Screening a prospective renter through National Tenant Network involves four forms, and each one has to be handled correctly to stay within federal law. The National Tenant Network screening forms are: a Subscriber Agreement that opens your account, a written authorization signed by the applicant, the report request you submit through NTN’s online portal, and — if you deny the applicant or offer less favorable terms — an adverse action notice. Miss any of them and you either can’t run the report or you expose yourself to liability under the Fair Credit Reporting Act.
The Subscriber Agreement
Nothing happens until you have an active NTN subscriber account, and that starts with the Subscriber Agreement. It works as both your membership application and your contract with NTN. You complete it online through NTN’s website. It asks for your business or personal contact information, a primary billing address, and your federal Employer Identification Number if you operate as a business entity. Individual landlords typically supply a Social Security Number instead for tax reporting.
NTN charges a one-time setup fee of $50 to activate the account.1National Tenant Network. NTN Membership Plans After you sign the agreement, NTN emails you a list of the supporting documents to send in; the specifics depend on your situation.2National Tenant Network. Subscription Process If you screen tenants for properties you don’t personally own, expect to show proof of ownership or a management agreement.
Credentialing for Full Credit Reports
A standard subscription gives you criminal and eviction data. If you want full FICO-scored credit reports from a bureau like TransUnion, you have to become “fully credentialed,” which involves additional bureau-specific paperwork and a mandatory third-party site inspection of the location where you keep sensitive documents.3National Tenant Network. Join Our Network The inspector confirms you have a locking office, a crosscut shredder, locking file cabinets, and password-protected computers. The inspection fee is $85 and must be scheduled ahead of time.1National Tenant Network. NTN Membership Plans The requirements come from the credit bureaus, not from NTN, so there is no shortcut if you want scores.
The Applicant Authorization Form
Before you run any report, you need written authorization from the applicant. Under the FCRA, a landlord has a “permissible purpose” to obtain a consumer report the moment a tenant applies to rent the property.4Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1681b – Permissible Purposes of Consumer Reports Getting written consent on top of that is best practice and gives you clear proof if a question comes up later.5Federal Trade Commission. Using Consumer Reports: What Landlords Need to Know
NTN provides an authorization form through its subscriber dashboard. To fill it out, you’ll need the following from the applicant, usually collected on a standard rental application:
- Full legal name
- Date of birth
- Social Security Number
- A list of previous addresses
The address history matters because NTN uses it to search eviction filings and landlord-tenant court records across jurisdictions. Applicants without an SSN — some foreign nationals, for example — can sometimes provide an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number instead. If neither is available, automated screening generally won’t work, and you’ll have to rely on bank statements, pay stubs, or references from prior landlords.
The applicant signs and dates the authorization. Keep the signed original on file. The FCRA does not fix a specific retention period, but the statute of limitations for FCRA claims runs up to five years from the date of violation, so keeping records at least that long is a practical safeguard.
Submitting the Report Request in the Portal
With your account active and the authorization in hand, log into NTN’s secure portal and enter the applicant’s information. You then pick a report type. Current pricing:
- DecisionPoint — $23 per applicant; converts credit and eviction data into an objective decision score.
- DecisionPoint Plus — $25 per applicant; adds additional screening data on top of the standard DecisionPoint report.
- Multi-State Criminal Search — $22 per applicant; searches criminal records across multiple states.
- Full Service — $50 total, paid by the tenant; NTN collects the fee directly from the applicant, so the landlord pays nothing out of pocket.1National Tenant Network. NTN Membership Plans
Full Service is worth considering if you screen frequently, since it shifts the per-report cost entirely to the applicant. Under the Self Service model, you pay per report and decide whether to pass the cost along through an application fee. Some states cap the application fee a landlord can charge for screening, so check local rules before billing applicants directly.
After verifying the entries and selecting the report type, submit the request. Payment processes immediately through the billing method linked to your account. Most reports generate within minutes, are available for download in the portal, and trigger an email notification when ready.
The Adverse Action Notice
If you deny an applicant, charge a higher security deposit, or impose less favorable lease terms based on information in a screening report, federal law requires you to send an adverse action notice. This is not optional. The requirement comes from 15 U.S.C. § 1681m and applies whether you used NTN, another screening service, or pulled a credit report directly.6Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1681m – Requirements on Users of Consumer Reports
The notice has to include four elements:
- Notice of the adverse action itself — tell the applicant what happened: the application was denied, the deposit was increased, or whatever the unfavorable decision was.
- The screening agency’s contact information — the name, address, and phone number of the consumer reporting agency that furnished the report (here, National Tenant Network).
- A statement that the agency did not make the decision — NTN supplied the data but played no role in your decision and cannot explain why you made it.
- Notice of the applicant’s rights — that they can obtain a free copy of their report from NTN within 60 days and can dispute any inaccurate information in it.6Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1681m – Requirements on Users of Consumer Reports
If a credit score played a part in your decision, you also have to disclose the numerical score and related information. Many landlords work from a template letter; NTN may provide one through the subscriber portal, and standard templates are available from the FTC. What matters is that every required element appears in the document you send.
Skipping this notice is where landlords run into real trouble. A willful violation of FCRA requirements exposes you to statutory damages between $100 and $1,000 per violation, plus any actual damages the applicant proves, plus attorney fees.7Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1681n – Civil Liability for Willful Noncompliance A single denied applicant who never got the letter can file a federal lawsuit, and defending it costs far more than the notice itself.
What About the Reinvestigation Request?
You may see NTN’s Reinvestigation Request form referenced alongside the screening process. That form is filled out by applicants who believe their report contains errors, not by landlords, so it isn’t part of the screening paperwork on your side. Your only involvement is telling denied applicants they have the right to dispute the report, which is one of the four required elements of the adverse action notice.
Disposing of Screening Records
Once you no longer need a tenant’s screening report, you can’t just throw it in the trash. The FTC’s Disposal Rule requires anyone who uses consumer reports for a business purpose, landlords included, to take reasonable steps to destroy the information so it cannot be read or reconstructed.8Federal Trade Commission. Disposing of Consumer Report Information? Rule Tells How
For paper records, that means shredding, burning, or pulverizing. For electronic files, it means data-wiping software or physically destroying the storage media. If you hire a document destruction contractor, the FTC expects you to do some due diligence first: review an independent audit of the company’s operations, check references, or confirm certification from a recognized trade association.8Federal Trade Commission. Disposing of Consumer Report Information? Rule Tells How The rule covers not only the screening report itself but anything derived from it: notes on an applicant’s credit score, printouts of criminal records, summaries shared with a co-owner. Handle all of it the same way.