Minneapolis, MN, amends rental property owner registration ordinance, restricting screening process

Minneapolis, MN: City Council has approved an amendment to its rental property owner registration ordinance, creating further limitations to how a property owner may apply screening process to potential renters.
 

Among the new requirements renters may no longer be evaluated on are:
 - Conviction for a crime no longer illegal, an arrest without conviction, or case that is inactive.
 - A misdemeanor older than 3 years; a felony older than 7 years (except in cases of manufacture and distribution of controlled substances, and life-time sex offender registration); or a felony older than 10 years if it was for 1st degree assault or arson, aggravated robbery, 2nd or 3rd degree murder, 1st degree manslaughter, 1st degree criminal sexual misconduct, or kidnapping.
 - Insufficient credit history, low credit score, or insufficient renting history, alone.
 - Eviction if dismissed or a judgement for the applicant before the current application submission.
 - Eviction if no judgement or writ of recovery was entered 1 or more years old before current application.
 - Eviction with judgement against the applicant 3 or more years old before current application.


If a landlord would use any individualized assessments outside those listed in the ordinance which could be considered more prohibitive than those listed, the landlord must consider any and all supplemental evidence provided or found, while accounting for the severity, duration, time since, and age at time of such evidence, when assessing if a denial can be levied.


If a denial is levied, the landlord must provide written notification reasonably explaining reasons for the denial within 14 days of rejecting an application, and the landlord must keep all such information on file for at least 2 years following should the information be requested by regulatory services.


Before accepting an application, a landlord must make readily available to all applicants the list of rental screening criteria to be applied, in as much detail as feasible.


Failure to adhere to the amendments, or the rest of the Minnesota Housing and Maintenance Code, may result in non-renewal or suspension of the rental property owner’s licensing to rent.
 

The amendments become effective Jun. 1, 2020, except for property owners with 15 dwelling units or fewer; wherein for the owners with the 15 or fewer, the amendments become effective Dec. 1, 2020.

 

 

 

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