Errors on a tenant screening report
Tenant screening companies are consumer reporting agencies under the Fair Credit Reporting Act. They must use reasonable procedures to make their reports accurate, and reinvestigate within 30 days when you dispute. If a wrong eviction, criminal record or debt cost you an apartment, you can dispute it, and if the company does not fix it, sue for damages and attorney's fees.
Landlords decide in minutes, and the screening report is often the only thing they read. Screening companies pull court records, credit data and criminal databases, and then match them to applicants, sometimes by name alone. A housing court case against someone with your name, a case you won, or a debt that was never yours can end your application before you know the report exists. The Fair Credit Reporting Act gives you the right to see the report, dispute it, and hold the screening company to an accuracy standard.
What it looks like
- An eviction that is not yours. A housing court case against a person with your name, or a similar name, reported as yours.
- A case without its outcome. An eviction filing reported with no mention that it was dismissed, withdrawn or decided in your favor.
- The same case twice. One case reported as two, or a filing and its judgment counted as separate evictions.
- A stranger's criminal record. A conviction matched to you by name and birth year only.
- A wrong debt to a former landlord. A balance you paid or never owed, reported as a collection.
- A denial with no explanation. The landlord says no and does not tell you which company supplied the report.
The law
The screening company
A company that assembles or evaluates consumer information for a fee to furnish reports to third parties is a consumer reporting agency (15 U.S.C. § 1681a(f)). The Act lists residential or tenant history among the files a nationwide specialty agency keeps (§ 1681a(w)). The screening company must follow reasonable procedures to assure maximum possible accuracy of the information concerning the individual about whom the report relates (§ 1681e(b)).
You have the right to your file and its sources (§ 1681g(a)), and to a free copy if you ask within 60 days after a landlord turns you down based on the report (§ 1681j(b)). When you dispute, the company must reinvestigate within 30 days (§ 1681i(a)(1)), consider what you send (§ 1681i(a)(4)), and delete or correct what is inaccurate, incomplete or unverifiable (§ 1681i(a)(5)(A)).
Reporting periods
Civil suits and judgments, which include eviction cases, may be reported for 7 years from entry or until the governing limitation period expires, whichever is longer; arrest records for 7 years; and accounts placed for collection for 7 years (§ 1681c(a)(2), (4)). Criminal convictions have no federal time limit (§ 1681c(a)(5)).
The landlord
A landlord that denies you, or demands a larger deposit, based in whole or in part on a screening report must tell you of the adverse action, give you the screening company's name, address and phone number, state that the company did not make the decision, and tell you of your right to a free copy within 60 days and to dispute (§ 1681m(a)).
What you can recover
For a willful violation, actual damages or statutory damages of $100 to $1,000, plus punitive damages as the court allows (15 U.S.C. § 1681n(a)); for a negligent one, actual damages (§ 1681o(a)). Actual damages in a housing case can include application fees, a higher rent or deposit elsewhere, moving and storage costs, and the distress of losing a home. The FCRA requires a company found liable to pay the consumer's reasonable attorney's fees and costs.
A report sent to a landlord is a report disseminated to a third party, which the Supreme Court treated as concrete harm in TransUnion LLC v. Ramirez, 594 U.S. 413 (2021).
What to do now
- Ask the landlord which company ran the report. In writing, if they did not say. Keep the denial notice.
- Request your file. Ask the screening company for a free copy within 60 days of the denial, and for the sources.
- Gather the court papers. A dismissal, a stipulation, a decision in your favor, or proof the case involved another person (a different birth date, middle name or address).
- Dispute in writing. Name each wrong entry, attach proof, send it by a method that proves delivery, and keep copies.
- Keep the costs. Application fees, broker fees, a higher rent, temporary housing. Then talk to a lawyer if the report is not fixed within 30 days.
Time matters in a housing search. If you find the error while an application is still open, tell the landlord in writing that you are disputing the report and give them the court papers that show it is wrong. The landlord is not required to wait, but many will look at a dismissal order. Either way, the dispute with the screening company is what starts its legal duty to reinvestigate, and it is the record a claim is built on if the report is not fixed.
The clock
Earlier of 2 years from discovery or 5 years from the violation
An FCRA claim must be filed within 2 years after you discover the violation and no later than 5 years after it (15 U.S.C. § 1681p). The denial notice often marks discovery. See deadlines.
In New York, New Jersey and Florida
New York's fair credit reporting act bars an agency from reporting information it has reason to know is inaccurate, and from reporting arrests or criminal charges without a conviction unless the charge is pending (N.Y. Gen. Bus. Law § 380-j(a)). It provides actual damages, costs and fees for negligent noncompliance and punitive damages for willful noncompliance (§§ 380-l, 380-m). In New Jersey and Florida, the federal Act carries the claim. See New York, New Jersey and Florida.
Common questions
Is a tenant screening company covered by the FCRA?
Yes. A company that assembles information on consumers for a fee and furnishes reports to landlords is a consumer reporting agency (15 U.S.C. section 1681a(f)), and the Act names residential or tenant history among the files a nationwide specialty agency keeps (section 1681a(w)).
The landlord will not tell me why I was denied. What can I do?
If the denial was based in whole or in part on a screening report, the landlord must give you notice of the adverse action, the name, address and phone number of the screening company, a statement that the company did not make the decision, and notice of your right to a free copy within 60 days and to dispute (15 U.S.C. section 1681m(a)).
An eviction case was dismissed or I won. Can it still be reported?
Reporting a case without its outcome can make a report misleading, and a report of an eviction judgment that never happened is inaccurate. Dispute with the screening company and send the dismissal or the court's decision.
How long can an eviction judgment be reported?
Under federal law, civil suits and judgments may be reported for 7 years from entry, or until the governing limitation period expires if that is longer (15 U.S.C. section 1681c(a)(2)).
Tell us what they did.
One conversation with an attorney, in your language. We tell you which laws the collector or the credit bureau broke, which deadline runs first, and what to save this week. If it is not a case we can take, we say so and tell you where to go.
(718) 484-7510The FDCPA and the FCRA require a company found liable to pay the consumer’s reasonable attorney’s fees and costs. Our fee arrangement is confirmed in a written retainer before we begin. English, Russian and Spanish in-house; an interpreter for any other language.