origin
• Military status
• Natural, protective, or cultural hairstyle
• Disability

Military status is the newest addition. It came in through Act 100 of the 2025 Regular Session. Rejecting or treating differently a service member, a reservist, or a military dependent is now illegal under state law.

“They might get deployed and break the lease” is not a legal reason to say no. Many owners would have thought it sounded like plain business sense a few years ago.

First-violation civil penalties from HUD can run past $20,000, and the figure is adjusted for inflation every year. Legal fees and damages come on top. Check the current number before you rely on any figure you read online.

Write Your Screening Criteria Before You List

A defensible rejection is one tied to a standard you set ahead of time. Not one you invented after meeting the applicant.

Our screening covers criminal history, credit, employment history, previous rental history, and required tenant references. Your criteria should cover the same ground, in writing, with numbers where numbers make sense.

• Income: A minimum, often a multiple of rent. Say rent is $1,500 and your standard is three times that. Applicants need $4,500 a month in verified gross income.
• Credit: A stated minimum score or specific items you’ll look at.
• Rental history: What you’ll verify with prior landlords and what counts against an applicant.
• Employment: How you’ll verify it and what counts as acceptable proof.
• Criminal history: A policy that weighs the offense, how long ago it happened, and its relevance to the tenancy.
• References: How many and from whom.

Now the part that trips owners up. Picture a landlord who sets that 3x income rule, then quietly waives it for an applicant they happened to like. Even if it’s unintentional, that inconsistency can look like discriminatory treatment if the two applicants differ in any protected trait.

If you skim rental property owner questions New Orleans Louisiana reddit threads for screening advice, you’ll find plenty of confident opinions. Plenty of them are wrong, or written for another state. Check anything legal against the current Louisiana statute.

Apply the Same Standard to Every Applicant

Consistency is the whole game. A solid file won’t make eviction court disappear, but it does lower the odds you’ll end up in New Orleans eviction court with a tenant you shouldn’t have approved. It also protects you if a rejected applicant pushes back.

A simple routine keeps you honest:

1. Give every applicant the same written criteria with the same application.
2. Take applications in the order you receive them.
3. Run the same checks on every applicant, in full.
4. Offer the unit to the first applicant who meets every criterion.
5. If you make an exception, write down why, and offer the same exception to anyone in the same position.

Local timing matters here. Demand spikes around August, when university move-ins and post-summer lease cycles collide, and again around Mardi Gras and Jazz Fest. Rushed screening during those windows is where criteria quietly slip.

The applicant pool is also mixed. Students from Tulane, Loyola, Xavier, Dillard and UNO apply alongside hospitality workers and medical professionals. When the pool is that varied, written criteria matter more.

Slow down when it gets busy. Speed is how inconsistency sneaks in.

Reasons That Hold Up and Reasons That Don’t

A good reason is objective, tied to your written criteria, and unrelated to any protected trait. A weak reason is vague, personal, or impossible to verify.

Say an owner turns someone down after a phone call because of a gut feeling, with nothing written down. If that applicant belongs to a protected class, the owner has almost nothing to defend the decision with.

Criminal History and Disability Need Extra Care

Criminal history

A blanket “no record, ever” policy sounds strict and safe. Fair housing attorneys often see it differently. A rule that ignores the type of offense, how long ago it happened, and whether it relates to the tenancy can create its own legal problems. HUD has issued guidance on criminal-history screening, so check the current version and talk to an attorney before you finalize your policy.

Louisiana does allow you to refuse someone whose tenancy would be a direct threat to the health or safety of others, or would cause substantial physical damage to others’ property. It’s a narrow exception. It has to rest on facts about that specific person, not a label or a diagnosis.

Disability and accommodation requests

Louisiana law bars rejecting an applicant because of a disability. That covers the applicant, anyone who will live in the unit, and anyone associated with the applicant.

Refusing a reasonable accommodation in your rules, policies, practices or services is itself disability discrimination. So is refusing a reasonable modification of the unit that the tenant pays for. Your screening policy has to leave room for these requests.

