Out-of-State Landlord Tenant Screening Long Beach 2026

Published: June 21, 2026  |  15 min read

By Miles Williams, Broker/Owner | CA DRE #01968830 | RPM Southland

Updated June 2026 for California Fair Chance Ordinance and AB 2801 compliance

If you own a rental property in Long Beach and you live in Texas, Colorado, or anywhere outside California, tenant screening is the decision that will define your investment for the next two to five years. Get it right and you have a qualified, reliable tenant paying rent on time while your asset appreciates. Get it wrong and you face eviction proceedings, property damage claims, or a Fair Housing complaint filed with the California Civil Rights Department.

I’ve been managing properties in Long Beach since 2014. We currently manage over 730 properties across the South Bay and Southeast LA. The out-of-state owners we work with are some of the most financially serious landlords in our portfolio. They bought their Long Beach properties deliberately, as investments, and they understand the long game. What they often don’t understand when they first contact us is how different California’s tenant screening rules are from what they’re used to in their home states.

This guide covers every layer of Long Beach’s tenant screening framework in 2026: the local Fair Chance Ordinance, California’s source of income protection law, what criteria are actually legal to use, and exactly how our remote screening process works so that you, the owner, never have to set foot in Long Beach to get a qualified tenant in place. Every property owner should look at their property as an asset and not just what’s the fee a property manager is going to cost me. A compliant, well-documented screening process is part of protecting that asset.

Why Tenant Screening in Long Beach Is Different from the Rest of California

Long Beach sits in Los Angeles County and operates under three overlapping layers of tenant protection: federal Fair Housing laws, California state law, and its own local ordinances. The city passed its Just Cause for Eviction Ordinance (Chapter 8.99) covering multi-family buildings built before 1995, its Fair Chance Ordinance restricting criminal background checks, and it falls under California’s Government Code 12955 banning source of income discrimination. For an out-of-state landlord used to a single-layer regulatory environment, this stack can be disorienting.

The practical consequence is this: the screening criteria that are perfectly legal in Arizona, Nevada, or Georgia may expose you to civil liability in Long Beach. Stating in your listing that you don’t accept Section 8 vouchers is a Fair Housing violation in California. Running a criminal background check before you make a conditional offer is a Long Beach Fair Chance Ordinance violation. Setting a written income requirement of “credit score 750+” when your actual standard is lower creates a disparate impact argument. None of these mistakes come from bad intent. They come from out-of-state landlords applying what they know from their home market.

The good news is that the legal framework is workable once you understand it. California allows income verification, credit checks, rental history review, and eviction record searches. You can still screen rigorously. You just have to do it in the right order, with documented, consistently applied criteria, and within the specific rules Long Beach imposes. We manage this process daily across our portfolio, and committing to a property manager is a big, big deal. When done right, it can be one of the best things you’ve ever done for your asset. Here is exactly what that framework looks like: the 3 ordinances you must navigate — Chapter 8.99 Just Cause Eviction, the Long Beach Fair Chance Ordinance (effective January 2022), and California Government Code 12955 on source of income discrimination.

Long Beach Fair Chance Ordinance: What Out-of-State Landlords Must Know

Long Beach enacted its Fair Chance Ordinance in January 2022. It applies to every landlord in the city, including out-of-state owners, and it governs any rental property in Long Beach regardless of the owner’s home state. The ordinance creates a sequential process for how criminal background information can be used in tenant selection.

The Offer-First Requirement

Under the Long Beach Fair Chance Ordinance, a landlord may not inquire about or consider an applicant’s criminal history until after a conditional offer of tenancy has been made. This means your listing cannot state “no felonies” or “criminal background check required.” You cannot ask about criminal history on the application form. You cannot run a background check on an applicant you are still evaluating before making an offer.

Only after you have made a conditional offer based on all other criteria (income, credit, rental history) may you then run a criminal background check. If the background check reveals information that causes you to withdraw the offer, you must follow a specific process before doing so.

The Individualized Assessment Requirement

If you intend to reject or rescind a conditional offer based on criminal history, the Long Beach ordinance requires an “individualized assessment.” You cannot simply have a blanket policy of rejecting anyone with a prior conviction. The individualized assessment must consider four factors:

• The nature and severity of the offense: A decades-old misdemeanor is treated differently from a recent violent felony.
• Time elapsed since conviction or release: Recidivism rates drop sharply with time; the ordinance reflects this.
• Evidence of rehabilitation: Employment history, completion of programs, letters of support.
• Relevance of the offense to the tenancy: A property-crime conviction may be more relevant than a DUI from fifteen years ago.

If you withdraw the conditional offer after the individualized assessment, you must provide the applicant with written notice and a copy of the background report, give them an opportunity to respond or provide additional rehabilitation evidence, and then make a final decision. This is a multi-step process that most out-of-state landlords are not equipped to manage on their own from another state.

Penalties for Violation

Violations of the Long Beach Fair Chance Ordinance carry real financial consequences. A first-offense fine can reach $2,000. Repeat violations can reach $10,000 per incident. Beyond city fines, a rejected applicant can also file a complaint with the California Civil Rights Department, which may lead to additional damages. For out-of-state owners who are not physically present and may not even be aware the inquiry happened, this is a genuine risk.

Source of Income Discrimination: California Government Code 12955

California Government Code Section 12955 prohibits housing discrimination based on source of income. This is a state law that applies throughout California with no local opt-out, meaning Long Beach landlords are fully bound by it. The law has been interpreted broadly to cover a wide range of income sources, and the practical impact on tenant screening is significant for out-of-state owners who may be accustomed to different rules.

