Overview
As you receive and track rental applications, one of the final steps is to make a rental decision, update the application with your decision, and inform the prospect.
The Steps
When on the Overview tab of a rental application, click on the Update Decision button.
You can update the decision to the following choices:
No Decision: Keep this status if you haven’t yet made a decision.
Approved: Choose this if you are accepting the prospect as a tenant.
Approved tenants receive an email that can be customized.
Rejected: Choose this if you decide not to approve the prospect.
Rejection notices can be customized.
Note that if you deny an application because of TransUnion SmartMove reports, you are required by federal law to give the prospect an “adverse action” notice. To learn more about this, refer to the Federal Trade Commission’s explanation here.
The prospect has a right to dispute their TransUnion SmartMove report with TransUnion. See Introduction to TransUnion's Resident Score if they question why their score differs from a standard credit score.
Ignored: If an application was submitted in error, you can ignore it if you don’t want to delete it.
Add any optional Notes about the decision and then click Update. (These notes are internal only and will show if you go back later to update your decision again.)
Notify the prospect of your decision however you normally would.
If you are rejecting a prospect and they ask for their TransUnion SmartMove reports, you can download and send them the reports using the instructions in this article here. You can also send a Rental Application Denial Letter if your state requires it.
If you’ve accepted their application, you can send them a lease for them to electronically sign as your next step!
Once you update the decision and inform the prospect, this is reflected on the rental application's Overview tab. If you approve the applicant, you can move forward with creating a lease — see Create a New Lease From a Rental Application.
Tip: You can automatically let the prospect know if they were approved or rejected by toggling on the "Send automated response email to the applicant with my decision" option.
Both approvals and rejections will allow the option of entering a custom message if needed. Otherwise you can leave the default message in place.
If you are denying an applicant, it is also recommended to provide the Adverse Action Letter to the automated response by uploading the file. You can download a copy of this letter from our resources page here.