Rentors application fee paid for, landlord never ran credit check

[Ryan Willer]

Lets say I am a landlord in the state of Missouri. I accepted multiple application fees for 1 house which includes both a credit check and background check. I never ran the credit/background check for individuals I never intended to rent to. Several of these individuals want their money back. The credit/background check was listed as non-refundable, however this is a service which did not occur at any point in time.

1.) What is the legality of this from the landlord's perspective? 2.) What recourse exists, if any, for those who pay an application fee and the application is never processed? Is it typical that the applicant is out the money (i.e listed as non-refundable)? 

[Marc Winter]

@Ryan Willer, you state '"I never ran the credit/background check for individuals I never intended to rent to".

When did you decide to not rent to them?  What factors caused you to make that decision?  You are walking a very fine line here.  

Let me provide an example:  "I don't like people of the Blue persuasion so I don't intend to rent to them, so I'll take their money for a credit report that I don't have to run, and go have lunch with it."

Believe it or not, that might be considered discriminatory. (sarc)

So again, WHY did you never intend to rent to them?  When did that intension come into being?

It seems to me (although I don't have all your facts) you should return the money if you didn't do the job. (Especially after your post in front of millions of sets of eyes on this site.)