What Counts as a Protected Source of Income

Under Section 12955, the following income sources are protected. You cannot refuse to rent to a tenant, fail to process their application, or apply different screening standards to them based solely on how they receive their income:

The Section 8 Voucher Question

The Section 8 question is the one that trips up out-of-state landlords most often. Before 2020, California landlords could legally decline Section 8 applicants. That changed when Governor Newsom signed SB 329, which added Section 8 and all other government assistance programs to the list of protected income sources under FEHA. Today, if a Section 8 voucher holder applies for your Long Beach rental and meets your income qualification threshold (verified against the housing authority’s approved rent), you cannot deny them solely because of the voucher.

This does not mean you must accept every Section 8 applicant. It means you must evaluate them on the same criteria you apply to everyone else: income verification, credit history, rental references, and eviction record. If they meet those criteria and their voucher covers the rent, the source of that income is legally irrelevant. Sending an email, text, or voicemail saying “we don’t accept Section 8” is a FEHA violation regardless of your location outside California.

What You CAN Screen For: Legal Credit, Income, and Rental History Standards

None of the above means you have to accept any applicant who walks through the door. California allows landlords to maintain objective, consistently applied screening criteria. The key words are “objective” and “consistently applied.” Here is what those criteria look like in Long Beach’s 2026 market, with the specific benchmarks most professional property managers use.

The income-to-rent ratio deserves special attention. Setting your requirement at 3x monthly rent is common nationwide but can create a disparate impact argument in high-cost Long Beach submarkets like Belmont Shore or Bixby Knolls, where rents run $2,400 to $3,500 for a two-bedroom. At 3x, you are requiring a household income of $7,200 to $10,500 per month for a standard two-bedroom. That effectively excludes a significant portion of otherwise qualified applicants. Most Long Beach property managers use 2.5x to 2.75x as the baseline, with flexibility for applicants with strong credit, substantial savings, or verifiable asset reserves.

Income Verification by Applicant Type

Income verification for out-of-state owners gets complicated when applicants have non-traditional income sources. The key is to establish your documentation requirements in writing before you list the property, then apply those requirements consistently to every applicant. Requiring two years of tax returns from a self-employed applicant is fine. Requiring them from a W-2 employee doing the same job is inconsistent and creates a discrimination argument. Your written criteria should specify what documentation is required for each income type, set to a consistent threshold (most Long Beach landlords apply 2.5x–3x monthly gross rent), so the standard is both clear and defensible in any Fair Housing review.

What You CANNOT Screen For: Fair Housing Violations to Avoid Remotely

Out-of-state landlords make Fair Housing mistakes not because they intend to discriminate, but because they are applying standards from other states or using screening language that is no longer legal in California. The following are the five most common violations I see when out-of-state owners try to handle their own tenant selection from a distance.

The Remote Screening Process: How RPM Southland Handles It Step by Step

You do not need to be in Long Beach to find a qualified tenant. Our remote screening process handles every step from listing to lease signing without requiring you to travel. Here is exactly how it works for out-of-state owners, and where your role fits in the process.

The entire process from listing to move-in typically takes 15 to 29 days for a well-priced, well-prepared Long Beach rental. Our 29-day tenant placement guarantee covers most standard properties. You receive regular updates through the owner portal and are never out of the loop, even though you are out of state.

AB 2801 and Remote Move-In Documentation: What Out-of-State Landlords Need to Know

California Assembly Bill 2801 took effect July 1, 2024, and it directly affects how Long Beach landlords must document property condition. The law requires landlords to take photographs of the rental unit before a tenant moves in, at the time the tenant moves out, and after any deductions are made from the security deposit. These photographs must be timestamped and retained.

Why AB 2801 Matters More for Out-of-State Owners

Before AB 2801, deposit disputes often came down to a landlord’s word against a tenant’s. The new law creates a documented evidentiary standard. For out-of-state owners who cannot personally inspect the property at move-in or move-out, this matters in two critical ways:

• Pre-move-in photos are now legally required: Without them, you cannot establish a baseline for condition at the start of the tenancy. If a dispute arises at move-out, a tenant can argue that any damage you are claiming was pre-existing. Without compliant AB 2801 photos from move-in, that argument may be uncontestable.
• Remote landlords cannot do this themselves: If you are managing your Long Beach property from out of state without a local property manager, complying with AB 2801 requires either flying in for every move-in or hiring a local representative to handle it. Property managers are already set up for this. It is a standard part of our leasing process.

RPM Southland handles AB 2801 documentation as part of every leasing transaction. Our inspection team photographs the property thoroughly before move-in, creates a timestamped condition report, and stores everything in your owner portal. If a deposit dispute arises at the end of the tenancy, you have the documentation to support your position. Out-of-state owners who try to self-manage and skip this step are exposed to deposit disputes they cannot win, even when the tenant genuinely caused damage.

“Every property owner should look at their property as an asset and not just what’s the fee a property manager is going to cost me.”
Miles Williams, Broker/Owner, RPM Southland

RPM Southland’s Three Guarantees for Out-of-State Owners

For out-of-state landlords, the guarantees we offer matter more than they do for local owners. You are not here to see what is happening. You need a property manager whose commitments are in writing. Here are the three guarantees we provide to every RPM Southland client, including our out-of-state owners.

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