Q: The tenant who has occupied the small rental home that I own recently moved out, so I started taking applications for a new tenant. I chose the applicant with the best credit score and signed a lease with her last week, but now one of the applicants whom I rejected based on his lousy credit history is threatening to sue me for violating the federal Fair Housing Act. The rejected applicant claims that I wouldn’t rent to him because he is Asian and I am white. What should I do now?

A: Your letter states that you chose your new tenant because she had “the best credit score” of all the applicants for your rental, so it’s doubtful that the applicant who is threatening to sue you for allegedly violating federal fair housing laws would win his case if he foolishly tries to take you to court.

The Fair Housing Act prohibits property owners from refusing to rent their property or sell their home to someone else based on race, color, religion, gender, disability, familial status or national origin. It also bans discrimination against prospects simply because they may receive welfare or other types of government aid.

You chose to sign a lease with the applicant who had the best credit score, so you did not violate fair housing law.

Ridiculous as it may be, however, the fact that you wisely checked all of your applicants’ credit scores has made you subject to the provisions of another federal law – the Fair Credit Reporting Act.

The FCRA allows you to refuse to rent to people based on their poor credit rating. However, if you do, you must also inform them that their lousy credit report was the reason why their application was rejected.

You should simultaneously notify them that they have 60 days to obtain a copy of their report from the bureau that you used to check their credit, and provide them with the bureau’s name, address and phone number.

Put all of this in writing and send it by certified mail so they can’t later claim that they were never informed about their rights under the FCRA.