What happens if your rental application is denied in Colorado?
Getting a rental application denied can leave you with a bigger question than where to apply next: why did it happen?
In Colorado, you don’t necessarily have to guess.
If a landlord denies your rental application, Colorado law requires them to give you written notice stating the reasons for the denial. And if your application resulted in the landlord obtaining a consumer report about you, you have additional rights around seeing and challenging that information.
The important thing is to separate three things: the reason for the landlord’s decision, the information in any screening report, and whether that information is actually accurate.
Here’s what to do next.
Does a landlord have to tell you why your application was denied in Colorado?
Yes.
Colorado law requires a landlord who denies a rental application to provide the prospective renter with a written notice stating the reasons for the denial.
The landlord must make a good-faith effort to provide that notice no more than 20 calendar days after making the decision.
The notice can be electronic. But if you request a paper denial notice, the landlord must provide one.
That means a simple “your application was unsuccessful” shouldn’t be the end of the explanation.
You should be told why.
What if a tenant screening report was involved?
There are additional protections when a consumer report was part of the application process.
A consumer report can include information such as:
Credit history
Rental history
Eviction records
Criminal history
Information gathered through reference checks
A tenant screening score or recommendation
If your application resulted in the Colorado landlord obtaining a consumer report about you, Colorado law requires the landlord to provide you with a copy of that report and advise you of your right to dispute its accuracy with the consumer reporting agency.
This gives you something concrete to review instead of trying to work backward from a rejection.
What is an adverse action notice?
Federal law provides another layer of protection.
Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, or FCRA, if information in a consumer report contributed to the landlord’s decision to deny your application, the landlord must give you an adverse action notice.
The consumer report doesn’t have to be the only reason you were denied.
If it played any part in the decision, the adverse action requirements can apply.
Under federal law, the notice must include:
The name, address and phone number of the consumer reporting agency that supplied the report
A statement explaining that the consumer reporting agency did not make the decision and cannot explain the specific reasons for it
Notice of your right to dispute the accuracy or completeness of information supplied by the consumer reporting agency
Notice of your right to obtain a free copy of your report from that agency if you request it within 60 days
Federal adverse action notices can be written, electronic or oral.
Colorado separately requires the denial notice itself to be in writing.
Not every rental denial is caused by a screening report
This distinction matters.
Tenant screening can influence a rental decision, but a screening report does not approve or deny your application.
The landlord or property manager makes that decision.
A rental application might be denied for a reason unrelated to a consumer report. For example, the landlord may determine that you don’t meet a separate application requirement, required information may not have been provided, or another circumstance may affect the application.
That’s why the written reason Colorado requires is useful.
Don’t assume a credit score, background check or tenant screening database caused the denial. Start with the reason the landlord actually provides.
What should you do after your rental application is denied?
1. Read the reason for the denial
Start with the landlord’s written notice.
Don’t try to diagnose the problem from what you think might be in your credit or background history.
Look at the reason the landlord actually gives you.
If the explanation isn’t clear, ask the landlord to clarify it.
2. Review the consumer report if there is one
If the application resulted in the landlord obtaining a consumer report, Colorado law requires the landlord to provide you with a copy.
Read it carefully.
Don’t just scan for obviously negative information. Check whether the information actually belongs to you and whether it accurately reflects what happened.
If you want help understanding each section, see our guide to how to read your tenant screening report.
3. Compare the denial reason with the report
Now connect the two.
For example, if the landlord says the denial was based on credit information, look at the credit section.
If the reason relates to rental history, check what the report actually says about your previous rentals.
If it relates to an eviction record, check the case details and outcome.
The goal isn’t to find something you disagree with. It’s to determine whether the information used about you is accurate.
4. Look for inaccurate or outdated information
Tenant screening reports can contain errors.
Check for things such as:
Records belonging to someone else
Incorrect names or addresses
Duplicate records
Incorrect account information
Eviction cases with the wrong outcome
Criminal records that aren’t yours
Outdated information
Information that doesn’t accurately reflect the underlying record
If something looks wrong, don’t assume the landlord can fix the report.
