How to create rental application requirements

Decide before you advertise

Requirements written after applications arrive are requirements written about people. That is both the fair housing risk and the practical one: it is how landlords end up making inconsistent decisions they cannot explain six months later.

Write the standard first. Publish it with the listing. Then the decision is arithmetic.

The five components of a workable standard

• Income: the multiple you require, whether it is gross or net, and how you treat multiple applicants and non-wage income.
• Documentation: exactly which documents you accept for each income type, including alternatives for self-employed and benefit income.
• Rental history: how many years, whether you contact prior landlords, and what disqualifies.
• Identity: what identification you accept.
• Exceptions: what an applicant who misses a threshold can do instead — most commonly a guarantor or additional deposit where lawful.

Write requirements as tests, not impressions

"Stable employment" is not a requirement; it is an opinion. "Six months of continuous documented income at 3x monthly rent" is a requirement. Every line should be something a stranger reading your file could verify the same way you did.

Offer alternate routes to the same standard

Accepting bank statements from a self-employed applicant instead of pay stubs is not lowering your standard — it is measuring the same thing with the evidence that applicant's work produces. Refusing to do so screens on employment type rather than ability to pay, and eliminates a large share of otherwise qualified renters.

Publish, apply, record

Show the requirements on the listing and at the top of the application. Apply them to every applicant in the order received. Keep a record of what each applicant provided and how the decision was reached. That record is your defence and your training material.