Minnesota sets no dollar cap on screening fees. Before taking one, you must disclose in writing your screening company and rental criteria. You must give a receipt and return any amount not used for screening. You must tell a rejected applicant within 14 days which criteria they failed, and since 2025 you may not deny for a pending eviction. That last rule came from a 2024 law, effective January 1, 2025, which says no landlord may deny a rental application based on “a pending eviction action” (Minn. Stat. 504B.173; Laws 2024, ch. 118).

What are the tenant screening laws in Minnesota?

Minnesota’s main tenant screening laws sit in a few statutes plus the Minnesota Human Rights Act. Together they set what you disclose, what you charge, what you may count against an applicant and what you may ask.

  • Screening fees and notices. Minn. Stat. 504B.173 covers when you may charge a fee, what you disclose in writing first, when you refund it, the 14-day rejection notice and, since 2025, eviction records you may not use to deny.
  • ITIN or Social Security number. Minn. Stat. 504B.117 requires applications to accept either one.
  • Screening reports. Minn. Stat. 504B.241 and 504B.245 govern tenant screening services and the damages for breaking those rules.
  • Fair housing. Minn. Stat. 363A.09 lists the protected classes and covers inquiries, not just decisions.

What can you ask at the first call, text or listing message?

Ask about the home, the timing and your written criteria, and ask every prospect the same things. Minnesota bars any “record or inquiry” in connection with a rental that expresses a limitation or discrimination based on a protected class (Minn. Stat. 363A.09).

Questions that are fine on first contact:

  • When do you want to move in?
  • Which unit are you interested in, and what rent range works for you?
  • Do you have pets? A service or support animal is not charged as a pet (Minn. Stat. 504B.113).
  • Can I send you our rental criteria and the screening company we use?

The protected classes in housing are race, color, creed, religion, national origin, sex, gender identity, marital status, status with regard to public assistance, disability, sexual orientation and familial status (Minn. Stat. 363A.09). Familial status covers anyone who is pregnant or in the process of securing legal custody of a minor (Minn. Stat. 363A.03).

Questions to keep off every call, text and form:

  • “Are you married?” or “Who is your partner?”
  • “Do you have kids?” or “Are you expecting?”
  • “Are you on public assistance?” or “Is your rent paid by a program?”
  • “What church do you go to?” or “Where are you from originally?”
  • “Do you have a disability?”
  • Anything about sexual orientation or gender identity.

Three narrow exceptions exist. The law allows reasonable rules intended to protect the safety of minors, and allows advertising a unit as adults-only only under a specific condition the statute sets (Minn. Stat. 363A.09). A resident owner renting rooms in a one-family home is exempt for some classes, including sex, marital status, public assistance and disability (Minn. Stat. 363A.21).

Can you charge an application fee in Minnesota?

Yes. The screening fee statute sets no dollar cap, but it limits when and how you charge one (Minn. Stat. 504B.173).

  • You may not charge a screening fee “when the landlord knows or should have known that no rental unit is available.”
  • You may not collect or hold the fee without giving the applicant a written receipt.
  • You may not use, cash or deposit the fee until earlier applicants for the unit are resolved, for example screened and rejected.

What must you disclose before taking a screening fee?

Two things, in writing. Before you take the fee, give the applicant “the name, address, and telephone number of the tenant screening service the landlord will use” and “the criteria on which the decision to rent to the prospective tenant will be based” (Minn. Stat. 504B.173).

The criteria matter later. If you reject an applicant for a reason that is not in this disclosure, you owe the fee back.

When must you refund the screening fee?

When you reject for an undisclosed reason, or when you did not spend the fee on screening. You must refund the fee if “the applicant is rejected for any reason not listed in the disclosure” (Minn. Stat. 504B.173).

If you do not perform a personal reference check or do not obtain a consumer credit report or tenant screening report, you must return any amount of the fee that was not used for those purposes. Separately, when a newly constructed unit is delayed, the statute on construction delays requires reimbursements related to security deposits and application fees (Minn. Stat. 504B.153).

Can you ask for a Social Security number or ITIN?

You can ask for either, but you must accept both. A landlord must provide on a rental application the option to submit “an individual taxpayer identification number or a Social Security number” (Minn. Stat. 504B.117).

You must not deny an application solely because the applicant provided an ITIN. You may still deny it if the consumer credit report attached to the ITIN is insufficient. This rule was added by the same 2024 law (Laws 2024, ch. 118).

Handle Social Security numbers with care. General Minnesota law bars requiring a person to transmit their Social Security number over the internet unless the statute’s conditions are met, and allows the numbers on applications sent by mail (Minn. Stat. 325E.59).

Under federal law, the FTC says “You may also get written permission from applicants or tenants to show that you have a permissible purpose” (FTC, federal).

Getting written permission on the application is still the simple habit. It gives you a record of the permissible purpose.

Can you deny an applicant for an eviction?

Only for some evictions. Since January 1, 2025, no landlord may deny a rental application based on any of these (Minn. Stat. 504B.173; Laws 2024, ch. 118):

  • a pending eviction action;
  • any court file that is not public, has been expunged or has been destroyed;
  • any eviction action that has not resulted in a writ of recovery of premises and order to vacate.

Many eviction files also leave the record. A court must expunge an eviction if the complaint is dismissed for any reason, if the tenant prevailed on the merits, if the parties agreed to it, or three years after the eviction was ordered (Minn. Stat. 484.014). A court may also expunge a file when that is “clearly in the interests of justice.”

How current must court records in a screening report be?

Minnesota’s statute on screening reports sets a freshness rule for court records: a screening service must check Minnesota Court Records Online “no more than 24 hours prior” to issuing a report that includes court records (Minn. Stat. 504B.241).

