Understanding Forte Payment Holds, Rejections, and Returns

"Hold" gets used to describe three different things in Forte's payment processing — a funding hold, a KBL rejection, and a return. Each has a different cause, affects a different party, and requires a different fix.
If a payment doesn't behave the way you expect — money doesn't show up, a resident can't submit a payment, or funds you already received disappear from your account — it helps to know which of these three events you're actually dealing with.

Event	What Happens	Who It Affects	Are Funds Ever Held?
Funding Hold	Forte withholds funds from your (the property manager's) payout	Your merchant account	Yes
KBL Rejection	A resident's or owner's payment attempt fails before it's submitted	The resident/owner making the payment	No — the payment never processes
Return	A payment appeared to settle, then reverses	Your merchant account	No — this is a reversal, not a hold

A funding hold is when Forte withholds funds from your payout as the property manager. This is the only one of the three events that actually involves your money being held.
What can trigger a funding hold:
- Funding issues, including chargebacks or returned funding/billing
- Irregular, suspicious, or potentially fraudulent transaction activity
- Holds required by law (e.g., liens), by an ODFI, or by a payment network
- Incomplete or inconsistent application information, pending follow-up documentation or analyst review
- Incorrect or transposed bank account/routing numbers on your own account, if it causes a returned transaction when Forte attempts to debit it
- A pattern of excessive or recurring chargebacks. A single chargeback does not trigger a hold on its own — see Section 3.
How to resolve or avoid one:
- Keep your own bank account and routing information on file accurate and up to date
- Respond promptly to any request from Forte for documentation or account verification
- Keep chargeback volume low by resolving disputes quickly (see Section 3 below)
- If you believe your account has an active funding hold, reach out to Rentvine Support at Support@rentvine.com so we can coordinate with Forte on your behalf

A KBL rejection is not a hold. It happens on the resident's or owner's side, before a payment is ever submitted — so no funds are ever collected or withheld.
Forte maintains an internal Known Bad List (KBL). If a bank account has a history of specific return codes, it's automatically flagged. Any future payment attempt from that account fails immediately with an "UNABLE TO PROCESS PAYMENT" error.
Return codes that can result in a KBL flag:
- R02, R03, R04, R05, R06, R07, R08, R10, R29
How to resolve:
- Have the resident or owner call Forte support directly at 866-290-5400, Option 1. A Forte representative will review the account details and, if appropriate, remove it from the KBL so payments can be submitted again.
  
  For more detail, see: Resident Payment Issues

A return happens after a payment has already appeared to settle. This is neither a hold nor a rejection — it's a reversal of funds you already received.
Why this happens:
- Rentvine pays Forte to advance eCheck (ACH) funds early, so payments typically show as settled in your bank account in 1–2 business days. However, Forte still has to wait the full 3–5 business days to confirm the payer's funds are actually good. If they aren't — or if the payment is later disputed — Forte pulls the advanced funds back.
Common causes of a return:
- Insufficient funds discovered during Forte's 3–5 day verification window
- A tenant or owner formally disputing a debit with their bank within 60 calendar days (return codes R05, R07, R10, R29) — a $35 fee applies to these
- A tenant or owner disputing a debit after 60 days, which triggers a Proof of Authorization (POA) request from Forte
- A cardholder disputing a credit card charge with their card issuer
  
  Note: A single return or chargeback doesn't create a funding hold on your account — but a pattern of them can (see Section 1).