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Documentation Index

Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.rentsmart.com/llms.txt

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Auto Denial Rules let RentSmart’s screening AI automatically deny households that don’t meet your minimum requirements. Set them once globally, and any property can override them individually.

Where to find them

Global Settings → Auto Denial Rules at app.rentsmart.com/global-settings. To override the global rules on a specific property, open that property and click Edit on the Auto Denial Rules widget.

How rules are applied

When every household member’s Profile is validated and TransUnion reports come back, the screening AI checks each report against your rules:
  • Hardline rules — failing any one of these auto-denies the entire household. Every member automatically receives an Adverse Action Letter.
  • Soft tolerances — households that fail by a small margin are still delivered to you for a final decision, not auto-denied.
Only Rent-to-Income Ratio and Minimum Credit Score have soft tolerances. Every other rule is hardline.

The five sections

Base minimum requirements

The two core financial thresholds, both with soft tolerances:
  • Rent-to-Income Ratio — how many times monthly rent the household must earn in gross monthly income. Options range from Any Ratio to .
    • Soft tolerance: households within 0.5× below still appear for your review.
  • Minimum Credit Score — the lowest acceptable household-average credit score. Options range from Any Credit Score to 725.
    • Soft tolerance: households within 50 points below still appear for your review.

Financial history denials

Hardline. Check only the conditions that should auto-deny:
  • A collection account for past-due rental balances
  • A foreclosure within the last X years
  • A bankruptcy within the last X years
  • X or more past-due rent or mortgage payments in the last 12 months
  • X or more NSF transactions in the last 12 months
  • X or more negative bank balance occurrences in the last 12 months
Leave any unchecked to ignore that condition.

Criminal history denials

Criminal history rules vary widely by state and city law. Review your local fair-housing rules before enabling any criminal-history denial. RentSmart does not enforce jurisdiction-specific limits for you.
Four options:
  • Any felony record
  • Felony for a violent crime
  • Any misdemeanor record
  • Misdemeanor involving theft

Eviction history denials

First, set a lookback windowNone, 1 year, 3, 5, 7, 10, 15, or No Limit. Setting it to None disables eviction screening entirely. Then check which eviction outcomes are disqualifying within that window:
  • A writ of possession was issued
  • A dispossessory action was filed but dropped more than once
  • A dispossessory action was filed but dropped only once

Additional requirements

A free-form text area for criteria the structured fields don’t cover (e.g., “Must have 12+ months at current employer”). The screening AI factors these in alongside everything above.
Fair-housing reminder: Custom criteria cannot discriminate on race, color, religion, sex, national origin, familial status, or disability. The AI ignores criteria that would violate these protections.

Global vs. per-property

Auto Denial Rules and Pet Policy are configured independently on each property — a property can use the global Auto Denial Rules but a custom Pet Policy, or vice versa. To override the global rules for one property, open the property, click Edit on the Auto Denial Rules widget, choose Custom Settings, and set property-specific values. Switching back to Use Global Settings any time will restore the global rules.

What household members see

If a household is auto-denied by hardline rules, every member of the household receives an Adverse Action Letter by email — automatically, with no action required from you. The letter cites the specific TransUnion report data point that triggered the denial.

Pet Policy

Configure what pets you allow, fees, and breed/weight restrictions.

Reviewing a household

What to do when a household reaches you for a final decision.