Move-in and move-out records

You can deny a rental applicant for almost any legitimate, consistently applied reason (insufficient income, bad payment history, a poor landlord reference), but you cannot deny based on a protected class, and if your decision relied even in part on a credit, background, eviction, or tenant-screening report, federal law (the FCRA) requires you to send an adverse action notice. That notice must name the screening company, state that the company did not make the decision, and tell the applicant they can get a free copy of the report within 60 days and dispute its accuracy. Apply the same written criteria to every applicant, write down the actual reason for each denial, and keep the file. A denial that is documented and uniform is almost impossible to challenge. A denial you made by gut feeling and delivered by text is where the claims come from.