Saint Paul, Minn., Legis. Code ch. 193 § 193.03

(a) Fee for service. Application fees for rental properties must not exceed the cost of the screening process. Written information on the actual cost of the screening process must be made available to the prospective tenant or actual tenant on request.
(b) Nothing in this section prohibits a landlord from collecting and holding an application fee so long as the landlord provides a receipt for the fee and the fee is not cashed, deposited, or negotiated away until all prior rental applicants either have been screened or rejected for the unit, or have been offered the unit and have declined to take it. If a prior rental applicant is offered the unit and accepts it, the landlord must return all application fees.
(c) Application forms must allow the applicant to choose which of the following methods will be used for return of the application fee.
(1) Mailing it to the applicant's chosen address as stated on the application form;
(2) Destroying it; or
(3) Holding the fee for retrieval by the tenant upon one (1) business-day's notice.
(d) Screening criteria made available. Before accepting applications and/or payment of a security deposit, application fee, or other fee for rental housing, a landlord must make readily available to all applicants the landlord's rental screening criteria in detail.
(e) Uniform screening criteria. A landlord must apply uniform screening criteria and cannot deny an applicant's application for rent for any of the following reasons unless the landlord follows the provisions of Section 193.03 (c):
(1) Criminal and civil case history.
a. Any arrest or charge in an inactive case that did not result in conviction of a crime;
b. Participation in or completion of a diversion or a deferral of judgment program, including but not limited to: pre-charge or pretrial diversion, stay of adjudication, continuance for dismissal, or a continuance without prosecution;
c. Any court file that is not public, has been expunged, or has been destroyed;
d. Any conviction that has been vacated or expunged, or for which the applicant received a stay of imposition of sentencing and complied with the terms of the stay;
e. Any conviction for a crime that is no longer illegal in the state of Minnesota;
f. Any conviction or any other determination or adjudication in the juvenile justice system, except under procedures pursuant to Minn. Stat. § 260B.130.
g. A petty misdemeanor offense is not a criminal offense. For the purposes of this Chapter, a petty misdemeanor cannot be grounds for a denial because it is not a criminal offense;
h. Any conviction for misdemeanor or gross misdemeanor offenses for which the last date of sentencing served is older than three (3) years;
i. Except as indicated in paragraph (i) below, any criminal conviction for felony offenses for which the last date of sentencing served is older than seven (7) years; however, a landlord may deny an applicant who has been convicted of the illegal manufacture or distribution of a controlled substance as defined in section 102 of the Controlled Substances Act (21 U.S.C. 802), or for those same offenses that mandate denial of tenancy in federally assisted housing subject to federal regulations, including but not limited to when any member of the household is subject to a lifetime sex offender registration requirement under a state sex offender registration program.
j. Any criminal conviction for the following felony offenses for which the last date of sentencing served is older than ten (10) years: Minn. Stat. § 609.221, Minn. Stat. § 609.561, Minn. Stat. § 609.245, Minn. Stat. § 609.185, Minn. Stat. § 609.19, Minn. Stat. § 609.195, Minn. Stat. § 609.20, subd. 1, 2 and 5, Minn. Stat. § 609.25, subd. 2(2), or (Minn. Stat. § 609.342, subd. 1(b) or (g).
(2) Credit history.
a. Credit score by itself; however, a landlord may use credit report information to the extent the report demonstrates a failure to pay rent or utility bills; or
b. Insufficient credit history, unless the applicant in bad faith withholds credit history information that might otherwise form a basis for denial.
(3) Rental history.
a. A pending eviction action.
b. Any eviction action that has not resulted in a writ of recovery of premises and order to vacate, as that term is defined in Minn. Stat. § 504B.001, subdivision 15.
c. An eviction action pursuant to Minn. Stat. Ch. 504 or other equivalents in other states, if the action occurred three (3) or more years before the applicant submits the application.
d. Insufficient rental history, unless the applicant in bad faith withholds rental history information that might otherwise form a basis for denial.
e. If a landlord uses a minimum income test requiring an income equal to two and half (2.5) times the rent or higher, the landlord must allow an exception to that test where the applicant can demonstrate a history of successful retn payment with the same or lower ratio of income to retn.
(f) Individualized assessment. A landlord that applies screening criteria that are more prohibitive than the uniform screening criteria set forth Section 193.03 (b) must conduct an individualized assessment for any basis upon which the landlord intends to deny an application. In evaluating an applicant using individualized assessment, a landlord must accept and consider all supplemental evidence provided with a completed application to explain, justify, or negate the relevance of potentially negative information revealed by screening. Supplemental evidence refers to any written information submitted by the applicant in addition to that provided on the landlord's form application that the applicant believes to be relevant to the applicant's predicted performance as a tenant. When evaluating the effect of supplemental evidence on a landlord's decision of acceptance or denial of an applicant, the landlord must also consider:
(1) The nature and severity of the incidents that would lead to a denial;
(2) The number and type of the incidents;
(3) The time that has elapsed since the date the incidents occurred; and
(4) The age of the individual at the time the incidents occurred.
(g) Denials.
(1) All denials must include the name, address, and phone number of the tenant screening agency or other credit reporting agency used in considering the application.
(2) Uniform screening criteria. If a denial is based on the uniform screening criteria of Section 193.03 (b), a landlord shall notify the applicant in writing within fourteen (14) days of rejecting a rental application and identify the specific criteria the applicant failed to meet. Before denying an applicant for criminal history, a landlord must consider supplemental evidence provided by the applicant if provided at the time of application submittal.
(3) Individualized assessment. After performing an individualized assessment pursuant to Section 193.03 (c), a landlord may deny an applicant if the denial is non-discriminatory in accordance with the Fair Housing Act. A landlord shall notify the applicant within fourteen (14) days of rejecting a rental application and such notification shall include the following:
a. The basis for the denial;
b. The supplemental evidence, if any, that the landlord considered and an explanation of the reasons that the supplemental evidence did not adequately compensate for the factors that informed the landlord's decision to reject the application; and
c. The notification shall be in writing and retained by the landlord for a period of two (2) years.
(h) Exception. Whenever local, state, or federal funding or loan requirements for tenant screening conflict with any portion of Section 193.03 , the funding or loan requirements will take precedence over only those portions in conflict.