Send the Rejection the Right Way

The federal notice you may owe

If you reject an applicant, require a cosigner, ask for a bigger deposit, or set worse terms based in whole or in part on a consumer report, federal law (the Fair Credit Reporting Act) requires an adverse-action notice. It must include:

1. Notice of the adverse action itself.
2. The credit score you used and its key factors, if a score was used.
3. The name, address and phone number of the consumer reporting agency, with a toll-free number if it’s a nationwide agency.
4. A statement that the agency did not make the decision and cannot explain why.
5. The applicant’s right to a free copy of the report from that agency within 60 days.
6. The right to dispute the report’s accuracy or completeness with the agency.

If you deny someone based on information from a source other than a reporting agency, such as a prior landlord you called yourself, federal law says to tell the applicant they may request the reasons in writing. If they ask within 60 days, you disclose the nature of the information within a reasonable time. Confirm how that applies to rentals with your attorney.

What to say, and what never to say

Keep the letter short and factual. Name the criterion and how the applicant fell short, and nothing more.

Never say a unit is rented when it’s still available. Louisiana makes it illegal to tell an applicant a unit is unavailable when it isn’t because of a protected trait, including disability. It’s the oldest cover story there is, and it’s exactly the kind of thing that unravels in a complaint.

Keep a Paper Trail

If a rejected applicant files a complaint, your file is your defense. Keep these for every applicant, approved or not:

• The application: With dates and times received.
• Your written criteria: The version you used for that listing.
• The screening reports: Credit, background, employment and rental verification.
• Your notes: Factual and tied to the criteria, with no personal impressions.
• The notice you sent: Plus proof of when it went out.
• Messages: Every email and text with the applicant.

Ask your attorney how long to hold on to these. Complaint windows can stay open longer than owners expect.

Applicants who feel wronged go looking for options. They search Renters Rights New Orleans or landlord problems who to call, and a complaint can land on someone’s desk fast. The city voted to add a Human Rights Commission meant to take discrimination complaints, but its own FAQ, last updated in September 2024, said it wasn’t yet taking them. Check current status before you assume anything.

Documentation works in the other direction too. One of our tenants, John, wrote that he left his condo spotless and got his deposit back “without any hastle.” Clear records at move-in and move-out protect everyone. The same habits help with local requirements like the city’s Healthy Homes program.

Do the Exemptions Apply to You?

Louisiana has two narrow state-law exemptions:

• A private owner with no more than three single-family houses who rents without a broker, property manager or discriminatory ads.
• A building with up to four units where the owner lives in one of them.

A property management company acting as agent generally takes a rental outside the first exemption. The advertising ban applies to everyone. These are state-law exemptions, so check federal and city law separately. Most owners who think they’re exempt find out otherwise once a listing, a manager, or a second property enters the picture.

This is part of why many owners hand screening to a team. We manage 10,000 properties for 800 owners, and we’ve been at it for 32 years. The company employs more Certified Property Managers than any other firm in the Gulf South. A long-time client, AJ, described us as “professionals and knowledgeable,” and applying the same standard to every applicant is a big part of good screening.

If saying no to an applicant feels harder than it should, we’re open to a conversation.

FAQ

Do I have to tell a rejected applicant why?

If a consumer report played any part in the decision, federal law requires an adverse-action notice with specific contents. For information from other sources, the applicant can request the reasons in writing within 60 days. Even when no notice is required, a short factual letter is a smart habit.

Can I reject an applicant because they’re in the military?

No. Military status became a protected class in Louisiana housing law under Act 100 of the 2025 session. That covers service members, reservists, and military dependents, and “they might leave early” is not a lawful reason.

Can I reject someone with a criminal record?

A blanket ban on any record, regardless of the offense or how long ago it happened, is risky. Use a written policy that weighs the specific offense and its relevance, and check current HUD guidance. Louisiana’s direct-threat exception is narrow and has to rest on facts about the individual.

Can I tell an applicant the unit is already rented?

Only if it’s true. Louisiana law makes it illegal to say a unit is unavailable when it’s available because of a protected trait.

Does a small landlord get an exemption from these rules?

Sometimes, but narrowly. The state exemptions cover a private owner with no more than three single-family houses who uses no broker, manager or discriminatory ads, and owner-occupied buildings of up to four units. The advertising ban applies to everyone, and federal and city rules need a separate check.