Western NY Decline Cozy Rental Applicant Procedure?

[Luke Freeland]

Hi BP! I'm in the process of finding tenants for my first rental in Western NY near Buffalo. We have an applicant who applied through Cozy and we required they supply a credit check and background check with the application. The applicant doesn't meet our financial qualifications due to their credit score and credit report. What are the procedures to decline this applicant? Do I have to send an adverse response even though they've "shared" their background and credit check with us? Also, we plan on refunding them half their background fee because of recent NY tenant law changes that say you can't charge more than $20 per applicant.