Do not inquire about criminal history
Berkeley Municipal Code § 13.106City law
A housing provider may not inquire about a current or prospective tenant’s criminal history.
Answers the question “What can they check about me?”
The source
… Berkeley City Council passed the Fair Chance Access to Housing Ordinance (BMC 13.106). An overview of the ordinance is available below. Please review the Ordinance for more specific details related to your property or tenancy. It is unlawful to do any of the following with regard to current or prospective tenants Inquire about criminal history Indicate that persons with criminal backgrounds will not be considered for housing, including in rental advertisements, application materials, or verbally Refuse to rent or terminate a tenancy based on criminal history Require disclosure or authorization for release of criminal history Demand a higher security…
- Official law
- Open the official source
- Document
- D003, retrieved Oct 1, 2026
- Dates
- In force
- Status on Oct 1, 2026
- In force
What it depends on
- Covers
- Berkeley rental housing; the summary lists exemptions.
- Exemptions
- Lifetime sex offenders; limited exemptions for public housing/Section 8 properties; qualifying owner-occupied properties; certain units where the owner may move back; existing tenants seeking to sublet or add/replace roommates.
- What you can do next
- Read the law at its official source
Audit trail
The model reads the law; code decides who it covers. The line between them stays visible.
Extracted by the model
What the model read from the source text, checked by code (the quote must appear word for word).
- Category
- Screening
- Requirement
- A housing provider may not inquire about a current or prospective tenant’s criminal history.
- Key value
- none
- Effect
- protection_or_duty
- Quote found in source
- yes
- Confidence
- 90%
reasoning boundary
Decided by code
Deterministic: same rules, facts and date give the same answer.
- Jurisdiction: listed only for addresses whose state or legal city is CA-BERKELEY.
- Dates: no effective date in the text; treated as in force.
- Coverage: tested against the number of units, whether the owner lives in the building; a missing fact gives "unknown", never a guess.
As of Oct 1, 2026Engine run
Sources retrieved Oct 1, 2026.
Which buildings it reaches
All 250 sample addresses in California on Oct 1, 2026.
- 40 applies
- 210 not covered
Every dot is the rule engine’s result for that address. The larger dots are the example addresses listed below. 2 addresses have no coordinates and are counted but not drawn.
Decided by code for the example addresses
On Oct 1, 2026. Rules that don’t apply are left out.
- 1609 Addison St, Berkeley: Applies. Berkeley Municipal Code § 13.106 covers this address: 5 or more units (use code 7700 'Alameda County use code (5+ units)').