The next step is usually to dispute the information with the consumer reporting agency that supplied it.
Our guide to spotting tenant screening errors goes deeper into what to look for.
5. Dispute inaccurate information
Federal law gives you the right to dispute inaccurate or incomplete information in your consumer report.
Contact the consumer reporting agency and clearly identify what you believe is incorrect.
Provide supporting documents if you have them.
For example, if an eviction record shows the wrong outcome, documentation from the court may help demonstrate what actually happened.
The consumer reporting agency generally must investigate the dispute. The CFPB says investigations generally take 30 days, although some circumstances allow 45 days.
6. Tell the landlord if you’re disputing something
If you still want the apartment, consider telling the landlord that you’ve identified information you believe is inaccurate and have started a dispute.
That doesn’t mean the landlord has to reverse its decision or hold the apartment while the dispute is investigated.
But it lets the landlord know that information contributing to the decision may be incorrect.
7. Keep applying elsewhere
A dispute can take time, and the rental market may keep moving while it’s being investigated.
Unless the landlord tells you it is reconsidering the application, continue looking at other homes.
Keep copies of your denial notice, screening report, dispute and supporting documents. If the information is corrected, you’ll have a record of what happened.
Can you dispute a rental application denial?
It’s useful to distinguish between disputing the information and disagreeing with the landlord’s decision.
If information in a consumer report is inaccurate or incomplete, federal law gives you the right to dispute that information with the consumer reporting agency.
That doesn’t mean the consumer reporting agency can overturn the landlord’s rental decision.
The screening company supplies information. The landlord or property manager decides whether to approve your application.
If the information is accurate but you don’t meet the property’s lawful screening criteria, a consumer-report dispute isn’t designed to change those criteria.
If the information is wrong, however, correcting it can matter for future applications and may be worth raising with the landlord that denied you.
What if the screening company says it didn’t deny you?
That’s normal.
A tenant screening company may provide information, a score or even a recommendation to the property manager. But under the FCRA, the consumer reporting agency does not make the landlord’s adverse decision.
That’s why an adverse action notice must tell you that the reporting agency cannot explain the specific reason the landlord made its decision.
Think of the roles separately:
The consumer reporting agency provides information.
The landlord or property manager makes the rental decision.
If information is wrong, contact the reporting agency.
If you want to understand the landlord’s decision, contact the landlord.
What if you never received a denial notice?
If you’ve been told your application was denied but haven’t received a written explanation, ask the landlord for the denial notice.
Colorado law requires a written notice stating the reasons for the denial and requires the landlord to make a good-faith effort to provide it within 20 calendar days of the decision.
If a consumer report contributed to the denial, federal adverse action requirements may apply as well.
Don’t assume silence is the same as a formal denial, though.
If your application still says under review, the landlord may not have made a decision yet. Our guide to what to do if your rental application is under review explains that stage separately.
Why seeing your screening information before a decision matters
A denial is often the moment when renters first discover what’s being reported about them.
That’s backwards.
If screening information is going to contribute to an important decision about where you live, being able to see that information before sharing it gives you a chance to understand what’s there and identify potential problems earlier.
That’s part of the idea behind Rentell.
With a Rentell portable tenant screening report, you can see your report before deciding to share it with a property manager. If something in your background information needs attention, you don’t have to wait for a denial to discover it.
That doesn’t mean the report determines whether you’re approved.
Property managers still apply their own screening criteria and make the rental decision.
It simply gives renters more visibility into the information being used in that process.
The bottom line
If your rental application is denied in Colorado, start with the reason the landlord gives you.
Colorado law requires a written denial notice stating the reasons for the decision. If your application resulted in the landlord obtaining a consumer report, you should also receive a copy of that report and information about your right to dispute its accuracy.
If a consumer report contributed to the denial, federal law gives you additional rights through the adverse action process.
Read the reason. Review the report. Check the information. Dispute anything that’s inaccurate.
Most importantly, don’t assume a screening report rejected you.
A screening report provides information. The landlord makes the decision.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice.
