A rental application decides who lives in a property for the next year, so this one asks every applicant the same questions and keeps the questions to things a tenancy decision can actually use. Identity, who else will live there, income from any lawful source, three years of tenancy history, references and screening consent — with date of birth left optional and a legal-age confirmation in its place.
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A rental application is one of the highest-stakes forms in property management, and most of the risk in one comes from asking too much rather than too little. The information you collect decides who lives in your property for the next year; it also becomes the record of how you decided, which is exactly what a fair-housing complaint examines. This template is built around questions a tenancy decision can genuinely use — identity, who else will live there, income, tenancy history, references and consent — and it leaves out the ones that create exposure without improving the decision.
The clearest example is date of birth. It used to be required here. It now ships optional, replaced by a checkbox confirming the applicant is of legal age to enter a tenancy, because that is the only age fact a tenancy needs. If you order screening checks at application stage your provider will want a date of birth, so switch the field back to required — but collect it because you use it, not by habit. The occupant questions follow the same logic: a total occupant count is what an occupancy standard is written against, so the form asks for the count and for the names of the adults who will be on the lease, and tells you in the field itself not to add questions about children. Race, religion, national origin, familial status and disability appear nowhere on this form, and the pet field carries a note that an assistance animal is not a pet and does not belong in that question at all.
The employment section was rewritten for the same reason. Employer, job title and length of service were all required in the earlier version, which quietly blocked anyone retired, self-employed or supported by benefits from completing an application at all. Now employment status is required, gross monthly income is required, the employer fields are optional, and a separate field asks for other regular income — pension, benefits, maintenance, a second job — because most fair-housing regimes require lawful income from any source to be counted, and you cannot count what you never asked for. Tenancy history reaches back three years through a previous-address field, and the eviction question ships optional and non-specific, with a warning that several jurisdictions restrict when and whether you may ask it.
formformform handles rental applications without the per-application fees property management software charges: free with unlimited submissions, embeddable on a listing page, with every application landing in your inbox as it arrives. Uploads are supported in the product editor — 2 MB per file, encrypted on encrypted forms — but the template generator can't seed an upload field, so this template collects a link to supporting documents instead and tells you where to add a real Upload field if you want one. Rental law varies enormously by state, province and country; treat this template as a starting structure to review with a local attorney, not as a compliant document.
Use your own copy to change labels, remove questions and add the details you need. Try the preview alongside this guide to see what respondents will be asked.
Review the starting questions and choices. You can change them in your own copy.
Jane Smith
you@email.com
(555) 123-4567
123 Main St, Apt 4B
2
Name and relationship to you — one per line
Type, breed, weight and age
Street, city, state, ZIP
e.g. 2 years 3 months
1200
Landlord or property manager
(555) 123-4567
Address, dates, landlord name and phone
e.g. 4 years
(555) 123-4567
5000
e.g. a second job, pension, benefits, maintenance, investment income
https://
Suggested uses, and why this starting point can help. Adapt the questions to your own process.
Use this as a starting point when you need the same essential information from each person. Review the questions against your process before sharing your copy. Review “Legal Age to Rent” in particular and adapt it to the detail you need.
Replace scattered requests with a consistent starting point. The answers help you understand the work, identify gaps and prepare a follow-up. Review “Date of Birth” in particular and adapt it to the detail you need.
Use this as a starting point when you need the same essential information from each person. Review the questions against your process before sharing your copy. Review “Desired Move-In Date” in particular and adapt it to the detail you need.
Use this as a starting point when you need the same essential information from each person. Review the questions against your process before sharing your copy. Review “Lease Length You're Looking For” in particular and adapt it to the detail you need.
Applicants with limited income and no tenancy history, where the guarantor question does most of the work and each housemate applies separately.
Use this as a starting point when you need the same essential information from each person. Review the questions against your process before sharing your copy. Review “Everyone Aged 18 or Over Who Will Live Here” in particular and adapt it to the detail you need.
A departing tenant vetting a replacement to put forward to the landlord, using the same questions the landlord would ask.
Click "Use this template" to add the rental application to your free formformform account.
Put the property name or address in the heading, and write your screening criteria — income multiple, tenancy history window, what a decision takes and how long it takes — somewhere applicants can read them before they apply.
Set your currency in the income field labels, and decide whether date of birth should be required for your screening provider; it ships optional with a legal-age checkbox in its place.
Review the eviction-history question against your local rules and delete it if your jurisdiction restricts it — several do, and some restrict when in the process it can be asked at all.
Have the background check consent wording checked locally; authorisation language varies by state and country and is the field most likely to be wrong out of the box.
Add an Upload field in the editor if you want pay stubs and ID as files rather than the link field the template ships with, and turn on end-to-end encryption for the form while you're there.
Duplicate the form per property, or add a field naming the unit, so applications arrive already sorted by listing.
Set notifications to your inbox and reply to every applicant, including the ones you turn down — a consistent process is only consistent if the last step happens too.
Ask every applicant the same questions and assess them against written criteria. Inconsistent screening is the single largest source of fair-housing liability, and a form is the easiest place to make consistency automatic.
beyond confirming legal adulthood — age have no place on a rental application. This template leaves them out; leave them out of your edits too.
