In Miami the landlord is not the last yes. The board runs its own review, takes two to three weeks, commonly charges up to $150 per applicant, and can deny for reasons the owner never had.
For a short, published list of reasons — not for a hunch. The building's board — the condo board that screens the tenant separately from the landlord — votes on documented grounds, and nearly all of them can be answered before the package is handed in.
The published grounds are few: a score below the minimum the building documents, certain criminal convictions, a misrepresentation on the application, a lease term shorter than the building allows, an identity it could not verify. Five doors, all of them visible from outside. There is no line that reads we did not like the file.
Most files never reach those grounds. They stall before the vote: a form missing the second adult's signature, an income letter that covers one occupant and not the other, a document asked for twice. A parked file is not a denial, and it is not a yes. With 19 renters per vacant unit, it ends the same way.
Written criteria can be read in advance. Ask the management company for the building's rules and its application package the day you shortlist the unit, not the day the offer is accepted. Each of the five has a document that answers it: the lease term is checked before the showing, identity is a passport and a visa, and the score line is where documented backing behind the rent works.
And notice what is not on the list. No credit history is not a published ground for denial. A minimum score filters people who have a score; a client arriving from Bogotá or São Paulo is not below that line, he is invisible to it. That is not a risk finding. It is a missing field — and a missing field you can fill before the package goes in.
Read the rules before the first showing and the vote stops being a mystery. It was a checklist all along, handed to anyone who asks for it — and almost nobody asks in time.
Sources: RentCafe (Miami rental competition and occupancy, 2025); U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2020-24 (Miami-Dade demographics and rents); CFPB (credit invisibility).
The board does not read your client. It reads the package your client arrives in.
Ask for the rules. Every building publishes its criteria and its own application package. Request both from the management company before the showing, not after your client's offer is on the table.
Every adult signs. Each adult on the lease is a separate applicant, with separate forms and a separate fee. One missing signature parks the whole package until the next meeting.
No score, not low. A minimum score screens the people who have one. A client with no US file is not under the line — he is unreadable to it, and documents answer that.
The landlord's yes is not the last one. Next comes the building's board — the condo board that screens the tenant separately from the landlord.
The owner reads credit, income and references. The board reads occupancy, pets, parking, who else moves in, and whether you will be a problem in the elevator.
Up to $150 per applicant, and every adult pays. That buys a review, not an approval — and the money stays there if the vote is no.
Two to three weeks, and the board meets when it meets. The only date you decide is the day the package goes in complete, with the rent backed.
You build it backwards: from what the building asks for, not from what the landlord already accepted. The package is read once, and anything you send afterwards waits for the next meeting.
Collect for both readers at the same time. The building's application is its own document set, with its own forms and its own signatures from every adult on the lease. Confirm the minimum lease term before you show the unit, because a term the building does not allow is a denial you drove your client to. And put the backing inside the submission rather than offering to send it if anybody asks.
Every file has one soft line, and both readers find it in the first minute. The landlord's real question was never whether your client seems reliable — it is what happens to him if the rent does not arrive. Backing behind the rent answers that with a document, instead of asking one stranger to form a view about another. Sent inside the package, it is read on the same pass.
What it does not do matters just as much. It buys no vote, it replaces nobody's screening, and no agent should ever promise an approval on the strength of it. The board still decides, on its own criteria and its own calendar. What changes is that it reads a complete file on the first pass, instead of sending back one question that costs your client another two weeks and the unit somebody else already took.
Two to three weeks is the working number in Miami-Dade, and it runs on top of the landlord's own screening. With 19 applicants per vacant unit, that is more than enough time for the listing to be gone before your client is answered.
Yes. The board screens separately and can deny on its own grounds. That is exactly why the file should be complete on the first pass. A second round of questions is another two weeks you do not have.
Miami boards commonly charge up to $150 per applicant, and every adult on the lease pays. Applying to three buildings puts your client $450 down before a single yes, on top of the landlord's own application fees.
Some weigh it, none are obliged to. The building's board — the condo board that screens the tenant separately from the landlord — votes on its own published grounds and answers to the building, not to the owner. Backing strengthens what the board reads. It never buys a vote, so never promise your client an approval.
No. If the building requires it, every applicant goes through it, and the two to three weeks are part of the timeline whether or not the owner already said yes. What you can control is that the package arrives complete on the first pass, because anything you send afterwards waits for the next meeting.
No. The fee pays for the review, not for the answer, and Miami buildings commonly charge up to $150 per applicant, with every adult on the lease paying separately. Applying blind to three buildings can leave a couple $900 down before anybody has said yes, on top of the landlord's own application fees.
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