Tenant Rights

Quick links every tenant should know

• HUD Discrimination Complaint Hotline: 1-800-669-9777 (TTY 1-800-927-9275). File online: hud.gov/online-complaint.
• Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (consumer-report disputes): consumerfinance.gov/complaint.
• Your state attorney general handles state-law landlord-tenant complaints, fair-housing claims, and consumer-protection complaints. See your state below for a direct link.
• Legal aid (free help for low-income tenants): lsc.gov/get-legal-help.

Federal protections — apply everywhere

• Fair Housing Act (42 U.S.C. § 3601) — landlords may not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, sex (including gender identity and sexual orientation), familial status, or disability.
• Americans with Disabilities Act + Fair Housing Act § 3604(f) — you have a right to a reasonable accommodation (a change to a rule or service) or a reasonable modification (a physical change to your unit) needed because of a disability. Submit accommodation requests in writing; medical documentation is not required for obvious disabilities.
• Fair Credit Reporting Act (15 U.S.C. § 1681) — you must receive an adverse-action notice if you were denied based wholly or partly on a consumer report, with the consumer reporting agency's contact information. You have a right to dispute inaccurate information.
• Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (50 U.S.C. § 3901) — active-duty servicemembers have rights to terminate leases without penalty on receipt of permanent-change-of-station or deployment orders.
• Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) housing protections — victims of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking have rights against eviction based on the violence and rights to emergency lease termination.

If you applied to rent and were denied

1. You should have received an adverse-action notice within a reasonable time (in CA, WA, WI, and NY this often includes a 5-day window before the final denial).
2. The notice must name each consumer reporting agency whose data was used. You can request a free copy of the report from each agency within 60 days.
3. If the report has an error, dispute it directly with the agency that supplied it. Lotly is a reseller and will forward disputes to the originating agency within 5 business days as required by FCRA § 1681i(f).
4. If you believe the denial violated fair-housing law (e.g., a blanket criminal-history rule, source-of-income discrimination), file a complaint with HUD (federal) and your state housing agency.

Have an adverse-action notice from Lotly or RentalApplication.ai and want to dispute the underlying data? Visit lotly.ai/disputes with the case code from the notice.

Find your state

Each state has its own landlord-tenant statute on top of the federal protections above. The state guides cover security-deposit timelines, notice periods, eviction process, late-fee rules, habitability, and where to file a complaint.

If you're in immediate distress

• Domestic violence: National DV Hotline 1-800-799-7233.
• Lockout / illegal eviction: contact your local police non-emergency line and your state AG's tenant hotline.
• Habitability emergency (no heat in winter, no running water, sewage backup): contact your city's housing/health code-enforcement office.

This page is informational. It is not legal advice. Lotly does not represent tenants. For legal advice consult a licensed attorney in your state.