Three years covers most of the paper a landlord produces. The exceptions are where people get hurt: the building’s own records, which outlive the tenants by decades, and the screening files, which you have to keep long enough to defend a decision and then destroy the right way.
This guide sticks to federal rules. Leases and deposits also run on state clocks, and those vary too much to summarize here.
The short version
| Record | Keep it at least | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Receipts, invoices, bank statements behind a return | 3 years after filing | IRS period of limitations |
| The same, if you left out more than 25% of gross income | 6 years | IRS |
| Records behind a bad debt deduction | 7 years | IRS |
| Payroll records for a resident manager or other employee | 4 years after the tax is due or paid, whichever is later | IRS |
| Purchase, improvement, and depreciation records | Until the limitations period ends for the year you sell | IRS |
| Applicant files and screening decisions | 2 years after the decision, longer if a complaint is filed | Practice, based on Fair Housing Act filing deadlines |
| Leases, deposit records, condition reports | As long as a tenant could sue under your state’s law | Practice, based on your state’s deadlines to sue |
The IRS rows are legal minimums. The applicant and lease rows are practice, sized to how long someone could bring a claim. Keeping a file longer is rarely the problem.
Apply the IRS period of limitations to your rental records
The IRS frames retention around one idea: the period of limitations, which is the time you have to amend a return and the time the IRS has to assess more tax. Your records need to outlast it.
For most landlords that means three years from the date you filed. A 2025 return filed in April 2026 needs its support until April 2029. Count from the filing date, not the tax year. A return filed early is treated as filed on the due date, so filing in February buys you nothing extra.
The longer periods apply to specific situations. Six years kicks in if income you should have reported and didn’t is more than 25 percent of the gross income on the return. Seven years applies if you claim a bad debt deduction or a loss on worthless securities. Ask your preparer before treating unpaid rent as a bad debt; whether it qualifies depends on how you keep your books. And if you pay anyone on payroll (a resident manager, say), those employment tax records stay at least four years after the tax is due or paid, whichever is later.
If you want the receipt-by-receipt detail, the post on what receipts landlords should keep for taxes goes through what makes a receipt usable.
Keep property records until the limitations period after a sale
This is the rule that surprises people. The closing statement from the day you bought the building, every invoice for a new roof or a replaced furnace, and each year’s depreciation schedule all stay until the limitations period expires for the year you sell. Buy in 2012, sell in 2031, file that return in 2032, and the 2012 closing statement is still live in 2035.
The reason is basis. Your gain on sale is the price minus your adjusted basis, and basis is built from exactly those old documents. Lose them and you cannot prove the improvements you paid for. The landlord tax season checklist covers how depreciation gets recorded each year.
Keep one folder per building for these. Label it clearly, and never let it get purged with the annual receipts.
Handle screening reports and applicant files
Two federal rules pull in opposite directions here.
The first is about keeping. Under the Fair Housing Act, an applicant who believes they were turned down for a discriminatory reason can file a complaint with HUD up to one year after the decision, or sue up to two years after it. If you shred the file at month thirteen, you have nothing to show why you said no. Keep the application, your written criteria, the screening result, and the reason for the decision for at least two years. If you sent an adverse action notice, keep a copy with the file; the post on adverse action notices explains when one is required.
The second is about destroying. The FTC’s disposal rule (16 CFR Part 682) says anyone who holds consumer report information for a business purpose must dispose of it with reasonable measures against unauthorized access. The rule’s own examples: burning, pulverizing, or shredding paper so it cannot practicably be read or reconstructed, and destroying or erasing electronic files the same way. A credit report in the recycling bin fails that test.
One thing the disposal rule does not do: it sets no retention period of its own. It only governs how you get rid of the report once you do.
Decide how long to keep leases and deposit records
For leases, deposit receipts, move-in and move-out condition reports, itemized deduction letters, and the messages that go with them, the practical answer is: keep them for as long as a tenant could sue. That window is set by your state, and the California pages on this site carry the California figures, starting with California security deposit rules.
Start the clock at move-out, not move-in. A deposit dispute is born the day the tenancy ends.
If you are unsure of your state’s figure, keeping these records for the same period as the building’s tax records costs you almost nothing and closes the question.
When a file’s time is up
Destroy it on purpose, once a year, on a date you pick. January works for most landlords, right after year-end books close.
- Pull every file whose period ended in the prior year.
- Check it is not tied to an open dispute, a pending complaint, or a building you still own.
- Shred paper that holds any applicant or tenant financial information. Delete electronic copies from every place they live, including email attachments and a downloads folder.
- Write down what you destroyed and when. A one-line log is enough.
Records kept in software follow the same rules. If your books and documents live in one place, such as LeaseRooster accounting, where every transaction sits on the property it belongs to, the retention question gets easier because the record is already dated and filed.
This is general information, not legal advice. Rules change and local ordinances vary. Confirm current requirements with your city, county, or an attorney before you act.