Policies & Procedures for Qualifying Applicants

This act lays out the requirements for anyone pulling credit and other private information. This is the law everyone must follow when viewing, transmitting and storing applicant’s personal information including owners and property managers. Fines for violations of this act are $37,500 per event so the FTC is serious about compliance and claims of “I didn’t know” won’t save you.

This is a 30 page manual we developed over 35 years that guided us through a lawsuit-free experience in processing our applicants. Most of this was done ‘in-house’ as the tenant screening services (TSS) available were not practicing during most of our years so there was no one to pass this off to. We had to learn how to do it and so do you.

This document guided our managers to treat all applicants properly as it related to credit scores, secondary income streams, trust babies, no employment, retired applicants, applicants without green cards, foreign nationals, roommates, foreclosures, special needs occupants, spouses with bankruptcies, 3^rd-party signers, corporate leases, comfort pets and more. The manual is full of training notes and can be used to train your staff how to do it right and avoid expensive learning curves we’ve already paid for. It can be tweaked to your model and then shrunk down for your staff to use day-to-day as they manage the application process.

View the Full Qualifying Guidelines Document Page

When you deny someone or change the offer (like requiring an additional security deposit) you MUST send this official notification disclosing the source of the information used to make your decision. This is required every time you deny an application or change the terms of your approval. We’ll give you several examples and training notes for completing one.

Property managers often collaborate with the owner on approving and denying applications and need to make sure they don’t violate the tenant’s rights of privacy, or the Fair Credit Reporting Act, when doing so. Owners often bully new managers into thinking that they, the owner, require the tenant’s information so they can make a fully informed approval or denial decision. It is quite natural for owners to think they are in control and if the manager caves in and passes the tenants information to the owner, they could find themselves in serious trouble with the law. Owners are not accustomed to hearing real estate agents tell them “no” and often push hard to get the tenant’s information and remain in control. If you want to keep your license, keep from having a claim from the Federal Trade Commission (the enforcers of the Fair Credit Reporting Act) and spend lots of money in attorney fees defending yourself, you’ll learn to tactfully refuse the owner and do the job they hired you for, which includes keeping them out of trouble with the law.

No matter what your model, there are some important rules you must follow when presenting applications to the owner. There is certain information you should never share with the owner under any conditions and some things you don’t want to miss passing over to them. Knowing the difference is the topic of this package. We’ll answer the question what’s the safe way to satisfy the owner’s appetite for information, without exposing yourself (and them) to violations of the Fair Credit Reporting Act, HUD, Americans with Disabilities Act, Service members Civil Relief Act and a host of other laws that govern the handling of the applicant’s personal information.

Robert, you really nailed this. Very comprehensive and soooo helpful. If all property managers followed these guidelines there would be no fair housing claims. Certainly guidelines every property manager should embrace.

Pamela Greene PG Management Group LLC, Charlotte NC