A Fair Application Policy You Can Actually Enforce

Decide, in writing, what you will look at: income, rental history, the screening package, and any extra questions. Then put only those questions on the application. Custom questions live with tenant registration settings. If a question is not on the form, you should not be asking it in chat “just for this one.”

Skip questions that sort people by a protected characteristic. If you would not want the answer printed next to every other applicant’s file, do not collect it.

Set one default Checkr package, one payer, and one fee under Tenants → Settings before you share the application link. New applications pick up those defaults. Changing the package halfway through a vacancy is how two applicants get judged on different reports.

You can approve Part 2, decline, or skip screening when screening is not part of this decision. Skipping should be the policy for that situation, not a favor. What the report is for is covered in why vetting tenants matters. Who pays is in application fees.

When you decline because of the screening report, use Decline on the application. Tenantivo starts Checkr’s adverse-action workflow: Checkr sends the pre-adverse letter, waits the required period, then sends the final letter. The platform keeps the adverse-action status. That is the FCRA path Checkr is there to run. A chat message that says “we went with someone else” is not that letter.

Agent-submitted files are the same standard once you approve the handoff. Review them under Transfers, then continue on your application. Do not invent a looser rule because an agent brought them.

Questions, package, and payer: Tenant registration settings. The queue: Applications. The process write-up: leasing and screening.