Oregon Statutes 90.295 – Applicant screening charges; screening criteria
(1)(a) A landlord may require payment of an applicant screening charge solely to cover the costs of obtaining information about an applicant as the landlord processes the application for a rental agreement. This activity is known as screening and includes but is not limited to checking references and obtaining a consumer credit report or tenant screening report. The landlord must provide the applicant with a receipt for any applicant screening charge. Promptly after each screening conducted by a tenant screening company or consumer credit reporting agency for the landlord, the landlord shall provide the applicant with confirmation of the screening, including a copy of a receipt from the company or agency.
Terms Used In Oregon Statutes 90.295
- Appeal: A request made after a trial, asking another court (usually the court of appeals) to decide whether the trial was conducted properly. To make such a request is "to appeal" or "to take an appeal." One who appeals is called the appellant.
- Applicant screening charge: means any payment of money required by a landlord of an applicant prior to entering into a rental agreement with that applicant for a residential dwelling unit, the purpose of which is to pay the cost of processing an application for a rental agreement for a residential dwelling unit. See Oregon Statutes 90.100
- Conduct: means the commission of an act or the failure to act. See Oregon Statutes 90.100
- Credit report: A detailed report of an individual's credit history prepared by a credit bureau and used by a lender in determining a loan applicant's creditworthiness. Source: OCC
- Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
- Dwelling unit: means a structure or the part of a structure that is used as a home, residence or sleeping place by one person who maintains a household or by two or more persons who maintain a common household. See Oregon Statutes 90.100
- Gender identity: means an individual's gender-related identity, appearance, expression or behavior, regardless of whether the identity, appearance, expression or behavior differs from that associated with the gender assigned to the individual at birth. See Oregon Statutes 174.100
- Good faith: means honesty in fact in the conduct of the transaction concerned. See Oregon Statutes 90.100
- Landlord: includes a person who is authorized by the owner, lessor or sublessor to manage the premises or to enter into a rental agreement. See Oregon Statutes 90.100
- Rent: means any payment to be made to the landlord under the rental agreement, periodic or otherwise, in exchange for the right of a tenant and any permitted pet to occupy a dwelling unit to the exclusion of others and to use the premises. See Oregon Statutes 90.100
- Rental agreement: includes a lease. See Oregon Statutes 90.100
- Screening or admission criteria: means a written statement of any factors a landlord considers in deciding whether to accept or reject an applicant and any qualifications required for acceptance. See Oregon Statutes 90.100
- Sexual orientation: means an individual's actual or perceived heterosexuality, homosexuality or bisexuality. See Oregon Statutes 174.100
(b) A landlord may only require an applicant to pay a single applicant screening charge within any 60-day period, regardless of the number of rental units owned or managed by the landlord for which the applicant has applied to rent.
(2) The amount of any applicant screening charge must not be greater than the landlord’s average actual cost of screening applicants or the customary amount charged by tenant screening companies or consumer credit reporting agencies for a comparable level of screening. Actual costs may include the cost of using a tenant screening company or a consumer credit reporting agency and the reasonable value of any time spent by the landlord or the landlord’s agents in otherwise obtaining information on applicants.
(3) A landlord may not require payment of an applicant screening charge unless prior to accepting the payment the landlord:
(a) Adopts written screening or admission criteria;
(b) Gives written notice to the applicant of:
(A) The amount of the applicant screening charge;
(B) The landlord’s screening or admission criteria;
(C) The process that the landlord typically will follow in screening the applicant, including whether the landlord uses a tenant screening company, credit reports, public records or criminal records or contacts employers, landlords or other references;
(D) The applicant’s rights to dispute the accuracy of any information provided to the landlord by a screening company or credit reporting agency;
(E) A right to appeal a negative determination, if any right to appeal exists;
(F) Any nondiscrimination policy as required by federal, state or local law plus any nondiscrimination policy of the landlord, including that a landlord may not discriminate against an applicant because of the race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, marital status, familial status or source of income of the applicant;
(G) The amount of rent the landlord will charge and the deposits the landlord will require, subject to change in the rent or deposits by agreement of the landlord and the tenant before entering into a rental agreement;
(H) Whether the landlord requires tenants to obtain and maintain renter’s liability insurance and, if so, the amount of insurance required; and
(I) The applicant’s right to a refund of the screening charge under subsection (5) of this section and right to recover damages under subsection (6)(b) of this section; and
(c) Gives actual notice to the applicant of an estimate, made to the best of the landlord’s ability at that time, of the approximate number of rental units of the type, and in the area, sought by the applicant that are, or within a reasonable future time will be, available to rent from that landlord. The estimate shall include the approximate number of applications previously accepted and remaining under consideration for those units. A good faith error by a landlord in making an estimate under this paragraph does not provide grounds for a claim under subsection (6)(b) of this section.
(4) Unless the applicant agrees otherwise in writing, a landlord may not require payment of an applicant screening charge when the landlord knows or should know that no rental units are available at that time or will be available within a reasonable future time.
(5) A landlord that requires an applicant screening charge must refund the applicant screening charge to the applicant within 30 days if the landlord:
(a) Fills the vacant dwelling unit before screening the applicant; or
(b) Has not conducted or ordered any screening of the applicant before the applicant withdraws the application in writing.
(6)(a) An applicant may not recover an applicant screening charge from the landlord if the applicant refuses an offer from the landlord to rent the dwelling unit.
(b) The applicant may recover from the landlord twice the amount of any applicant screening charge paid, plus $250, if:
(A) The landlord fails to comply with this section with respect to the applicant’s screening or screening charge; or
(B) The landlord does not conduct a screening of the applicant for any reason and fails to refund an applicant screening charge to the applicant within 30 days. [1993 c.369 § 26; 1995 c.559 § 10; 1997 c.577 § 11; 1999 c.603 § 14; 2011 c.42 § 2; 2013 c.294 § 6; 2019 c.251 § 1; 2021 c.577 § 1; 2023 c.319 § 1]