HUD Handbook 4350.3 § 4-7
Screening for Suitability (HUD Occupancy Handbook 4350.3 REV-1 CHG-4)
HUD guidance — not codified law
In Force
Verified 9/24/2026 · Next check 10/1/2026
effective 9/24/2026FederalPermitted Screening CriteriaOperative Text
HUD Handbook 4350.3 § 4-7
Screening is used to help ensure that families admitted to a property will abide by the
terms of the lease, pay rent on time, take care of the property and unit, and allow all
residents to peacefully enjoy their homes. Information collected through the screening
process enables owners to make informed and objective decisions to admit applicants
who are most likely to comply with the terms of the lease. An effective screening policy
will also ensure fair, consistent, and equal treatment of applicants. All screening criteria
adopted by the owner must be described in the tenant selection plan and consistently
applied to all applicants in a non-discriminatory fashion and in accordance with all
applicable fair housing and civil rights laws.
A. Screening Versus Determining Eligibility
Screening for suitability of tenancy is not a determination of eligibility for the
program.
1. Eligibility is a determination that an applicant family meets all of the
criteria for the type of subsidy in the property. To be eligible a family must
meet the income limits and provide specific information and
documentation of other family information (i.e., SSNs, and citizenship
information). Eligibility is discussed in detail in Chapter 3.
2. Screening is a determination that an otherwise eligible household has the
ability to pay rent on time and to meet the requirements of the lease.
B. Key Requirements
1. Owners are permitted to establish and apply written screening criteria to
determine whether applicants will be suitable tenants. If an owner's
review of information about the applicant indicates that the applicant will
not be a suitable tenant, the owner may reject the application for
assistance or tenancy.
2. Owners must establish written screening criteria to prohibit the admission
of certain individuals who have engaged in drug-related criminal behavior,
or are subject to a State lifetime sex offender registration program, or are
individuals whose abuse or pattern of abuse of alcohol interferes with the
health, safety, or right to peaceful enjoyment of the premises by other
residents. Owners may choose to expand these requirements regarding
prohibition of admission to certain applicants [24 CFR part 5, subpart I &
J].
3. *Owners must establish written procedures for using the EIV Existing
Tenant Search. See D below.*
4. Screening criteria must be included in the tenant selection plan. (See
paragraph 4-4.C and Figure 4-2.)
5. Owners must apply screening criteria uniformly to all applicants to prevent
discrimination and avoid fair housing violations.
6. The screening of live-in aides at initial occupancy and the screening of
persons or live-in aides to be added to the tenant household after initial
occupancy involve similar screening activities. Both live-in aides and new
additions to the tenant household must be screened for drug abuse and
other criminal activity, including *State lifetime registration as a sex
offender*, by applying the same criteria established for screening other
applicants. In addition, owners may apply any other owner established
applicant screening criteria to new household members in order to
establish suitability for tenancy. Owner established screening criteria may
also be applied to live-in aides, except for the criterion regarding the
ability to pay rent on time because live-in aides are not responsible for
rental payments.
7. Police officers and other security or management personnel that reside in
subsidized units are subject to the same screening criteria as other
applicants.
8. The costs of screening must not be charged to applicants. Such costs
may be charged against the project operating account. A variation on this
rule applies to cooperatives.
9. Certain types of screening are prohibited. See paragraph 4-8 below.
C. Screening For Drug Abuse and Other Criminal Activity
1. Tenant selection plans must contain screening criteria that include
standards for prohibiting admission of those who have engaged in drug-
related or criminal activity. The plan may, under certain circumstances,
include additional provisions that deny admission to applicants for other
drug and criminal activity.
2. Owners must establish standards that prohibit admission of:
a. Any household containing a member(s) who was evicted in the
last three years from federally assisted housing for drug-related
criminal activity. The owner may, but is not required to, consider
two exceptions to this provision:
(1) The evicted household member has successfully
completed an approved, supervised drug rehabilitation
program; or
(2) The circumstances leading to the eviction no longer
exist (e.g., the household member no longer resides
with the applicant household).
b. A household in which any member is currently engaged in illegal
use of drugs or for which the owner has reasonable cause to
believe that a member’s illegal use or pattern of illegal use of a
drug may interfere with the health, safety, and right to peaceful
enjoyment of the property by other residents;
c. Any household member who is subject to a State sex offender
lifetime registration requirement; and
d. Any household member if there is reasonable cause to believe
that member’s behavior, from abuse or pattern of abuse of
alcohol, may interfere with the health, safety, and right to peaceful
enjoyment by other residents. The screening standards must be
based on behavior, not the condition of alcoholism or alcohol
abuse.
