Your Rights as a Tenant

If your application to rent an apartment is rejected, you have a right to know why.

It is illegal for a landlord to refuse your rental application for discriminatory reasons. Federal law prohibits discrimination on the basis of:

• Race
• Color
• Religion
• National origin
• Sex
• Age
• Familial status (including not allowing children, and discrimination against pregnant women)
• Physical disability
• Mental disability (including alcoholism and past drug addiction)

Federal housing law prohibits a variety of discriminatory conduct:

• Advertising cannot contain any statement indicating a preference or limitation based on any of the protected classes listed above
• Landlords may not make any similar implication or statement.
• Landlords cannot say that an apartment is not available when in fact it is available.
• Landlords cannot use a different set of rules for assessing applicants belonging to a protected class.
• Landlords cannot refuse to rent to persons in a protected class.
• Landlords cannot provide different services or facilities to tenants in a protected class or require a larger deposit or treat late rental payments differently.
• Landlords cannot end a tenancy for a discriminatory reason.
• Landlords cannot harass you.

Federal housing statutes do not apply to all rental properties. The main exceptions are owner-occupied buildings with four or fewer rental units (e.g., a duplex), housing offered by religious groups or private organizations for their members, housing designated for senior citizens, and single-family housing being rented without discriminatory advertising or a real estate broker.

A landlord cannot refuse to rent to you because of a no-pets policy if you have a trained helper animal, such as a seeing-eye dog. If the landlord does refuse, he or she has violated federal law, including the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Example: A jury in Minneapolis awarded significant damages to a man who was grief-stricken after his son’s murder and had begun taking care of his son’s dog at the suggestion of his therapist. Before he started taking care of the dog, he was severely depressed and not functioning normally. The jury concluded that enforcing the landlord's no-pets policy under those circumstances was a form of impermissible discrimination.

If you were rejected because the landlord received negative information about you, including information from previous landlords, your employer, your bank or other third parties, you have a right to know. Under the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act a landlord must tell you if the rejection was based on negative credit information that came from a source other than your credit report.

The federal Fair Credit Reporting Act also requires a landlord to tell you that, during the sixty (60) days after he or she informs you that there was negative credit information, you may submit a written request for disclosure of the negative information. After receiving your request for disclosure of the negative information, the landlord must tell you the nature of the information within a reasonable time. The law does not indicate how much detail the landlord must give you.

You have a right to habitable premises. This means the apartment or house you are renting must be fit for occupation. Don’t compromise on this right. You have a right not to live in a hovel. The following conditions could make premises uninhabitable:

• Unsafe conditions, such as holes in the floor, plaster coming down from the ceiling, bad wiring, and the like.
• Gross infestation of vermin such as cockroaches or mice.
  Warning: Some recent studies suggest that the presence of cockroaches in rental housing may be a factor in the incidence of asthma in small children.
• Lead-based paint. Under federal law, rental housing must be free of lead-based point. It is more typical in older buildings, and up to 75 percent of the housing stock is still affected by it. No matter how old or new the premises are, watch for chipping paint, peeling paint, flaking paint, and paint dust.
  Warning: Lead-based paint is extremely dangerous to small children and pets. It damages the central nervous system. Crawling and toddling children interact with their environments by putting everything in their mouths. But paint dust is the primary source of severe problem, and it is easily created and inhaled. The consequences for your children could include diminished IQs, learning disabilities, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADD/ADHD), mental retardation, and brain damage.

You have a right to privacy. Your landlord cannot come into your apartment or house without prior permission unless there is a true emergency like a fire or a flood in the bathroom. The landlord must give you advance notice before coming into your apartment for other reasons, like making repairs or showing it to a potential tenant.

Minnesota does not set an upper limit on security deposits, and a landlord may raise the amount of security deposit, but must do so according to certain notice and period requirements. A landlord must treat tenants equally on deposit requirements. If you are required to provide a larger deposit than one of your neighbors, you have the right to know why. The landlord must return the deposit to you at the end of the lease term with interest set by statute—currently 1 percent.

Your landlord may only keep deposit monies to the extent of damage to the property or to the amount of rent unpaid by the tenant and due to the landlord. Common items that lead to reduced deposit refunds include:

• Repairs to damages on the premises beyond mere wear and tear
• Cleaning to restore the premises to the condition they were in at the beginning of your lease (beyond normal wear and tear)
• Unpaid rent

Tip: Take pictures of the apartment when you first move in, especially areas that may be damaged already, and take the same picture when you move out. Save the receipts for developing the film so you know which is which and can establish the date on which you took the pictures. Or make a videotape.

You have several legal rights if your landlord takes action against you for nonpayment of rent or breach of the lease. Generally your rights relate to having proper notice of the proceedings against you, a chance to make good on the unpaid rent or to repair your breach of the lease, and right to appeal. If you are worried that you may be evicted, you may want to discuss the situation with a lawyer or a local tenants union.

You also have a right to sue the landlord for breach of contract if he or she breaches the lease, fails to return your deposit, takes unwarranted deductions from your deposit, or fails to make repairs. Before proceeding, you will want to discuss your options with a lawyer.