Fair Housing Screening Compliance · Tentunit Help Center

Version 1.0 (Draft — pending legal review) · Effective Date: July 11, 2026 · Applies to: Tentunit Business

This is a binding policy and forms part of your agreement with Tentunit.

1. Overview & Zero-Tolerance Commitment

Housing discrimination is illegal, and Tentunit has zero tolerance for it on our platform. This policy sets out the fair housing and tenant screening obligations that apply to every Customer using Tentunit Business, and what happens when they are violated.

1.1 Scope & Binding Effect

This Fair Housing & Screening Compliance Statement forms part of your agreement with Tentunit, Inc. under the Platform Terms of Service and applies to all use of Tentunit Business, including listings, tenant communications, templates, automations, and AI-assisted features, as well as any tenant screening you conduct outside the platform in connection with properties managed through the Service. Capitalized terms not defined here have the meanings given in the Platform Terms of Service. This policy supplements, and does not replace, your independent legal obligations under fair housing and consumer protection laws.

1.2 Protected Classes

The federal Fair Housing Act (“FHA”) prohibits discrimination in housing on the basis of:

Race
Color
Religion
Sex, which the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (“HUD”) interprets to include gender identity and sexual orientation
Disability
Familial status (including families with children under 18 and pregnant persons)
National origin

Many states and localities protect additional classes, such as source of income (including housing vouchers), age, marital status, military or veteran status, immigration or citizenship status, and student status. You are responsible for knowing and complying with every protected class recognized in the jurisdictions where your properties are located, not only the federal list.

1.3 Zero Tolerance

Tentunit maintains a zero-tolerance policy toward discriminatory conduct on the platform. You must not use Tentunit Business to advertise, screen, select, price, evict, or otherwise treat any applicant or tenant differently on the basis of a protected class. Violations may result in enforcement up to permanent termination under Section 6, regardless of your subscription tier or payment history.

1.4 Your Independent Obligations

Compliance with this policy does not by itself make you compliant with the law, and nothing in this policy is legal advice. Fair housing law applies to you directly as a housing provider. You should consult a licensed attorney regarding your obligations, including whether any narrow statutory exemptions apply to your situation; even where an exemption exists, discriminatory advertising generally remains prohibited, and this policy applies to all use of the platform in any event.

2. Advertising & Listings

What you say in a listing matters as much as how you select tenants. This section governs the content of listings, advertisements, and marketing created or distributed through Tentunit Business.

2.1 No Discriminatory Language or Preferences

Listings and advertisements must not state or imply a preference, limitation, or discrimination based on any protected class. This includes obvious statements (“no children,” “Christians only”) and coded or indirect language that a reasonable person would understand as expressing a preference (for example, describing the “ideal tenant” by reference to protected characteristics, or advertising a unit as suitable only for a particular type of household). Describe the property, not the person you want in it.

2.2 AI-Drafted Listings Require Human Review

Tentunit Business includes AI-assisted drafting features. AI outputs are assistive drafts only and require human review before use. Before publishing any AI-drafted listing, notice, or marketing text, you must review it for FHA compliance and remove any language expressing or implying a protected-class preference. You remain fully responsible for content you publish, whether drafted by you, your staff, or an AI feature, as further described in the AI Features Addendum, if applicable.

2.3 Steering Prohibited

You must not use the platform to steer applicants toward or away from particular properties, units, buildings, or neighborhoods based on a protected class — for example, showing families with children only ground-floor units, or directing applicants of a particular national origin to certain buildings. Availability information must be provided accurately and consistently to all applicants.

2.4 Consistent Terms & Conditions

Rents, deposits, fees, application requirements, and lease terms offered through the platform must be applied consistently. Charging different amounts, imposing different requirements, or offering different amenities based on a protected class is prohibited, including where implemented through platform automations or pricing tools.

3. Tenant Screening & FCRA

Tentunit does not currently offer tenant screening, background-check, or consumer-report features, and does not integrate with any consumer reporting agency (“CRA”). If you conduct screening outside the platform, you are solely responsible for FCRA compliance (permissible purpose, consent, adverse-action notices) and fair-housing compliance. This section summarizes the core Fair Credit Reporting Act (“FCRA”) duties you must satisfy in your own off-platform screening.

You may obtain a consumer report (including credit, eviction, or criminal-background reports) on an applicant only for a permissible purpose under the FCRA — here, evaluating a rental application — and only after obtaining the applicant’s consent. You must obtain written (including electronic) authorization from the applicant before ordering a report, and you must certify your permissible purpose to the CRA where required. You must not order reports on individuals who have not applied, and you must not reuse reports for unrelated purposes.

3.2 Adverse Action Notices

If you take adverse action based in whole or in part on a consumer report — including denying an application, requiring a higher deposit, requiring a co-signer, or offering less favorable terms — you must provide the applicant an adverse action notice that includes: the name, address, and telephone number of the CRA that furnished the report; a statement that the CRA did not make the decision and cannot explain why it was made; and notice of the applicant’s right to obtain a free copy of the report from the CRA within the statutory window and to dispute the accuracy or completeness of any information in it.

3.3 Dispute Rights & Accuracy

You must not obstruct an applicant’s exercise of dispute rights and should hold the unit decision open for a reasonable period where a dispute is pending, where practicable. If you furnish information about tenants to CRAs (for example, rent payment reporting), you must ensure its accuracy and respond to disputes as the FCRA requires.

