Approving, Denying, and Sending FCRA Adverse Action Notices

If a screening report factors into a denial, the Fair Credit Reporting Act requires you to notify the applicant in two stages. VerticalRent runs that process for you automatically.

Go to Applications →

Approving an applicant

Click Approve Application and confirm. The unit is marked occupied and the applicant is emailed immediately. This does not automatically create a lease — go to Leases to generate and send one whenever you're ready.

Denying an applicant

Clicking Deny Application walks you through three steps:

1. Select reasons — check any that apply: insufficient income-to-rent ratio, credit score below threshold, criminal background findings, prior eviction history, negative rental history/references, unverifiable employment, incomplete application, or other (with a free-text field). If this application had screening ordered, a banner reminds you that an adverse action notice is required by the FCRA.
2. Review the AI-drafted notice — click Generate Adverse Action Notice (7 AI credits) and VerticalRent drafts a notice from your selected reasons, which you can edit before continuing. You're responsible for the notice's accuracy and compliance.
3. Confirm — a summary lists exactly what the applicant will receive: a denial notification email, an FCRA adverse action notice (if screening was involved), and a reminder of their right to dispute.

What actually happens after you confirm

Whether the formal FCRA process runs depends on whether this application had a completed screening order or background check attached. If it did:

1. A pre-adverse action notice is generated from a fixed FCRA-compliant template and emailed to the applicant right away, naming the reporting agency (ScreenForge Labs, LLC) and their rights.
2. A 5-business-day waiting period begins (weekends are excluded), during which the applicant can review their report and dispute anything inaccurate.
3. Once the waiting period ends — and no dispute is open — a final adverse action notice is generated and emailed automatically, closing out the FCRA-required process. You don't need to trigger this step yourself.

If the application had no completed screening tied to it, denying simply sends a standard denial email and in-app notification — the pre/final notice sequence only applies when a consumer report factored into the decision.

What the notice contains

Both notices cite the FCRA (15 U.S.C. § 1681b / § 1681m) and include:

• The date and a statement that a consumer report was used in the decision
• The consumer reporting agency's name, address, email, and website (ScreenForge Labs, LLC)
• An explicit statement that the reporting agency did not make the housing decision and cannot explain the landlord's reasons
• The applicant's right to a free copy of their report within 60 days
• The applicant's right to dispute inaccurate or incomplete information directly with the reporting agency

The pre-adverse notice additionally states the decision isn't final until the waiting period passes; the final notice confirms the adverse action has been taken.

Where the applicant sees this — and disputes

On their side, the applicant sees a step-by-step adverse action tracker on their application: pre-notice sent date and days remaining, waiting-period/dispute status, and final notice status, each with the full notice text available to expand and read. A Dispute on ScreenForge Labs button routes them to the ScreenForge Labs consumer portal (or an email address if no portal case exists) to file a dispute directly with the reporting agency.

Resending a notice

For an already-denied application, an Resend Adverse Action Notice button (7 AI credits) is available — it regenerates the notice text and re-emails it to the applicant, which is useful if the original email bounced or the applicant asks for another copy.