A legal, consistent tenant screening checklist for Kansas City landlords.

A sound tenant screening checklist does three things: it sets written criteria before you see an applicant, applies them identically to every adult applicant, and documents the result. Most screening mistakes come from skipping one of those steps, not from a lack of data.

Step 1: Write your criteria first

Put your standards in writing before you advertise, and share them with applicants. Consistency is your best defense if a decision is ever questioned.

• Income. A minimum such as gross monthly income of three times the monthly rent, applied to every applicant. (That is the standard Stalwart uses.)
• Credit. Decide what you weigh. Payment history on open accounts is often more telling than a single score.
• Rental history. Evictions, balances owed, and verified on-time payments.
• Criminal history. A narrow, written policy tied to legitimate safety and property interests (see below).
• Occupancy and pet rules. Stated in the lease and applied evenly.
• Application deadline and fee. Same for everyone.

For an example of written standards, read our leasing policy and application process.

Step 2: Verify what the applicant tells you

1. Identity. Photo ID and SSN verification.
2. Income. Recent pay stubs, or other documentation for non-wage income.
3. Credit report. Pulled through a consumer reporting agency with the applicant’s written consent.
4. Eviction, bankruptcy, lien and judgment records.
5. Address history and prior-landlord verification. Ask the prior landlord about on-time payment and condition. Don’t rely on the current landlord alone, who may want the tenant gone.
6. Criminal records, as your written policy allows.

Stalwart screens every adult applicant with a TransUnion credit report, county and statewide criminal searches, the national sex-offender registry, eviction, bankruptcy, lien and judgment records, SSN and address verification, and prior-landlord checks. See the full tenant screening service.

Step 3: Follow the Fair Credit Reporting Act

When you use a consumer report (credit, criminal or eviction data from a reporting agency) to decide on an application, the Fair Credit Reporting Act applies. If you deny an application, require a higher deposit, or otherwise take an adverse action based in whole or in part on that report, the law requires you to tell the applicant. The notice generally includes:

• That an adverse action was taken based on the report.
• The name, address and phone number of the consumer reporting agency that supplied it.
• A statement that the agency did not make the decision.
• The applicant’s right to a free copy of the report if requested within 60 days, and to dispute inaccurate or incomplete information with the agency.
• If a credit score was used, the score itself, its source and range, and the key factors that hurt it.

The FTC’s guide Using Consumer Reports: What Landlords Need to Know explains these duties, and the statutory requirement is 15 U.S.C. § 1681m. Written notice is the safest practice because it documents compliance. Stalwart provides adverse-action documentation and credit documentation when an applicant is declined.

Step 4: Handle criminal history carefully

The Fair Housing Act prohibits discrimination based on race, color, national origin, religion, sex, familial status and disability. HUD’s Office of General Counsel issued guidance on criminal-records screening in 2016, but HUD has since withdrawn it, effective September 25, 2025 (91 Fed. Reg. 44867), along with related 2022 memos, and says those documents should not be relied on as authoritative. The withdrawal changes HUD’s guidance, not the statute. The Supreme Court held in Texas Department of Housing & Community Affairs v. Inclusive Communities Project (2015) that disparate-impact claims can be brought under the Fair Housing Act, so a policy that screens out applicants for reasons unrelated to safety or property, and falls hardest on a protected group, can still be challenged in court.

Practical principles many landlords adopt:

• Distinguish arrests from convictions.
• Consider the nature, severity and recency of the offense.
• Tie the policy to a legitimate interest like resident safety or property protection.
• Allow applicants to explain or provide context where appropriate.
• Some cities regulate this further. Check local ordinances where you own.

Step 5: Keep the process fair-housing safe

• Don’t steer applicants toward or away from a building or neighborhood.
• Don’t ask about protected characteristics, or inquire about disability beyond what the law permits.
• Don’t treat applicants differently with respect to showings, deposits or terms.

Assistance animals and accessibility modifications have their own rules, so review them before you finalize pet policies. Our commitment is on the fair housing page.

Step 6: Decide and document

1. Process applications in the order complete ones were received, if that’s your policy.
2. Compare each file to your written criteria, not to other applicants’ personal traits.
3. Record the reason for approval, conditional approval or denial.
4. Send required adverse action notices promptly.
5. Keep application records securely and only as long as your retention policy and the law require.

Some files fall between clear yes and no. A first-time eviction with a valid explanation, for example, might lead to an additional deposit rather than a denial. Whatever you choose, apply it the same way to the next applicant in the same situation.

Kansas City notes

Kansas and Missouri both allow deposits within statutory limits, which affect any conditional-approval strategy; see our landlord law comparison. If you would rather not run this process yourself, tenant placement handles screening and leasing for you, or our full property management continues after move-in.

Red flags worth a second look

Nothing here is an automatic denial; each is a reason to verify before deciding. Apply the same standard to every applicant.

• Income documents that don’t match. Pay stubs that differ from stated employers, or numbers that change between conversations.
• An unverifiable rental history. No landlord reference isn’t damning by itself, but it changes how much you can rely on the file.
• A rush to skip steps. Pressure to move in before the application is complete.
• Inconsistent identity details. Mismatched names, dates or addresses across documents.
• Unexplained gaps. Give the applicant a chance to explain before drawing conclusions.

Protect your own side of the process too: never promise a home before the file is approved. At Stalwart, signing a lease does not reserve the home; the full security deposit does, and keys are released only after the deposit and first month’s rent clear.

Conditional approvals and additional deposits

Not every file is a clean yes or no. Some landlords offer a conditional approval when an applicant’s file is mixed, for example a first-time eviction with a valid explanation, or a short rental history. Common conditions include a larger deposit within the legal limit, a co-signer where permitted, or prepaid rent. Two cautions apply:

1. Stay within the deposit cap. Kansas and Missouri differ; check the limits for each state.
2. Treat it as an adverse action. If the condition is based on a consumer report, the FCRA notice rules can still apply.

Our own policies show how this works in practice: a one-time eviction is reviewed case by case with a valid explanation and may require first and last month’s rent plus a security deposit, and an unverifiable rental history may require last month’s rent upfront. The point is that the conditions are written, known and consistently applied.

Records and privacy

Applications contain sensitive information, including Social Security numbers, income and background data. Use a secure system, limit who can view files, and dispose of records properly when retention periods end. Don’t keep photos of IDs in email threads or on personal phones. Online applications with a defined retention policy are safer than paper stacks.

Keep a simple log for each unit showing the date you advertised, the criteria you used, how many applications you received, and the decision on each. If a complaint ever arises, that log answers the first question regulators ask: did you treat everyone the same way?