Can You Limit the Number of Occupants in a Rental Unit?

Yes. You can cap the number of people who live in a unit, and you must keep the household at or below any limit in your state or local housing code. For fair housing purposes, HUD treats a policy of two people per bedroom as reasonable as a general rule, but it weighs bedroom size, the unit's layout, the ages of any children, and building systems, so a cap stricter than those facts support can be discrimination against families with children.

Which limits apply to your unit?

Two limits stack. The government limit is the legal maximum for the space, and it applies whatever your lease says. Your own policy can be lower, but it has to be reasonable. The federal Fair Housing Act says it does not override reasonable local, state, or federal restrictions on the maximum number of occupants. HUD treats conformity with state or local occupancy requirements as evidence of reasonableness, not a guarantee of compliance with the Act.

Codes measure capacity in different ways. Four examples:

Texas allows more than three adults per bedroom only when a fair housing law requires it, or for up to one month when the extra adult is seeking shelter from family violence. A neighbor within 3,000 feet, or a civic group acting for one, can sue a Texas landlord who exceeds the cap and recover $500 per violation plus attorney's fees.

Baltimore's code follows the International Property Maintenance Code, a model code that many cities adopt with local changes. Your city or county code enforcement office can tell you which version applies to your property.

How does HUD judge a landlord's occupancy policy?

HUD uses the Keating Memorandum, a 1991 memo from its General Counsel. In 1998 Congress directed HUD to adopt the memo's standards unchanged as its policy for familial status cases, and HUD published it in the Federal Register that December. The memo says two persons per bedroom is reasonable as a general rule, and that this presumption can be rebutted with facts about the specific unit:

• Bedroom and unit size. Refusing a family of five a two-bedroom apartment with large bedrooms may support a charge; refusing them a small two-bedroom mobile home may not. A very small second bedroom can justify a lower limit, such as two people in a two-bedroom mobile home.
• Children's ages. Turning away two parents and an infant from a large one-bedroom may support a charge; two parents and a teenager is less likely to.
• Layout. A two-bedroom unit with a den or study can reasonably hold more people than one without.
• Building systems. You can point to the capacity of a septic, sewer, or other building system.
• State and local law. A policy that matches the government occupancy code is a strong sign of reasonableness.
• Pretext. Discriminatory statements, rules that keep children out of common areas, past "adults only" marketing, or enforcing the limit only against families point toward discrimination.

The memo also says a policy that limits the number of children per unit is less likely to be reasonable than one that limits total people.

The Keating standards remain in place in 2026. HUD withdrew 21 fair housing guidance documents in two notices published in April and July 2026, and neither list includes the occupancy standards.

When does a limit become familial-status discrimination?

Familial status protects households with children under 18. An occupancy limit crosses the line when it keeps out families that the space could reasonably hold. California's official tenant guide puts it in practical terms: you can set reasonable standards, but you cannot use overcrowding as a pretext to refuse tenants with children if you would rent the same unit to the same number of adults. The guide also cites a landlord-law treatise saying a policy stricter than two per bedroom plus one more person is suspect.

Common problem policies:

• A flat two-per-bedroom rule applied to a unit with large bedrooms or a den.
• Counting infants the same as adults when the unit has room.
• A separate cap on children, such as "no more than one child per bedroom."
• Pushing a tenant out after a birth. New York City's code allows the household to exceed the limit for one year after a child is born or turns 4.

Two federal exemptions can apply. Housing that qualifies as housing for older persons, such as a 55-and-older community, is not covered by the familial status rules. The Act's main rental rules also do not cover a unit in a building of up to four units where you live in one, or a single-family house rented without a broker by an owner of no more than three houses, though the ban on discriminatory advertising still applies and state law may still cover you. The full list of protected classes is in what counts as unlawful discrimination in a rental application.

How do you set an occupancy policy that holds up?

1. Get your code limit. Ask your local code enforcement office for its occupancy standard and measure each bedroom and living area.
2. Start at two per bedroom and adjust up. Allow more where bedrooms are large, where there is a den or study, or where the extra person is an infant.
3. Count people, not children. State the limit as a total number of occupants and apply it to adult-only households the same way.
4. Put it in writing. Include the policy in your screening criteria and your lease, and apply it consistently to every applicant and renewal, as part of the standards in the qualities that make a good tenant. Make required reasonable accommodations for disabilities, which may include allowing a necessary live-in aide despite your usual cap.
5. Require approval for added adults. Your lease can require tenants to name every occupant and get approval before another adult moves in, within the limits of state roommate laws; see who the tenancy agreement covers besides the tenant. Added occupants can owe you rent without signing the existing lease if they enter an enforceable oral rental agreement with you, as explained in whether occupants are responsible for paying rent.
6. Record the reason for any denial in terms of the written standard and the unit's measurements.