The Test Is Whether a Policy Exists

Have you had a caller ask more questions about your process than about the property?

Here's what that sounds like:

• "Do you take Section 8? And is my credit going to be a problem? Mine's not great."
• "You said three times the rent. Is that three times the whole rent, or just my part?"
• "Do I need a social security number? My husband doesn't have one."
• "Would I need a cosigner? Somebody told me you make voucher holders get one."
• "I have an emotional support animal. What's the pet deposit on that?"
• "It's me and my two kids. Is that too many for the two bedroom?"
• "I had an unlawful detainer filed on me in 2019. It got dismissed. Does that disqualify me?"
• "I'm on SSDI. Does that count as income?"
• "Have you already picked somebody, or are you still taking applications?"

Read that list again and notice what's missing. Nobody asked about the yard. Nobody asked about parking, the schools, the washer hookup, or when they could move in. A person who wants to live in your house asks about the house. A person testing your policy asks about your policy.

You cannot spot a tester, so stop trying

State agencies and fair housing organizations send trained testers. They are polite. They are prepared. They often call twice, days apart, to see whether the answer changes. Increasingly the call is recorded or written up within the hour, and you will not find out how you did until a letter arrives with a paragraph of your own words in it.

Fifty years in this business has not made me better at identifying one on the phone, and I have stopped pretending otherwise. Every landlord who thinks he can tell is describing a skill nobody has.

Which is fine, because detection was never the assignment.

What is actually being tested

Every question on that list has one correct answer. The correct answer does not change based on who is asking. It is the same for a tester, a housing counselor, a relocation consultant, and a schoolteacher with a voucher and two kids who found your listing at eleven at night.

If you have a written standard, you read it out. If you don't, you improvise — and improvisation is where the liability lives. The tester is not catching you in a lie. The tester is finding out whether a policy exists.

That is the whole thing. Not your intent. Not your tone. Not whether you were friendly. Whether there is a document, whether it went to everybody, and whether the answer you gave on the phone matches it.

The four places owners improvise

Nearly every failure I have seen falls into one of four. Each is a specific rule with a statute behind it.

Can you require three times the rent from a Section 8 applicant?

Not three times the full rent. Government Code §12955 has long prohibited using an income standard, where there is a government rent subsidy, that isn't based on the portion of the rent the tenant actually pays. If the house rents for $3,000 and the voucher covers $2,400, your multiplier applies to $600.

This is the most common failure, and it usually isn't malice. It's a landlord repeating a number he has said a thousand times. "Three times the rent" is a reflex. Said to a voucher holder, it's a violation, and it is the easiest one in the world to record.

Can you set a minimum credit score?

Not as a gate for subsidized applicants. Since January 1, 2024, SB 267 has prohibited using credit history in the application process where a government rent subsidy is involved unless you offer the applicant the option to provide lawful, verifiable alternative evidence of their ability to pay their portion — pay records, bank statements, benefit award letters. You have to give them reasonable time to produce it and reasonably consider it in place of the credit report.

Note the shape of the rule. It does not say you must rent to someone with bad credit. It says the credit report cannot be the only door. You can still verify employment, call prior landlords, and screen on rental history.

So the criteria sheet that reads "620 minimum" on one line and "we accept Section 8" three lines down is not two policies. It is one contradiction, in writing, waiting to be handed to somebody. A hard score cutoff also carries its own disparate impact exposure regardless of vouchers, because score distributions are not evenly spread across protected classes. And it is reading a different file than it used to: as of January 1, 2025, SB 1061 keeps medical debt off California credit reports entirely.

Can you ask some applicants for a cosigner?

Only if the trigger is written and applies to everyone. A guarantor tier is a good thing — it gives an applicant who falls short on income a path other than denial. It becomes a problem the moment it's a judgment call, because the pattern of who gets asked is the entire case.

The two versions that end badly: requiring a guarantor from a voucher holder for failing to hit your multiplier against the full rent, and requiring one from an applicant who already satisfied you through alternative evidence. Both are the first rule and the second rule failing a second time.

How many people can you limit to a two-bedroom in California?

Two per bedroom, plus one for the unit. It comes from HUD's Keating memorandum, and the California Civil Rights Department uses the same informal guideline. It functions as a rebuttable presumption: allow at least that many and a familial status complaint generally doesn't go anywhere. Children under two aren't counted. A two-bedroom holds five.

Owners routinely publish tighter limits without realizing what they've built. A rule of one per bedroom plus one caps that same two-bedroom at three, which denies a couple with two children every two-bedroom house in the portfolio, in writing, under a stated policy. Nobody needs to make a phone call to prove that one.

Going below the benchmark requires a documented justification tied to the specific property — septic capacity, actual bedroom dimensions — not a portfolio-wide preference.

The part that has nothing to do with testers

Here is the exposure I worry about more, because it doesn't arrive as a trained caller. It arrives as a Tuesday afternoon.

Two applications come in. Both qualify. You send them to the owner, and the owner picks. Somewhere in that phone call the owner says why — the quiet couple, the one who seemed more stable, the one without the three kids — and now the reason for the decision isn't written anywhere. It's in a conversation with a person who has never had an hour of fair housing training and has no idea he just said the sentence that ends in a complaint. Your license is on the file.

