Tennessee tenant screening laws

Tennessee has no statute capping rental application or screening fees. Some secondary sources describe an expectation that fees be reasonable and tied to the landlord's actual screening costs, but that expectation is not set by a specific Tennessee statute — treat it as a best practice rather than a legal ceiling.

The Tennessee Human Rights Act's housing provisions prohibit discrimination based on race, color, creed, religion, sex, disability, familial status, or national origin (Tenn. Code Ann. §4-21-601). Criminal or arrest history is not listed as a protected category, and Tennessee has no consumer-reporting statute that limits how far back a landlord may consider criminal records in a housing decision. This means Tennessee generally offers thinner criminal-history protections than states with dedicated fair-chance housing laws.

Source of income (including housing vouchers) is not included among the protected categories in the Tennessee Human Rights Act's housing section. Tennessee also does not appear to have a local ordinance layering this protection on top of state law: in URLTA counties, §66-28-102(e) states the chapter "occupies and preempts the entire field of legislation concerning the regulation of landlords and tenants," which would generally block a city or county from adding its own source-of-income protection on top of state law.

Federal FCRA's disclosure, authorization, and adverse-action requirements (see 15 U.S.C. §1681 et seq.) are the baseline. Tennessee has no statute that adds to FCRA's adverse-action notice requirements for tenant screening specifically.

Where the URLTA applies (counties over 75,000 population), Tenn. Code Ann. §66-28-301 requires landlords to hold security deposits in a dedicated bank account and sets out a tenant's right to a move-out inspection. The statute does not set a dollar cap on deposit amounts. Rather than a flat "return within X days" deadline, the statute requires the landlord to notify the tenant of any refund due, and if the tenant doesn't respond within 60 days of that notice, the landlord may retain the funds; separately, a landlord may recover additional damages discovered within 30 days of the tenant vacating (or 7 days after a new tenant takes possession). Outside URLTA counties, this chapter does not apply, so the lease terms and general contract law control instead.

Tennessee bans local rent control statewide: Tenn. Code Ann. §66-35-102 prohibits local governments from enacting ordinances that control rent on private residential or commercial property (with a narrow carve-out for purely voluntary affordable-housing incentive programs). Tennessee does not have a statewide just-cause eviction requirement. In URLTA counties, a landlord generally must give a tenant a written notice of breach and, for remediable breaches, a 14-day opportunity to cure before terminating, under §66-28-505 — unless the tenant has waived notice in bold 12-point-or-larger lease language, in which case a landlord may file a detainer warrant immediately after a rent default.

Because of the URLTA's broad preemption language and the statewide rent-control ban, cities generally have limited room to add their own tenant-screening or landlord-tenant rules. Memphis, Knoxville, and Chattanooga may have fair-chance criminal-history or source-of-income/voucher ordinances; confirm current municipal code before finalizing a screening policy.

Tennessee organizes local government by counties, not townships, and — unlike many states' city/county split — URLTA coverage in Tennessee turns on a county's population (over 75,000 per the 2010 census) rather than on city limits. That means two rental properties in different cities within the same qualifying county are generally subject to the same state landlord-tenant rules, while a similar property in a smaller, non-qualifying county may not be covered by the URLTA at all.

Does Tennessee cap security deposits? The URLTA's security deposit statute does not set a dollar cap. In covered counties, the law instead requires escrow of the deposit and a specific notice-and-response process for refunds, without setting a maximum amount.

Is source of income a protected class in Tennessee? No. The Tennessee Human Rights Act's housing provisions do not list source of income or receipt of a housing voucher as a protected category, and preemption language in the URLTA generally limits local governments from adding that protection.

Does Tennessee limit how far back a landlord can look at criminal history? Tennessee has no statute setting a specific lookback limit for criminal records in tenant screening; FCRA's general framework applies.

Does every Tennessee county have the same landlord-tenant rules? No. The URLTA, which includes the security-deposit and notice provisions discussed above, applies only in counties with a population over 75,000 under the 2010 census.

Checkr can help Tennessee landlords run consistent, FCRA-compliant tenant screening reports as part of a fair, documented rental process. Get started at tenant.checkr.com/signup to set up screening for your next applicant.

The resources and information provided here are for educational and informational purposes only and do not constitute legal advice. Always consult your own counsel for up-to-date legal advice and guidance related to your practices, needs, and compliance with applicable laws.