How rental applicants get screened in Columbus
Tenant screening checks five things: credit, criminal record, income, rental history and prior evictions. RL Property Management screens every applicant against one written standard, at no separate charge, as part of the $0 leasing fee.
The short version
- Five checks on every applicant: credit, criminal, income, rental history, eviction record
- Included in the $0 leasing fee, on all three plans
- One written standard, applied the same way to every applicant
- 72% lease renewal rate across the portfolio
- 96% of rent collected by the 5th of the month
- Roughly 3.5% of rentals reach eviction, litigation or another significant dispute
- 4.3 out of 5 resident satisfaction
- 700+ units screened and managed since 2013
What does one bad placement cost?
More than a year of management fees, in most cases. A resident who stops paying in month three costs you the unpaid rent, the eviction hard cost of $273, our $199 fee to run the case, the vacancy while the unit is turned again, and whatever the damage runs. Roughly 3.5% of rentals reach eviction, litigation or another significant dispute.
That is the whole argument for a boring, written, unbending screening standard. The upside of a great applicant is a renewal. The downside of a bad one is months of your money and your weekends.
What is checked on a rental application?
Five things, on every adult who will live in the unit. Not just the person who signs.
Credit
A credit report shows whether someone pays what they owe, and it shows collections from prior landlords and utilities. The score matters less than the pattern: a thin file is a different question from a file full of charge-offs. Medical debt tells you something different than a repossession.
Criminal record
A criminal background check is run on every adult applicant. How records may be weighed is constrained by fair housing guidance, so the standard has to be written down, applied identically, and defensible.
Income
Verified income, not stated income. Pay stubs, an offer letter, benefit award letters or bank statements for self-employed applicants.
Rental history
Prior landlords are contacted directly. The useful question is not "were they a good tenant", it is "did they pay on time, did they give proper notice, and would you rent to them again". A current landlord who wants a problem resident gone has a reason to be generous.
Eviction record
Public court records are checked for prior eviction filings. A filing is not the same as a judgment, and both get looked at in context rather than as an automatic answer.
What makes a screening standard legal?
Three things: it exists in writing before the first application arrives, it is applied identically to every applicant, and it can be explained. Fair housing law does not require you to accept everyone. It requires you to apply the same rule to everyone, and to be able to show that you did.
Protected classes come from federal law, from Ohio law, and from local ordinance, and the local list is longer than the federal one. Federal: race, color, national origin, religion, sex, familial status, disability. Ohio adds ancestry and military status. Columbus adds sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, and source of income.
Two rules that catch self-managing owners regularly: assistance animals are not pets, so a no-pets policy does not apply to them and no pet fee may be charged for them, and casual remarks during a showing can create liability even when the written standard is clean. Our pet damage coverage of $4,000 above the security deposit applies to approved pets. It does not apply to service or assistance animals, because those are not pets.
How do you screen tenants yourself?
This page is worth reading even if you never hire us. If you are doing it yourself, do these six things in this order.
- 1.Write the standard down before you list the unit, and publish it with the listing.
- 2.Screen every adult who will occupy the unit, not just the leaseholder.
- 3.Verify income with documents. Never accept a stated number.
- 4.Call the landlord before the current one, not just the current one. The current landlord may want the resident gone.
- 5.Keep the notes. Written, dated, factual notes on every applicant are your defense if a denial is challenged.
- 6.Give a proper adverse action notice when you deny based on a consumer report. The notice has to name the consumer reporting agency, say the agency did not make the decision, and tell the applicant they can get a free copy of the report and dispute what is in it.
Tenant screening questions
How do you screen tenants in Ohio?
Every adult applicant is screened on five things: credit, criminal record, verified income, rental history from prior landlords, and public eviction records. The standard is written down before any application arrives and applied the same way to everyone, which is both the fair housing requirement and the only way to defend a denial. RL Property Management includes screening in the $0 leasing fee.
What are your rental application criteria?
The full published criteria, including income requirements, credit thresholds, pet rules and the criminal record standard, live on our application criteria page for residents. It is published so an applicant and an owner are reading the same standard.
How much does tenant screening cost the owner?
Nothing separately. Screening is part of placing a resident, and placing a resident costs $0 on every plan. Applicants pay their own application fee.
What is the biggest screening mistake landlords make?
Bending the standard for someone likable. The second is screening only the applicant who will sign, rather than every adult who will live there. The third is accepting stated income without documents. Each of those shows up later as a payment problem, and by then the lease is signed.
Can you deny an applicant for a criminal record?
Not automatically, and not on a blanket basis. Fair housing guidance restricts blanket criminal record bans, so any consideration of a record has to follow a written, consistently applied standard. We look at the nature of the offense, how long ago it was, and what has happened since, and we apply that the same way to every applicant.
Do you accept housing vouchers?
Inside the City of Columbus we have to, and we do. Columbus adopted source of income protection in March 2021, effective that July, which makes it unlawful to refuse an applicant or change the terms because part of the rent will be paid by a Housing Choice Voucher, child support, spousal support or public assistance. Where an income multiple applies, the voucher portion comes off first, so the test runs against the share the resident actually pays. Every other screening standard applies exactly as it would to any applicant.
How long does screening take?
Usually a day or two once everything is in. The main delay is almost never the report. It is waiting on a prior landlord to call back or on an applicant to send an income document.
What happens if a resident stops paying anyway?
Screening lowers the odds, it does not eliminate them. Roughly 3.5% of rentals reach eviction, litigation or another significant dispute. When it happens, we run the process: hard costs are $273 and our fee to manage the case is $199.
General information about property management practice in Central Ohio, not legal advice. Statutes and local ordinances change, and your own situation may differ.
Last verified September 2026. Reviewed by Peter Lohmann, Principal Broker and CEO.
Where to go next
- Marketing and leasingHow the applicant got to the application in the first place.
- ComplianceFair housing, Ohio landlord-tenant law and local registration.
- EvictionsWhat happens when screening does not hold.
- Application criteriaThe published standard applicants are held to.
- All servicesThe rest of what a property manager does.
Stop guessing about applicants
We apply the same standard to every applicant on every unit, and we put the reasoning in writing. Start with a rent evaluation and we will show you what your unit should attract.