Tenant rights

What It Means

Tenant rights are the protections the law gives people who rent their home. Federal law covers some of them everywhere: the Fair Housing Act bars discrimination, and federal credit reporting rules govern how landlords use tenant screening reports. Your state and city set many other rules, including how large a deposit can be and how fast it must come back, so the same problem can have different answers in different places.

How People Say It

• "Can my landlord do that?"
• "They said no kids, is that even allowed?"
• "I'm going to look up the tenant laws in our state."

The Breakdown

What federal law says

• Fair housing. HUD says the Fair Housing Act bars discrimination in housing because of race, color, national origin, religion, sex, familial status or disability. States and cities may add protected classes of their own.
• Tenant screening reports. According to the CFPB, if a landlord denies you or charges a higher deposit or fee because of a screening report, they must tell you, give the name, address and phone number of the company that made it, and tell you that you can get a free copy if you ask within 60 days and dispute anything wrong.

Who it applies to. Renters and people applying to rent. State rules differ, so check your own state's before you act.

Filing a fair housing complaint with HUD

1. File within one year of the last date of the discrimination.
2. Include the name and address of the person or company, the address of the housing, a short description of what happened, and the dates.
3. You can also sue in court within two years, even if you've filed with HUD.

Documents to keep. Your lease, rent receipts, move-in photos, every letter or text from the landlord, and any notice of denial or higher deposit.

Good to Know

Federal protections come from HUD's fair housing pages and the CFPB's tenant screening pages, checked October 1, 2026. A screening company generally has 30 days to look into a dispute, and sometimes 45, per the CFPB. You can complain to the CFPB online or at (855) 411-2372, or to your state consumer protection office. For lease, repair, deposit and eviction rules, your state attorney general's office or state housing agency can tell you what applies where you live, and a lawyer who handles landlord and tenant cases can advise on your own situation.

Related Terms and Categories

• Security deposit

  Money a tenant pays a landlord at the start of a lease, held to cover unpaid rent or damage beyond normal wear and tear and returned, minus listed charges, after move-out.

• Renters insurance

  A policy for tenants that pays to repair or replace their belongings, covers liability for harm they cause others, and pays extra living costs after a covered loss.

• Moving checklist

  A list of jobs to finish before, during and after a move, from checking the mover's registration to forwarding mail, so nothing important is missed.

• Change of address

  Telling the Postal Service, the IRS and everyone else who writes to you that you've moved, so mail is forwarded and official records follow you.

• Rent reporting

  Having your rent payments added to your credit reports, through your landlord or a reporting service, so on-time rent can count toward some credit scores.

• Credit report

  A record of how you've borrowed and repaid, kept by credit bureaus and sold to lenders, landlords, insurers and others who decide whether to deal with you.

Planning and life admin