Denying one but not the other

[Nick Jensen]

We're about to rent a 2bd house. Two people applied as roommates. After running background checks via SmartMove, we feel that one person is qualified but the other isn't. We plan to send a denial letter (is email okay for this?) to the unqualified person, but what about the qualified person? Do we deny that person too because without the other roommate the rent would be too high for that one qualified person? Or do we accept the qualified person on the condition that they find another roommate, who we also must approve? 

Thanks for your time.

Nick

[Matt Devincenzo]

Originally posted by @Nick Jensen:

 I imagine it's appropriate and legal to at least let that person know why I denied the original roommate. 

 I would advise against that. You can tell them the roommate was denied obviously since that is what is leading to their own denial on the income, I would however not tell them what the reason for denial was. The information that was used to make the determination was released to you not the roommate, and you don't have any authorization to release it. If they really want to know why the other person was denied then they can ask them themselves.