This is the payer moment before any lease exists for you: an application or screening fee has been paid (or is about to be), a holding deposit may be sitting with the landlord, and the full lease has not been shown or signed. This segment sells reading the application-stage papers, not legal protection. A plain-English review of the application, the screening-criteria sheet, the holding-deposit agreement or receipt, and any fee schedule: whether written criteria were provided before the fee was collected, the fee arithmetic totalled, refund and credit-report flags as questions, and what event forfeits the holding deposit. Send the application-stage papers together — one without the others cannot be checked — and say plainly if a paper was never given to you.
The pack checklist for an application-stage / pre-lease review, in order. The papers are the application, the screening-criteria sheet, the holding-deposit agreement or receipt, and any fee schedule — not a lease, because there is no lease yet.
Check whether written screening criteria were provided BEFORE the fee was collected, and what thresholds they state — income, credit, rental-history or other thresholds exactly as written. Criteria handed over only after payment, or never provided, is flagged as a question — never as a ruling that criteria were applied lawfully or unlawfully.
Total what was charged, what each charge was said to cover, and who was charged — per applicant, per adult, or per household, as written. The review totals figures only: it never declares a charge illegal. Where a cap question arises, the wording is “CPI-adjusted cap under §1950.6 — verify the current figure,” because sources disagree on the exact figure.
Check whether any portion of the fee looks unused or unrun — for example a screening charge where no screening appears to have been run. Secondary sources summarising California law describe first-qualified-applicant processing and refunds for unselected applicants within stated windows, presented here as question shapes only. Whether a refund is owed to you is never determined here.
Check what the papers say about a copy of the credit report: secondary sources summarising California law describe a copy of the credit report within 7 days, presented as a question shape only. Note what was promised, what was delivered, and the dates — delivery timing is a paper fact, not a legal conclusion.
Read the holding-deposit agreement or receipt for three things: the amount, what event forfeits it (backing out, failing a stated condition, missing a stated deadline), and what deadline applies to decide or to sign. A forfeiture event or deadline that appears nowhere in writing is flagged as a question to confirm in writing before paying anything further.
Check whether the lease you will be asked to sign has actually been shown yet, and which papers you hold are missing — no criteria sheet, no holding-deposit terms in writing, no fee schedule. Money held against a lease you have never seen is the core fact of this segment, stated plainly, with no conclusion drawn from it here.
This example is a clearly labelled hypothetical, with invented figures and dates. It shows how pre-lease money is totalled from the papers — it is not a real applicant’s papers, and it proves nothing about any real application, fee, or holding deposit:
Treat each point below as a “check whether…” question, never as a conclusion about papers you have not read in full:
Check whether written screening criteria were provided before the fee was collected and check whether the thresholds stated match what you were told verbally — as questions to confirm, never as a ruling on how criteria were applied.
Check whether any portion of the fee was for a screening that does not appear to have been run, and check whether the papers state a refund window for unselected applicants — flagged as a question for a local tenant attorney, legal aid, or housing agency, never determined here.
Check whether a copy of the credit report was provided, and on what date relative to the fee — secondary sources describe delivery within 7 days as a question shape only, with the current rule to verify for your location.
Check whether the forfeiture event and the decision deadline are written in the papers you hold, and check whether you have been shown the lease those papers hold a home under — both flagged as questions to confirm in writing before paying anything further.
Copy these into an email or portal message so the answers are in writing. Calm and factual — no threats, no demand-letter language. Ask before paying anything further, in your own name.
Send us the application, the screening-criteria sheet, the holding-deposit agreement or receipt, and any fee schedule together — get criteria timing flagged, the fee arithmetic totalled, refund and credit-report items framed as questions, and holding-deposit forfeiture terms surfaced in plain numbers for $9. No legality determination, no outcome or refund promise, no refund demand drafted for sending, no demand letter, no negotiation, and no filing service.
LeaseLens is not a law firm and this is not legal advice. Reports are plain-English risk flags from a concierge review, not a legal ruling on your application, your fee, or whether a refund is owed.
Start a review →No. LeaseLens never determines whether a specific fee violated a cap, whether a refund is legally owed, or whether screening criteria were applied lawfully. Sources disagree on the exact CPI-adjusted cap figure, so no exact figure is stated as settled here — verify the current figure, and take legal questions to a local tenant attorney, legal aid, or housing agency promptly.
Send the application, the screening-criteria sheet, the holding-deposit agreement or receipt, and any fee schedule together, and say plainly if any paper was never given to you. One paper without the others cannot be checked.
Yes — that is exactly this segment. The review works from the application-stage documents, not a lease, and whether the lease has actually been shown yet is itself one of the items checked.