Free Templates

Rental Application Denial Letter: Free Template

A rental application denial letter tells an applicant you are not moving forward, and which version you need depends entirely on why — if a credit, background, or eviction report played any part in the decision, federal law requires an adverse action notice with specific required contents, not a simple courtesy note. Below are both letters in full, plus what belongs in each one and what must never appear in either.

The underlying rule, along with consent, screening services, and how to set criteria in the first place, is covered in our tenant screening guide. This page is about the document you have to send.

General information, not legal advice. Disclosure requirements, timing, and what a notice must contain vary by state and locality and change over time. Verify the current requirements where your property sits, or consult a local attorney, before relying on either letter below.

Which Letter You Need

One question decides it: did a consumer report play any part in the decision?

No report involved → simple denial letter

The unit was rented to someone else. The application was incomplete. Income did not meet your written criteria based on pay stubs the applicant handed you directly. None of these touch a consumer report, so Template 1 is enough.

Report involved → adverse action notice

A credit, background, or eviction report contributed to the decision. Use Template 2, which has required contents.

Two things about that second path catch landlords out. The first is “even partly.” If the report was one of three factors, or confirmed something you already suspected, it still counted, and the notice is still required. The second is that approving on stricter terms is also adverse action. Asking for a larger deposit, a co-signer, or a shorter term because of what a report showed triggers the same notice as an outright denial — that surprises most small landlords, and a co-signer requirement added after a credit check is the most common example. The screening guide explains the rule itself, and the FTC publishes a short overview of what landlords need to know about consumer reports.

Template 1: Simple Denial Letter

Copy this into your own document and replace everything in brackets. Short and neutral is the goal. You are generally not required to state a reason in this version at all, and a vague reason is safer than a wrong one — a single sentence you can support beats a paragraph you cannot.

Rental Application Decision

Date: [date]

To: [applicant full name(s)]

Property applied for: [street address, unit number, city, state, ZIP]

Dear [applicant name],

Thank you for applying for the property listed above. After reviewing the applications we received, we are not able to approve your application at this time.

[Optional, only if you can support it from your written criteria: “The unit has been rented to another applicant.” / “The application was incomplete.” / “Verified income did not meet our stated minimum.”]

[Holding deposit or fee: “Your holding deposit of $[amount] will be returned in full by [method] within [number] days.” / “The application fee of $[amount] is non-refundable, as stated on the application.”]

We appreciate the time you spent on the application and wish you well in your search.

Sincerely,

Landlord / agent name:

___________________________

Signature:

___________________________

Phone / email:

___________________________

Date sent:

___________________________

Template 2: Adverse Action Notice

Use this whenever a consumer report contributed to a denial or to stricter terms. The bracketed items here are not optional flourishes — the statement about the report, the agency's contact details, the free-copy right, and the dispute right are the parts that make the notice a notice.

Notice of Adverse Action

Date: [date]

To: [applicant full name(s)]

Property applied for: [street address, unit number, city, state, ZIP]

Dear [applicant name],

This notice is to inform you that we are unable to approve your rental application for the property above [or: that we are able to approve your application only on the following terms: [state the stricter term, e.g. an increased security deposit or a co-signer]].

This decision was based in whole or in part on information contained in a consumer report supplied by the consumer reporting agency named below.

Consumer reporting agency:
[agency name]
[street address, city, state, ZIP]
[phone number]

The consumer reporting agency named above did not make the decision on your application and is not able to explain the reasons for it.

You have the right to obtain a free copy of the consumer report from that agency if you request it within the period provided by federal law. You also have the right to dispute with that agency the accuracy or completeness of any information contained in the report.

If you have questions about this decision, you may contact me at [phone] or [email].

Sincerely,

Landlord / agent name:

___________________________

Signature:

___________________________

Phone / email:

___________________________

Date sent:

___________________________

Two notes before you send it. The free-copy window is a set period commonly cited in landlord guidance, but do not state a number of days in your letter without confirming the current requirement — the phrasing above deliberately points to the statutory period instead. And if a credit score was used in the decision, additional disclosures generally apply, including the score itself and related details. Check the current requirements or ask your screening provider: most of them supply compliant notice language, and some will send the notice on your behalf, which is usually the safer route.

Keep Applications and Decisions Together

The letter is easy. Showing months later that you applied the same criteria to everyone is the part that needs a record.

Collect Applications in One Place

What Not to Put in Either Letter

A denial letter is a document an applicant can keep, forward, and attach to a complaint. Four things do not belong in one.

Anything that names or hints at a protected characteristic. Familial status, disability, national origin, religion, sex, race, and color are protected federally, and states and cities add more. Even a well-meant line like “the unit isn’t really suitable for children” is a familial-status problem in writing.
Commentary about the applicant as a person. Describe the criterion, never the personality. “Income did not meet the stated minimum” is a criterion. “You seemed disorganized” is an opinion you will have to defend.
A reason you cannot support from your written criteria. If the letter says income, your criteria must state an income standard and the applicant must actually fall below it. An invented reason is worse than no reason.
Different explanations to different applicants. Two applicants denied on the same ground should receive the same wording. Inconsistent explanations for one decision are the pattern complaints are built on.