Can you deny an applicant for a criminal record in Minnesota?

If you use criminal history, list it in the written criteria you disclose before taking the fee, because a rejection for an undisclosed reason means refunding the fee (Minn. Stat. 504B.173).

Do you have to accept Section 8 or rental assistance?

Minnesota protects “status with regard to public assistance” in housing (Minn. Stat. 363A.09). The law defines it to include being “a tenant receiving federal, state, or local subsidies, … including rental assistance or rent supplements” (Minn. Stat. 363A.03).

How that applies to a specific voucher program’s requirements is a question for counsel. The Act covers any record or inquiry in connection with a rental that expresses a limitation based on a protected class, including status with regard to public assistance.

Can you set an income or credit requirement?

Minnesota’s screening fee statute requires you to disclose the criteria your decision will be based on before you take a fee (Minn. Stat. 504B.173). Minneapolis and St. Paul limit credit and income tests (City of Minneapolis; City of Saint Paul).

For applicants with an ITIN, you may still deny if the credit report attached to the ITIN is insufficient (Minn. Stat. 504B.117).

How do you reject an applicant in Minnesota?

Send the state notice within 14 days, and a federal adverse action notice if a report played a part. Minnesota requires you to “notify the applicant within 14 days of rejecting a rental application, identifying the criteria” the applicant did not meet (Minn. Stat. 504B.173).

Under federal law, an adverse action notice gives “the name, address, and phone number of the CRA that supplied the report,” says the reporting company “did not make the decision to take the unfavorable action,” and explains the right “to get a free report from the CRA if the person asks for it within 60 days” (FTC, federal).

Minnesota adds tenant rights against the screening service. The applicant can get their file “without charge if information in a residential tenant report has been used within the past 30 days to deny the rental,” the service must reinvestigate disputed information, and the applicant may add an explanation the service can limit to 100 words (Minn. Stat. 504B.241).

Can you charge for a service or support animal?

No. A landlord must not require a tenant “to pay an additional fee, charge, or deposit for the service or support animal,” and “tenant” includes a prospective tenant (Minn. Stat. 504B.113).

If you charge a pet policy fee, the lease must disclose the ban on extra fees, charges or deposits for these animals. You may ask for supporting documentation for each service or support animal, but not when the need is readily apparent or already known to you.

What deposits can you take?

A pre-lease (holding) deposit and a security deposit, each with its own rules. Minnesota sets no statewide cap on the security deposit amount (Minn. Stat. 504B.178).

Pre-lease deposit. You may accept one “only if the landlord and prospective tenant enter into a conspicuous written agreement” (Minn. Stat. 504B.175). In the cases the statute describes, you must return it within seven days. If the applicant signs a lease, the deposit must be applied to their security deposit or rent.

Security deposit. The deposit bears simple, noncompounded interest of one percent per year, and you must return it “within three weeks after termination of the tenancy” (Minn. Stat. 504B.178).

Before any money changes hands. You must disclose open inspection or condemnation orders to a person “before signing a lease or paying rent or a security deposit to begin a new tenancy” (Minn. Stat. 504B.195).

What extra rules apply in Minneapolis and St. Paul?

Minneapolis and St. Paul each add their own screening and deposit rules on top of state law, so check the City of Minneapolis renter rights page and the City of Saint Paul Tenant Protections Ordinance page before you screen a unit in either city.

What are the penalties?

They are set per rule, and some include attorney fees.

  • Screening fee rules. A landlord who breaks them is liable to the applicant for the fee plus “a civil penalty of up to $100, civil court filing costs, and reasonable attorney fees.” An applicant who gives false or leaves out material information faces “a civil penalty of up to $500, civil court filing costs, and reasonable attorney fees” (Minn. Stat. 504B.173).
  • Screening reports. Any person injured by a violation of 504B.241 may sue for “the greater of $1,000 or actual damages” (Minn. Stat. 504B.245).
  • Pre-lease deposit. A violation costs the deposit “plus one-half of that amount as a penalty” (Minn. Stat. 504B.175).
  • Security deposit. Keeping a deposit in bad faith can bring “punitive damages not to exceed $500 for each deposit” (Minn. Stat. 504B.178).
  • Discrimination. A charge under the Human Rights Act must be filed “within one year after the occurrence of the practice” (Minn. Stat. 363A.28).

What are the Minnesota screening rules at a glance?

Rule What the law says Source
Screening fee amount No statewide dollar cap; no fee when no unit is available; written receipt required Minn. Stat. 504B.173
Disclosure before the fee Screening company name, address and phone, and your rental criteria, in writing Minn. Stat. 504B.173
Fee refunds Refund if rejected for an undisclosed reason; return unused amounts Minn. Stat. 504B.173
Rejection notice Within 14 days, naming the unmet criteria Minn. Stat. 504B.173
Eviction records No denial for pending, non-public, expunged or no-writ evictions, from January 1, 2025 Minn. Stat. 504B.173
ITIN or SSN Application must offer both; no denial for an ITIN alone Minn. Stat. 504B.117
Protected classes Includes creed, marital status, public assistance, sexual orientation and gender identity Minn. Stat. 363A.09
Service and support animals No extra fee, charge or deposit, including for applicants Minn. Stat. 504B.113
Pre-lease deposit Conspicuous written agreement; credited to deposit or rent if a lease is signed Minn. Stat. 504B.175
Security deposit No statewide cap; 1% simple interest; return within three weeks Minn. Stat. 504B.178
Screening reports Free file after a denial within 30 days; court records checked within 24 hours Minn. Stat. 504B.241
Adverse action notice (federal) Name the reporting company, say it did not make the decision, and explain the free report within 60 days FTC