A tenant screening background check is a consumer report a landlord orders to evaluate a rental applicant, pulling together credit history, criminal records, and prior eviction filings. Two federal laws set the rules. The Fair Credit Reporting Act controls how the report is obtained, used, and challenged. The Fair Housing Act prohibits applying the results in a way that discriminates against protected classes. Getting either piece wrong exposes a landlord to statutory damages, fair housing complaints, or both.
Written Consent and Applicant Information
Before any report is pulled, the applicant has to sign a written authorization that describes how the report will be used.1FTC. Using Consumer Reports: What Landlords Need to Know A verbal okay doesn’t count. Neither does a checkbox buried in a lease application. The form should state plainly that a consumer report will be obtained to evaluate the rental application, and the signature has to come before the request goes to the screening company.
To run the search, you need the applicant’s full legal name along with any former names, date of birth, and Social Security Number. Those identifiers let the reporting agency match the applicant to the correct records across national databases. Applicants without a Social Security Number can often substitute an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number, though the agency may require extra identity verification. A government-issued photo ID should also be collected so you can confirm the person in front of you matches the information on the application.
What a Screening Report Covers
A completed report pulls from several record categories, each with its own reporting limits under federal law.
Credit History
The credit section shows open and closed accounts, including credit cards, auto loans, and student debt. It tracks on-time payments, collections, and outstanding balances, and summarizes everything with a three-digit score. Consumer reporting agencies have to follow reasonable procedures to ensure the information they report is as accurate as possible.2Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1681e – Compliance Procedures
Negative credit items generally fall off after seven years, including collections accounts, civil judgments, and paid tax liens. Bankruptcies can appear for up to ten years.3Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1681c – Requirements Relating to Information Contained in Consumer Reports A twelve-year-old collection account should not be showing up on a current report.
Eviction History
The eviction section shows filings from previous landlords, including cases that were dismissed or settled before judgment. Eviction records can appear on a tenant screening report for up to seven years. Debts owed to a landlord that were later discharged in bankruptcy can remain for up to ten years.4Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. How Long Can Information, Like Eviction Actions and Lawsuits, Stay on My Tenant Screening Record
Criminal Background
Criminal history checks draw from local, state, and federal databases, and reports also screen the National Sex Offender Registry. Records of criminal convictions have no federal time limit, so a conviction from decades ago can still appear.3Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1681c – Requirements Relating to Information Contained in Consumer Reports Arrests that didn’t lead to a conviction fall under the standard seven-year cutoff. Some states shorten these windows or prohibit reporting non-conviction records entirely, so the criminal section can look different depending on where the applicant has lived.
Using Criminal Records Without Running Afoul of Fair Housing Law
This is where many landlords get into trouble. HUD guidance makes clear that rejecting every applicant with any criminal record won’t survive scrutiny. Because criminal-history-based denials fall more heavily on certain racial and national origin groups, they trigger the Fair Housing Act’s disparate impact standard.
- Arrests alone cannot be a basis for denial. An arrest without a conviction is not proof that someone committed a crime, so excluding applicants on that basis does not serve a legitimate interest.
- Blanket conviction bans are also vulnerable. A policy that denies anyone with any conviction, regardless of what it was or how long ago it happened, is unlikely to hold up to a fair housing challenge.
- Individualized assessment is the safer route. HUD recommends weighing the nature and severity of the offense, how long ago it occurred, the applicant’s age at the time, their tenant history before and after, and any evidence of rehabilitation.
A growing number of cities and states have adopted fair chance housing laws that go beyond the federal guidance, restricting when during the application process a landlord may even look at criminal history. Check local requirements before ordering a criminal search.
Applying Criteria Uniformly
The Fair Housing Act, at 42 U.S.C. ยง 3604, makes it illegal to discriminate in rental housing based on race, color, religion, sex, disability, familial status, or national origin.5Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 USC 3604 – Discrimination in the Sale or Rental of Housing and Other Prohibited Practices Whatever criteria you set, every applicant has to be measured against the same ones. A 650 minimum credit score has to apply to the next applicant the same way it applied to the last one. Private lawsuits for violations can result in actual damages, punitive damages, and attorney’s fees.6Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 USC 3613 – Enforcement by Private Persons
The Adverse Action Notice When You Deny an Applicant
If information in a screening report plays any part in rejecting an applicant, raising the security deposit, requiring a co-signer, or imposing any other unfavorable term, you have to give the applicant an adverse action notice.7Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1681m – Requirements on Users of Consumer Reports This holds even if the report was only one factor in the decision.1FTC. Using Consumer Reports: What Landlords Need to Know
The notice must include:
- The name, address, and phone number of the reporting agency that provided the screening report.
- A statement that the reporting agency did not make the decision and cannot explain the reasons for it.
- Notice that the applicant can request a free copy of the report from that agency within 60 days.
- Notice that the applicant can dispute the accuracy or completeness of any information in the report directly with the reporting agency.
If a credit score factored into the decision, additional disclosures apply. The notice has to include the numerical score used, the range of possible scores under that model, the date the score was created, the source of the score, and up to four key factors that hurt the score (five if the number of credit inquiries is one of them).8Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Fair Credit Reporting Act Examination Procedures
Skipping the adverse action notice is one of the most common FCRA violations landlords commit. Willful noncompliance carries statutory damages of $100 to $1,000 per violation, plus actual damages and attorney’s fees.9Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1681n – Civil Liability for Willful Noncompliance Even negligent violations expose a landlord to actual damages and legal costs.10Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1681o – Civil Liability for Negligent Noncompliance
When an Applicant Disputes the Report
Screening reports aren’t always accurate. Mixed files, where two people’s records get combined, show up more often than most landlords realize, along with outdated items and plain data entry errors. When an applicant says something is wrong, the dispute runs through the reporting agency, not through you.
Once the agency receives a dispute, it has 30 days to investigate and respond. That window can be extended by up to 15 additional days if the applicant submits new supporting information during the initial period.11Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1681i – Procedure in Case of Disputed Accuracy If the agency can’t verify the disputed information, it has to delete it.
Have a plan for applications that sit in limbo during a dispute. Holding a unit for a month is rarely workable, and rejecting someone whose report turns out to be wrong creates its own exposure. Some landlords issue a conditional approval; others hold the application open on a written timeline. Pick an approach, document it, and apply it the same way to every applicant.
Keeping and Destroying the Records
Federal regulations require screening-related records to be kept for at least 25 months after you notify the applicant of your decision.12eCFR. 12 CFR 1002.12 – Record Retention That covers the application itself, the signed consent form, anything you relied on to evaluate the applicant, and the adverse action notice if one went out. If you become aware of a government investigation or lawsuit alleging a violation, the records have to be kept until the matter is fully resolved, even past the 25 months.
When records are disposed of, federal law requires reasonable measures to keep the data from falling into the wrong hands. Paper has to be shredded, burned, or pulverized so it can’t be reconstructed. Electronic files have to be destroyed or erased beyond recovery. If you hire a document destruction vendor, you remain responsible for vetting them and monitoring the contract.13eCFR. 16 CFR Part 682 – Disposal of Consumer Report Information and Records Dropping old applications in the dumpster behind the leasing office is the kind of shortcut that creates liability.