The practical protection behind all four is the same, and it happens before anyone applies: write your screening criteria down before you advertise the unit, then deny against the criteria rather than against the person. That is what turns a judgment call into a measurement, and it is the whole argument in our screening guide. HUD's Fair Housing Act overview covers the federal protected classes; your state or city may protect more. If a prior landlord's answer is part of the reason, keep those questions job-related and consistent too — our landlord reference check guide has the question list.

Sending It and Keeping the Record

Send it in writing. Email is generally acceptable unless your state, your local rules, or something you wrote in the application says otherwise, and it has the advantage of timestamping itself. Send it to every denied applicant rather than only the ones who follow up, because selective notification is the pattern a fair housing complaint is built from, and the applicant you skipped is the one who calls.

Then keep a copy with the application it belongs to, along with the criteria you were measuring against and the date you decided. Complaints and questions arrive months after the unit is filled, long after the details have blurred, so keep applications and their outcomes for a reasonable retention period — check whether your state sets one. What you are preserving is not the letter so much as the proof that everyone was measured the same way. If you are still assembling the process that feeds all this, how to find tenants and how to be a landlord cover the steps around it.

The Record Starts at the Application

Applications are where the decision record begins. Keeping them and their outcomes in one place, instead of across an inbox and a notebook, is what lets you show later that the same criteria were applied to everyone.

Kelpic® collects rental applications online and keeps them attached to the property, and the application includes the FCRA screening consent clause an applicant signs — Kelpic does not pull credit, background, or eviction reports, and the denial letter and any adverse action notice are yours to write and send. Our rental application template shows what to collect, and the overview for small landlords shows how it fits a one-to-fifty-unit portfolio.

Take Applications Online

The Decision in Four Lines

Did a credit, background, or eviction report play any part, including in stricter terms? If yes, send the adverse action notice.
If no report was involved, the simple denial letter is enough, and you generally need not state a reason.
Same written criteria for every applicant, and never a reason that names or hints at a protected characteristic.
Put it in writing, send it to everyone denied, and keep a copy with the application.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I have to tell an applicant why I denied them?

It depends on what the decision was based on. If no credit, background, or eviction report played any part, you are generally not required to give a reason at all, and a short neutral letter is enough. If a consumer report played any part in the decision, federal law requires you to send an adverse action notice, which must tell the applicant the decision was based on the report, identify the company that supplied it, and state their right to a free copy and to dispute inaccurate information. Some states and cities add their own disclosure requirements, so verify the rules where your property sits.

What is an adverse action notice?

An adverse action notice is the written notice a landlord must send when a decision about an applicant is based in whole or in part on information in a consumer report, such as a credit, criminal background, or eviction report. It applies to outright denials and also to approvals on stricter terms, like requiring a larger deposit or a co-signer because of what a report showed. The notice must state that the decision was based on the report, give the name, address, and phone number of the reporting agency, explain that the agency did not make the decision and cannot explain it, and tell the applicant they can get a free copy of the report and dispute anything inaccurate.

Can I deny a rental application for bad credit?

Generally yes. Credit history is not a protected characteristic, and landlords are usually permitted to set a credit standard as part of their written screening criteria. Two conditions matter in practice. The standard has to be written down before you advertise the unit and applied identically to everyone who applies, so the denial is measured against the criteria rather than the person. And because the decision rests on a consumer report, it triggers the adverse action notice, not the simple denial letter. Check whether your state or city restricts how credit information can be used before you set the standard.

What reasons can a landlord legally deny a rental application?

Common defensible reasons include income below your written minimum, a credit or eviction history that falls short of your published standard, unverifiable or falsified information on the application, poor references from prior landlords, or simply that the unit was rented to an earlier qualified applicant. What you cannot do is deny based on a characteristic protected by federal, state, or local fair housing law, or on a criterion you apply to some applicants and not others. Write the criteria down first, apply them in the order applications arrive, and keep the reason you give consistent with what your criteria actually say.

Do I have to send a denial letter to every applicant?

There is no general federal rule requiring a courtesy letter to applicants whose denial had nothing to do with a consumer report, though sending one is good practice and a few jurisdictions require notice within a set window. Where a report was involved, the adverse action notice is required for every affected applicant, not just the ones who ask. The practical reason to notify everyone the same way is consistency: telling some applicants and ignoring others creates exactly the pattern a fair housing complaint looks for, and the record of uniform treatment is what protects you months later.

Can I deny an applicant after approving them?

Once you have signed a lease, you have a contract, and backing out is a legal matter rather than a screening decision. Before a lease is signed, a conditional approval can generally be withdrawn if new information comes back, for example a report or reference that arrives after you gave a verbal yes, but withdrawing an approval based on a consumer report still requires an adverse action notice. Approving on stricter terms because of a report counts as adverse action too. Because a withdrawn approval can create a reliance dispute, talk to a local attorney before reversing one.

These templates are general information for educational use, not legal advice. Required notice contents, timing, and disclosures vary by state and locality and change over time — verify the current requirements where your property is, or consult a local attorney, before sending either letter.

Every Application, and What You Decided

Kelpic collects rental applications online and keeps them with the property — so the record behind a decision is already there when someone asks about it.

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