How to decline a qualified rental applicant.

[Janet Ikpa]

I’ve been reading that landlords need to inform applicants who they’re rejecting of why their application is being rejected. What happens when you have too many strong applicants? We have reviewed and identified 3 tenants who have strong allocations. We can only pick one. If the one we want accepts the offer and signs the lease, how do you decline the others when there is seemingly nothing wrong with their application?

[Nathan Gesner]

@Janet Ikpa if you reject the tenant based on any information discovered in the credit check, then you should notify the tenant with an Adverse Action letter. You can find a plethora of examples with a Google search but they are typically provided by whatever system is providing the credit check.

I recommend notifying them by email with a very short, professional blurb. You can build a list of common rejection reasons, cut/paste the one(s) that apply, and send it off.

Save this as a canned response and send it for every denial. 90% of them will accept it and move on. A few may ask for more details and you can respond with a short, professional response.

I highly recommend you avoid denials by phone because that's when they'll try to argue, question your decision, ask to bring additional documentation, hurl insults, threaten to sue you, etc. Don't get into the drama!