3.4 Disparate Impact & Blanket Bans

A screening criterion that is neutral on its face can still violate fair housing law if it disproportionately excludes members of a protected class without a legally sufficient justification. HUD has issued guidance cautioning that blanket bans on applicants with any criminal history are unlikely to be defensible; criminal-history screening should consider the nature and severity of the conduct, how long ago it occurred, and its relevance to tenancy, and arrest records alone are not a proper basis for denial. Similar disparate-impact caution applies to rigid, inflexible credit-score cutoffs and blanket eviction-record bans. You are responsible for ensuring your screening criteria are justified, documented, and applied consistently, and for following current HUD and state guidance.

4. Algorithmic & AI Screening Cautions

Tentunit does not offer any screening feature, and the platform’s AI Features must not be used to build screening criteria or to evaluate applicants. Automated tools can scale discrimination as easily as they scale efficiency. This section imposes additional requirements when algorithms, scoring models, or automated tools play any role in your own off-platform tenant evaluation.

4.1 No Protected-Class Proxies

You must not use, and must not configure any third-party tool to use, protected characteristics or close proxies for them as screening inputs, and you must not use platform AI Features to build or apply screening criteria. Proxies include variables that strongly correlate with protected classes — for example, using an applicant’s name, neighborhood of origin, or receipt of public assistance as a scoring factor where doing so functions as a stand-in for race, national origin, familial status, or source of income.

4.2 Human Review of Adverse Decisions

No adverse decision about an applicant or tenant may be made solely by an automated tool. A human with appropriate authority must review any algorithm-assisted recommendation to deny, condition, or disadvantage an applicant before the decision is communicated, consistent with the platform-wide principle that AI outputs are assistive drafts requiring human review.

4.3 Documentation of Criteria

You must document your screening criteria — including any thresholds, scoring factors, and override procedures — before applying them, apply them consistently across applicants for the same unit type, and retain records of the criteria in effect at the time of each decision sufficient to demonstrate consistent, non-discriminatory application.

4.4 Third-Party Tools

If you use third-party screening or scoring tools outside the platform, you are responsible for those tools’ compliance with this policy, the FCRA, and fair housing law, and for validating with the vendor that their models are tested for disparate impact. The platform does not offer CRA or screening-tool integrations.

5. Reasonable Accommodations & Modifications

Disability discrimination includes refusing reasonable changes to rules or premises. This section summarizes your duties and how they interact with platform features such as pet policies and fee automations.

5.1 Reasonable Accommodations

You must consider, and grant unless legally excusable, reasonable accommodation requests — changes to rules, policies, practices, or services necessary to afford a person with a disability equal opportunity to use and enjoy a dwelling. Examples include reserved accessible parking, rent due-date adjustments tied to benefit payment schedules, or permitting a live-in aide. Requests need not use any magic words and may be made at any time, including through platform messaging; you should respond promptly and engage in a good-faith interactive dialogue.

5.2 Reasonable Modifications

You must permit reasonable modifications — physical changes to the premises, such as grab bars or ramps — where necessary for a person with a disability, under the conditions fair housing law allows regarding cost responsibility and restoration.

5.3 Assistance Animals vs. Pet Policies

Assistance animals (including service animals and emotional support animals) are not pets under fair housing law. A “no pets” policy, breed or weight restriction, pet deposit, pet fee, or pet rent configured in Tentunit Business must not be applied to an approved assistance animal. If you use platform automations that assess pet fees or pet rent, you are responsible for exempting assistance animals from those charges. You may request reliable documentation of a disability-related need only where the disability or need is not apparent, within the limits of HUD guidance, and you may deny a specific animal only on lawful individualized grounds such as a direct threat that cannot be mitigated.

6. Reporting & Enforcement

Fair housing compliance on the platform depends on reporting and consistent enforcement. This section explains how to report suspected violations and what Tentunit will do.

6.1 Reporting Violations

Anyone — tenants, applicants, Customers, or Tentunit personnel — may report suspected discriminatory conduct on the platform to [email protected] or [email protected]. Reports should include the listing, message, or conduct at issue and any supporting materials. Tentunit will review reports promptly and may request additional information. We do not retaliate, and Customers must not retaliate, against anyone for making a good-faith report or exercising fair housing rights.

6.2 Enforcement Ladder

Violations of this policy are enforced under the graduated framework in the Platform Terms of Service: warning → content removal → temporary suspension → permanent termination. Tentunit may skip steps and proceed directly to suspension or termination for serious, repeated, or bad-faith violations, including overt discriminatory statements or retaliation against complainants. Enforcement decisions may be appealed within 14 calendar days to [email protected].

6.3 Cooperation with Authorities

Tentunit cooperates with lawful investigations by HUD, the Department of Justice, and state and local fair housing and civil rights agencies, and may preserve and disclose records (including listings, messages, screening configurations, and audit logs) in response to lawful process, consistent with the Privacy Policy and the Audit & Record Retention Policy.

6.4 Customer Responsibility & Indemnity

You are solely responsible for your compliance with fair housing, FCRA, and related laws. Claims arising from your discriminatory conduct or screening practices fall within your indemnification obligations under the Platform Terms of Service, which governs the scope and procedure of that indemnity. Nothing in this policy transfers your legal duties as a housing provider to Tentunit.