Count lawful income from any source. A pension, benefits, maintenance or freelance income are income. The "other regular income" field exists because an applicant whose earnings are mostly non-wage gets scored wrongly when you only ask about a salary.
Handle assistance animals separately from pets. An assistance or service animal is not a pet, usually cannot be refused or charged a pet fee, and belongs in your reasonable-accommodation process rather than the pet field.
Give each adult their own application. A co-applicant assessed from someone else's submission has never answered your questions, and their consent to a check has never been given.
and an applicant who owns their home or lives with family has no landlord to name.
Verify income rather than trusting the number. Ask for documents once an application looks promising; the form starts the conversation, it doesn't finish it.
decide how long you keep it, say so on the form, and delete it when that time is up.
Collect only what you'll use. Every extra field is data you now have to protect and a question an applicant can reasonably ask why you needed.
Respond promptly. Good tenants apply to several properties; the landlord who replies within a day often wins, and slow replies fall hardest on applicants who can least afford to hold two options open.
A private landlord letting one house, using the occupant and income sections without the co-applicant complexity of a shared tenancy.
A leasing office running the same form across every unit, with the property field naming the apartment so applications sort themselves.
Applicants with limited income and no tenancy history, where the guarantor question does most of the work and each housemate applies separately.
One application per adult in a shared tenancy, with the adult-occupants field naming everyone who will be on the lease.
A unit owner letting through an association, collecting the same screening detail an HOA will expect to see documented.
A one- or two-unit landlord replacing a paper application and a subscription with a free form and a written set of criteria.
An agent taking applications for several owners' properties, with consistent questions across every listing on the books.
Shorter tenancies where the lease-length dropdown and the move-in date do more work than tenancy history.
A departing tenant vetting a replacement to put forward to the landlord, using the same questions the landlord would ask.
Properties that accept animals, using the pet detail field while keeping assistance-animal requests in the accommodation process where they belong.
Freelance and contract applicants, where employment status, the accountant's phone number and other regular income carry the assessment.
A co-op assessing applicants against published criteria, with the assessment-and-retention acknowledgement making the process visible.
Yes. Unlimited applications, no per-application fee, no trial period and no credit card required. That's the main practical difference from property management software, which typically charges per application or per unit.
Not on the template as generated, but yes in the product. formformform's editor has a File Upload field — 2 MB per file, encrypted on encrypted forms — it simply isn't part of the template generator's field set, so this template collects a link to a document folder instead. Clone the template and add an Upload field from the editor palette if you'd rather receive the files themselves, and turn on end-to-end encryption for the form before you do.
Because most landlords don't use it. A tenancy needs to know an applicant is of legal age, which the checkbox above it confirms; a full date of birth is only genuinely needed when you order a screening check at application stage. Age is a protected characteristic in most fair-housing regimes, so the field ships optional and you turn it back on if your screening provider requires it.
Anything that reveals a protected characteristic — race, colour, religion, national origin, sex, familial status, disability, and age beyond confirming legal adulthood. That includes indirect versions: asking how many children will live in the unit, asking about a disability behind a request for an assistance animal, or asking where someone was born. This template asks for a total occupant count and the names of adult occupants precisely so you never have to ask about children, and protected characteristics appear nowhere on it. Specific rules vary by jurisdiction, so check yours.
The form captures the applicant's authorisation; the check itself runs through a screening service such as TransUnion SmartMove, Experian RentBureau or RentPrep. Use the consent on this form as your written authorisation, and have the wording reviewed locally — authorisation language is set by law and varies by state and country.
Carefully, if at all. The question ships optional and non-specific for a reason: a number of jurisdictions restrict eviction and criminal-history questions, some prohibit them before a conditional offer, and some bar them outright. Check your local rules, and delete the field where it isn't allowed rather than leaving it on the form.
Each adult applicant should submit their own copy of this form, so everyone answers for themselves and gives their own screening consent. A guarantor is a different respondent again — they take on liability without living at the property — so send them formformform's Rental Guarantor Application Form rather than adding them to this one.
Yes. Duplicate the template per property so each copy carries the right address, rent and criteria, or keep one form and add a field naming the unit so applications arrive sorted by listing.
It's a structure, not a compliant document. Rental application law varies by state, province and country — particularly the consent language, eviction-history questions and what you may ask about occupants. Review your version with a local real estate attorney before you use it, especially the consent section.
Every form is hosted in the EU with TLS in transit and AES-256 encryption at rest, and only your account can read the submissions. You can also turn on optional end-to-end encryption for your own copy, which seals each answer in the applicant's browser to your key before it's stored. Beyond the technology: decide a retention period for applications you turn down, say so on the form, and actually delete them.
For the guarantor: identity, income, existing guarantees and a plain declaration.
Capture buyer and seller leads with property type, budget, and timeline.
Document unit condition at move-in to protect both tenant and landlord from deposit disputes.
Let tenants express renewal intent and preferred lease length before their current lease expires.
Let property owners inquire about management services with key details upfront.
Qualify commercial tenants with space type, square footage, lease term, and move-in date.
Capture buyer preferences, budget, and timeline to match clients with the right properties.
Give tenants a clear channel to report issues, with urgency levels and detailed tracking.
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