3. Owners may establish additional standards that prohibit admission if the
owner determines that any household member is currently engaging in, or
has engaged in, the following activities during a reasonable time before
the admission decision:
a. Drug-related criminal activity. The owner may include additional
standards beyond the required standards that prohibit admission
in the case of eviction from federally assisted housing for drug-
related criminal activity and current drug use.
b. Violent criminal activity.
c. Other criminal activity that threatens the health, safety, and right to
peaceful enjoyment of the property by other residents or the
health and safety of the owner, employees, contractors,
subcontractors, or agents of the owner.
NOTE:. If an owner’s admission policy includes any of the
activities above or similar restrictions that uses a standard
regarding a household member’s current or recent actions, the
owner may define the length of time prior to the admission
decision during which the applicant must not have engaged in the
criminal activity. The owner shall ensure that the relevant
“reasonable” time period is uniformly applied to all applicants in a
non-discriminatory manner and in accordance with applicable fair
housing and civil rights laws.
4. An owner’s screening criteria also may include the following provisions:
a. Exclusion of culpable household members. An owner may require
an applicant to exclude a household member when that member’s
past or current actions would prevent the household from being
eligible.
b. Drug or alcohol rehabilitation. When screening applications, an
owner may consider whether the appropriate household member
has completed a supervised drug or alcohol rehabilitation
program. The owner may require appropriate documentation of
the successful completion of a rehabilitation program.
c. Length of mandatory prohibition. The owner may set a period
longer than required by the regulation (as described in
subparagraph C.2 above) that prohibits admission to a property
for disqualifying behavior. For those behaviors that would result in
denial for a “reasonable time,” the owner must define a
reasonable period in the tenant selection plan.
d. Reconsideration of previously denied applicants. An owner may
reconsider the application of a previously denied applicant if the
owner has sufficient evidence that the members of the household
are not and have not engaged in criminal activity for a reasonable
period of time. The owner must define a reasonable period of
time in the tenant selection plan. When the owner chooses to
adopt this admission provision, the owner must require the
household member to submit documentation to support the
reconsideration of the decision which includes:
(1) A certification that states that she or he is not currently
engaged in such criminal activity and has not engaged in
such criminal activity during the specified period.
(2) Supporting information from such sources as a probation
officer, a landlord, neighbors, social service agency worker
or criminal record(s) that were verified by the owner.
e. Consideration of the circumstances relevant to a particular case.
In developing optional screening criteria for a property, and
applying the criteria to specific cases, owners may consider all the
circumstances relevant to a particular household’s case. Such
considerations may not be applied to the required screening
criteria described in subparagraph C.2 above. These types of
circumstances include:
(1) The seriousness of the offense;
(2) The effect denying tenancy would have on the community
or on the failure of the responsible entity to take action;
(3) The degree of participation in the offending activity by the
household member;
(4) The effect denying tenancy would have on nonoffending
household members;
(5) The demand for assisted housing by persons who will
adhere to lease responsibilities;
(6) The extent to which the applicant household has taken
responsibility and takes all reasonable steps to prevent or
mitigate the offending action; and
(7) The effect of the offending action on the program’s
integrity.
D. *Screening Using the EIV Existing Tenant Search
Owners must establish procedures in their Tenant Selection Plan for using the
EIV Existing Tenant Search to determine if the applicant or any member of the
applicant’s household are being assisted under a HUD rental assistance program
at another location See Chapter 9, Enterprise Income Verification (EIV) for
information on using the Existing Tenant Search.*
E. Considerations In Developing Screening Criteria
Specific screening criteria will vary from property to property. In developing
screening criteria, owners may want to consider the following factors:
1. Length of the property’s waiting list. An owner of a property that has a
long waiting list may consider establishing relatively restrictive screening
standards, whereas an owner of a property with little or no waiting list
may want to have less restrictive standards. *Regardless of standards
established, the owner must screen for State lifetime sex offender
registration in all states where the applicant, or members of the
applicant’s household, have resided or using a database such as the Dru
Sjodin National Sex Offender Database that searches all of the individual
state sex offender registries. This searchable database is located at
http://www.nsopw.gov.* Setting standards involves balancing the need
to fill vacancies with the long-term effect of accepting higher risk tenants.
Thorough screening often makes the project more attractive to applicants,
thereby decreasing vacancies and turnover.
2. Application and screening fees. Screening takes staff time and may
require funds to pay for credit reports and other information.
Rental housing. Owners may not charge application fees or
require applicants to reimburse them for the cost of screening,
including screening for criminal history. Therefore, owners will
want to carefully weigh the cost of various screening activities
against the benefits. Screening costs may be charged as an
operating expense against the property operating account.
a. Screening criteria for assisted units in cooperatives.
