Tenant screening is designed to help you find the best tenant for your rental property that’ll pay rent on time and not damage anything. Now that you’ve completed the screening process and verified the information the tenant provided, the next step is accepting or denying their application.
In this article, we walk you through the process of accepting or denying a tenant to help you feel confident every step of the way.
How to Accept a Prospective Tenant
If your tenant screening was successful, you should be able to determine if a tenant is likely to pay rent on time and take care of your rental property. If you’ve found your ideal applicant, then it’s time to accept them.
You should accept an applicant via email. That way, you can follow up with next steps immediately. In your acceptance email:
- Let the tenant know that your property is still available and you’d like to rent it to them.
- Let the tenant know that the next step is signing a rental agreement.
- Confirm the move-in date.
- Discuss collecting the first month’s rent and the security deposit (if applicable).
- Create a deadline for when you expect the lease agreement to be signed by. It’s reasonable to ask a tenant to sign a rental agreement within 24 to 72 hours of providing the agreement.
Set a deadline for signing the rental agreement to ensure the agreement is carried out in a timely fashion. This is easy to do if you are using an Avail online rental agreement since you can create, customize, and sign it all online.
For the first month’s rent and any deposits, it’s advised that they be paid within a week of both parties signing the rental agreement. This should occur before the tenant receives a key to the unit and moves in. Be sure that the rent and deposit clears in your account, as sometimes tenants will initiate payments that don’t go through. This helps protect you from tenant scams.
Next, you’ll want to set up a method for collecting rent. Collecting rent online is extremely easy with Avail. Simply set up charges and send them to your tenants. Your tenant can pay with his or her bank account, debit card, or credit card, and it will land directly in your bank account. No more checks or waiting for standard mail.
Legal Implications When Denying Prospective Tenants
The reason why you deny a tenant can have legal implications. You cannot reject a tenant based on:
- National origin
- Race
- Color
- Religion
- Sex
- Familial Status
- Disability
- Marital status
- Veteran status
- Citizenship
- Sexual orientation
- Political ideology
- Gender identity
- Age
- Participation in the Section 8 Program or other subsidy programs
Make sure you can pinpoint the reason why you’re denying an applicant. And even better, back up the reason with your notes and forms (a rental application, an email from an employer reference, etc.).
How to Say No to a Prospective Tenant
We recommend declining applicants in writing (email is best). If you’ve rented the unit to another applicant, you can say:
“We’re sorry, but we’ve rented the unit to another applicant. Thank you for your interest.”
Remember, you cannot tell an applicant that the unit is rented unless it has actually been rented. This is why we recommend that you accept a tenant first, make sure this tenant is moving forward with the lease signing, and then reject all other applicants. However, if you haven’t yet rented the unit, you can say:
“We’re sorry, but we’ve decided not to move forward with your application. Thank you for your interest.”
Many landlords wonder if they have to provide their prospective tenants a reason for the rejection. You are not legally obligated to provide a reason; however, if a tenant reaches out and asks, the professional thing to do is inform the tenant of your reason. It’s also legally risky not to provide an answer, as the tenant may be motivated to seek legal action in order to find out.
There is one exception to this rule: You need to tell a tenant if you are rejecting them based on a credit report. According to the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), any user of a credit report must notify the tenant when an “adverse action is taken” based on information in the report.
In other words, if you are rejecting a tenant based on credit score, debt, missed payments, or any information you found in a credit report, then you should notify the tenant of this reason.
Learn more about approving and rejecting tenants the right way.
Use a Tenant Screening Checklist
The most important part of tenant screening is making sure you have a standardized and consistent process. This helps ensure you tick all screening boxes, don’t miss anything major, and don’t violate Fair Housing laws.
To help you navigate the entire tenant screening process, use our tenant screening checklist.
