When renting, landlords consider things like debt-to-income ratio, financial assets, credit history and previous landlords' experiences with the tenant.They also check to see if the tenant "had history of harassing other tenants, demanding frivolous repairs or keeping a pet in violation of the lease". However, they cannot reject a tenant based on race, gender, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, familial status (to view the complete list go to NYC Commission on Human Rights). Usually landlords are not required to provide reasons for rejecting a tenant but if the rejection occurred because of credit report information, landlords must provide the decision in writing along with the information used to reach that decision.