Every criterion on your sheet is objective and defensible right up to the second a human being chooses between two people who both qualified.

The fix is a processing rule, and since January 1, 2025, AB 2493 requires you to have one anyway. Amending Civil Code §1950.6, it gives you two paths: process applications in the order received and approve the first qualified applicant, or select among applicants and refund the entire screening fee to everyone not selected within seven days of choosing a tenant or thirty days of the application, whichever comes first.

We use the first. Completed applications are time-stamped as they arrive, worked in order, and the first file that meets the written standard gets the house with a hard clock to sign and fund. If they don't perform, the file closes and we go to the next one in line. The owner approves the criteria before the property is marketed. He does not approve the applicant afterward.

That is not a customer service posture. It means there is no moment where somebody chose between two qualified households, which means there is no decision of that kind to defend.

AB 2493 brought three other duties worth stating plainly. You cannot collect a screening fee unless a unit is actually available. Every applicant gets an itemized receipt. And a copy of the consumer credit report goes to the applicant within seven days of your receiving it, automatically, without waiting to be asked.

What we hand out

This goes to every person who receives an application, before any fee is collected.

RENTAL QUALIFICATION REQUIREMENTS

These requirements apply to every applicant for every property we manage. A copy is given to every person who receives an application, before any fee is collected. We do not make exceptions for anyone.

How we process applications. Applications are reviewed in the order completed applications are received. The property is offered to the first applicant who meets these requirements. An approved applicant has 48 hours to sign the lease and deliver the deposit and first month's rent; if that doesn't happen, the file closes and we move to the next application in order.

Offers. We present every offer we receive to the owner, including offers on terms different from those advertised. The owner may accept, decline, or counter any of them. If the owner accepts different terms, the listing is corrected and those terms are available to every applicant.

Availability and possession. We collect a screening fee only when a unit is available. Where the owner requires possession by a specific date, that date is stated in the listing, and the ability to take possession by it is part of these requirements.

Screening fee. The fee covers our actual out-of-pocket cost of obtaining your screening report plus the reasonable value of our time, and does not exceed the maximum allowed by Civil Code §1950.6 for the current year. You receive an itemized receipt. If you provide a valid reusable screening report and we accept it, no fee is charged. We send you a copy of your consumer credit report within seven days of our receiving it, whether or not you ask, and within three days of a written request.

Income. Verifiable gross household income of at least three times the monthly rent. Where a government rent subsidy is involved, this standard applies only to the portion of the rent you pay. All lawful sources of income count, including public assistance, disability, retirement, child support, and housing vouchers.

Credit history. We review your credit history for unpaid balances owed to prior landlords or utilities, open judgments, and overall payment history. There is no minimum score cutoff. Medical debt is not considered. If you receive a government rent subsidy, you may provide lawful, verifiable alternative evidence of your ability to pay your portion — pay records, bank statements, benefit award letters — instead of credit history. We will give you reasonable time to provide it and will consider it in place of your credit report.

Rental history. Verification from your current and one prior landlord, and proof of your last six months of rent payments by bank records, canceled checks, or receipts. Applicants who have not rented before may substitute six months of comparable payment records. We do not treat an eviction filing as a judgment. Under CCP §1161.2, most unlawful detainer records are not publicly reportable unless the landlord prevailed within sixty days, so a screening report may be silent on a case that exists, or may show a filing that was dismissed or decided in the tenant's favor. If something appears, we ask you about it before we act on it.

Criminal history. We do not apply blanket exclusions. We do not consider arrests without conviction, or sealed, expunged, dismissed, or juvenile records. Any conviction considered is assessed case by case against its nature, how long ago it occurred, and its relationship to the tenancy, and you will be given an opportunity to provide context.

Occupancy. Two persons per bedroom plus one additional person for the unit. Children under two are not counted. Where a property's septic capacity or bedroom dimensions require a lower limit, the limit and the reason are stated in that property's listing.

Assistance animals. Service animals and support animals are not pets. They are not subject to any pet restriction, pet rent, or pet deposit, and they are permitted at properties advertised as no-pet. We may request reliable documentation of the disability-related need from a provider with an established relationship with you. We will not ask about the nature of your disability.

Identity. Government-issued photo identification and a Social Security number or ITIN. We do not ask about, and will not consider, your immigration or citizenship status.

Guarantors. An applicant who meets all requirements except the income standard, with verifiable income of at least two times the rent, may qualify with a guarantor. A guarantor must independently document income of at least four times the rent, meet the same credit and rental history requirements, and sign a full lease guaranty. This option is offered to every applicant in that range. We do not require a guarantor where a government rent subsidy is present and the applicant meets the income standard for their portion of the rent, or where the applicant has demonstrated ability to pay through alternative evidence.

Security deposit. The deposit for each property is stated in that property's listing and is the same for every applicant. It does not vary based on credit, income, household composition, or source of income.

If you are denied. You receive written notice of the reason. If the decision relied on a consumer report, the notice identifies the reporting agency and your right to dispute its contents with them directly.

The point

Go back to the nine questions at the top. Every one of them is answered above, in writing, the same way for everybody, in a document I will email to a stranger who calls at eleven at night without knowing or caring who they are.

That is what it means to pass the test. Not cleverness on the phone. Not spotting the caller. A document that already said it before the phone rang.

They are out there. Let them call.