(1) Application fees. Cooperatives may require prospective
members to pay application fees if such fees are
permissible under state and local laws. The cooperative's
board of directors must approve the application fee. While
the fee must be reasonable in amount and consistently
applied, cooperatives need not submit the fee for Field
Office approval. The cooperative must treat the application
fee as an earnest money deposit. The application fee is
not intended to cover the administrative expenses the
cooperative incurs in processing applications. If the
applicant is accepted for membership, the cooperative
must apply the application fee to the purchase of the
membership. If the applicant is rejected by the
cooperative, the cooperative must refund the full
application fee. The cooperative may retain the application
fee only if the applicant backs out of the purchase
transaction. While rental projects may not collect
application fees, cooperatives may do so because
application fees are traditional for homeownership
transactions, and admission to a cooperative requires
completion of more complicated paperwork than does
admission to a rental. Collection of an earnest money
deposit will minimize instances in which the cooperative
spends time and money processing the application and
then the applicant backs out.
(2) Credit report fees. Cooperatives may charge applicants for
the cost of credit reports. This fee is intended to cover the
cooperative's out-of-pocket cost; these fees are not
refundable and need not be applied to the applicant's
purchase costs. Cooperatives are permitted to charge
these costs to applicants because:
Such charges are standard industry practice for
homeownership;
Costs of these reports for home purchase can be more
expensive than those required for rental purposes; and
During initial occupancy, HUD requires cooperatives to
obtain credit reports on all applicants, and many
cooperatives have continued that policy as
memberships are resold in later years.
F. Permitted Screening Criteria Commonly Used by Owners
1. Overview. Owners are permitted to screen applicants for suitability to
help them to determine whether to accept or deny an applicant’s tenancy.
Owners should consider at least developing screening criteria related to
the following factors and may establish other criteria not specifically
prohibited in paragraph 4-8 below. All screening criteria adopted by the
owner must be described in the tenant selection plan and consistently
applied to all applicants.
2. Screening for credit history. Examining an applicant’s credit history is
one of the most common screening activities. The purpose of reviewing
an applicant’s credit history is to determine how well applicants meet their
financial obligations. A credit check can help demonstrate whether an
applicant has the ability to pay rent on time.
a. Owners may reject an applicant for a poor credit history, but a lack
of credit history is not sufficient grounds to reject an applicant.
b. As part of their written screening criteria, and in order to ensure
that all applicants are treated fairly, owners should describe the
general criteria they will use for distinguishing between an
acceptable and unacceptable credit rating. Owners are most often
interested in an applicant’s credit history related to rent and utility
payments. A requirement for applicants to have a perfect credit
rating is generally too strict a standard.
c. Owners may determine how far back to consider an applicant’s
credit history. Owners generally focus on credit activity for the
past three to five years. It is a good management practice to give
priority to current activity over older activity.
d. Owners may have to justify the basis for a determination to deny
tenancy because of the applicant’s credit rating, so there should
be a sound basis for the rejection.
3. Minimum Income Requirement. Section 236 and Section 221(d)(3) BMIR
applicants who receive no other form of assistance, such as Section 8,
may be screened for the ability to pay the Section 236 basic rent or the
BMIR rent. Owners may establish a reasonable minimum income
requirement to assess the applicant’s ability to pay the rent. In the
Section 8, RAP, and Rent Supplement programs, owners may not
establish a minimum income requirement for applicants. (See paragraph
4-8.A.)
4. Screening for rental history. In addition to determining whether applicants
are likely to meet their financial obligations as tenants and pay rent on
time, owners are also interested in whether applicants have the ability to
meet the requirements of tenancy.
a. Owners must not reject an applicant for lack of a rental history but
may reject an applicant for a poor rental history.
b. As part of their written screening criteria, and in order to ensure
that all applicants are treated fairly, owners should describe the
general criteria they will use for distinguishing between acceptable
and unacceptable rental history.
5. Screening for housekeeping habits. Owners may visit the applicant’s
current dwelling to assess housekeeping habits.
a. As part of their written screening criteria, and in order to ensure
that all applicants are treated fairly, owners should describe the
general criteria they will use for distinguishing between acceptable
and unacceptable housekeeping practices.
b. Owners must establish reasonable standards which can be
consistently applied to all families. Messy living quarters are not
the same as safety and health hazards.
c. In defining the home visit standards, the owner should establish a
geographic radius within which home visits are made, and outside
of which home visits are not made. It is impractical to establish a
policy requiring home visits for all applicants, which might require
the owner to visit units many miles from the property. For
example, an owner may determine that 50 miles is the maximum
distance that can be traveled to visit an applicant at home.
6. Consideration of extenuating circumstances in the screening process.
Owners may consider extenuating circumstances in evaluating
information obtained during the screening process to assist in determining
the acceptability of an applicant for tenancy. If the applicant is a person
with disabilities, the owner must consider extenuating circumstances
where this would be required as a matter of reasonable accommodation.Source: Legislative text reproduced verbatim
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Sep 24, 2026
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Related Rules
§ 4-28
Ensuring That Screening Is Performed Consistently