To get a credit report on a tenant, collect the applicant’s written consent along with their identifying information, then submit the request through one of the three national credit bureaus or a third-party tenant screening service. Federal law gives you a permissible purpose to pull the report once someone applies to rent from you, but it also sets strict rules on consent, how you use the information, and what you owe the applicant if you deny them. Getting the process wrong can cost $100 to $1,000 per violation in statutory damages, so each step matters.
Your Legal Right to Pull the Report
The Fair Credit Reporting Act gives landlords a “permissible purpose” to obtain a consumer report when an applicant initiates a rental transaction. Under 15 U.S.C. ยง 1681b, a consumer reporting agency may furnish a report to someone with a legitimate business need for the information in connection with a transaction the consumer started.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1681b – Permissible Purposes of Consumer Reports Filling out your rental application counts. You don’t need a special license or landlord certification to request the report.
You do need the applicant’s consent before pulling anything. The FCRA allows consumer reporting agencies to furnish reports “in accordance with the written instructions of the consumer,” and virtually every screening service requires a signed or electronically accepted authorization before processing the request.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1681b – Permissible Purposes of Consumer Reports Pulling a report without a permissible purpose or proper authorization is treated as a willful violation, which carries steeper penalties than an honest mistake.
Information to Collect From the Applicant
Credit bureaus match records using a combination of personal identifiers. You’ll need the applicant’s full legal name, current address, date of birth, and Social Security number. Previous addresses from the last two years help the bureau locate the right file, especially for applicants who have moved frequently. Most landlords gather all of this through a standard rental application form that includes the consent language in the same document.
Verify the details before you submit. A transposed digit in a Social Security number or a misspelled name can pull the wrong person’s report or return nothing at all. Cross-referencing the application against a government-issued photo ID catches most errors and confirms the applicant is who they claim to be.
Three Ways To Access the Report
You have three main options, and the right choice depends on how many units you manage and how much of the process you want to handle yourself.
- Direct accounts with Equifax, Experian, or TransUnion give you access to credit data straight from the source. Each bureau has its own enrollment process, and you may need to verify your identity and property ownership before they’ll approve you.
- Third-party tenant screening services bundle the credit report with background checks, eviction history, and often a risk score. These services handle the bureau relationship for you, which saves setup time.
- Applicant-initiated reports let you send a link to the applicant, who pays the fee and authorizes the pull. Experian’s tenant screening product works this way, with the renter paying $35 for a report that can be shared across multiple listings.
Screening fees generally run between $30 and $75 per applicant. A credit-only pull costs less than a full package that includes criminal records and eviction history. Many states cap the amount you can charge an applicant for screening, so check your local rules before passing the cost along. Where a cap applies, you typically can’t charge more than your actual out-of-pocket cost.
Portable Tenant Screening Reports
A growing number of states now allow or require landlords to accept portable tenant screening reports that the applicant purchases and shares with multiple landlords. Colorado and Illinois have passed laws making acceptance mandatory in certain circumstances. These reports are typically valid for 30 days from issuance and include credit data, criminal records, and eviction history. If an applicant shows up with one, check whether your state requires you to accept it before insisting on running your own.
What the Report Actually Shows
A tenant screening report can include more than a credit score. According to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, these reports may contain credit history, rental history including eviction actions, employment verification, criminal records, sex offender registry results, and a risk score or recommendation based on criteria the landlord selects.2Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. What Is a Tenant Screening Report?
The credit portion shows open and closed accounts, payment history, outstanding balances, collections, and public records like bankruptcies. What you won’t see is a simple “approve” or “deny” label. The report gives you data; you decide what to do with it.
When a Security Freeze Blocks the Request
If an applicant has placed a security freeze on their credit file, the bureau will block your request entirely. You won’t get a partial report or a plain-language explanation. The request simply fails. This catches landlords off guard, especially with younger applicants who froze their credit after a data breach and forgot about it.
The fix requires the applicant to act. Under federal law, credit bureaus must lift a freeze within one hour of an online or phone request, or within three business days for mail requests, and they cannot charge a fee.3USAGov. How To Place or Lift a Security Freeze on Your Credit Report The applicant can lift the freeze temporarily for a specific period or for a specific party. Once the freeze is lifted, you can resubmit the request normally.
Fair Housing Considerations
Credit data isn’t a neutral tool, and landlords who rely on it too heavily can walk into Fair Housing Act problems. A rigid credit score cutoff that automatically rejects everyone below it may seem objective, but if that threshold disproportionately screens out applicants in a protected class, it can create disparate impact liability. Blanket policies that exclude anyone with no credit history are particularly risky, since they tend to affect younger applicants, immigrants, and people who have historically been excluded from mainstream financial products.
A safer approach evaluates applications together with income, employment stability, and rental references. Whatever criteria you apply, apply them consistently to every applicant and document your reasoning.
Adverse Action Notice Requirements
If you deny an application, charge a higher security deposit, or impose less favorable terms because of something in the credit report, you must send the applicant an adverse action notice. This applies even when the credit report was only one factor in your decision.4Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1681m – Requirements on Users of Consumer Reports
The notice must include:
- The name, address, and phone number of the credit bureau that furnished the report.4Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1681m – Requirements on Users of Consumer Reports
- A statement that the bureau did not make the denial decision and cannot explain why you denied the application.
- Notice that the applicant can get a free copy of their report from the bureau within 60 days.4Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1681m – Requirements on Users of Consumer Reports
- Notice that the applicant can dispute any inaccurate or incomplete information in the report with the bureau.4Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1681m – Requirements on Users of Consumer Reports
This is the step landlords skip most often. Many assume they only need a notice when they formally reject someone, but it also applies when you offer worse terms than you’d give an applicant with clean credit.
Disposing of the Report
Once you’ve made your decision, you can’t just toss the report in the trash or leave the PDF sitting in your downloads folder indefinitely. Federal rules require reasonable measures to prevent unauthorized access to consumer report data when you dispose of it. For paper copies, that means shredding, burning, or pulverizing the document so it can’t be read or reconstructed. For electronic files, you need to destroy or erase them so the data can’t be recovered.5Federal Trade Commission. Disposing of Consumer Report Information? Rule Tells How
If you hire a document destruction company, the FTC expects you to do some due diligence: check references, review their security policies, or confirm they’re certified by a recognized industry association.5Federal Trade Commission. Disposing of Consumer Report Information? Rule Tells How Deleting a file from your desktop without emptying the recycle bin doesn’t count.
Penalties for Getting It Wrong
FCRA violations break into two categories with very different consequences. A willful violation, like pulling a report without consent or ignoring the adverse action notice requirement, exposes you to statutory damages between $100 and $1,000 per violation, plus any actual damages the applicant suffered and punitive damages at the court’s discretion.6Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 US Code 1681n – Civil Liability for Willful Noncompliance If a court finds you knowingly pulled a report without a permissible purpose, the minimum is $1,000 or actual damages, whichever is higher.
Negligent violations are lighter but still costly. You’d owe actual damages plus the applicant’s attorney fees and court costs.7Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 US Code 1681o – Civil Liability for Negligent Noncompliance The attorney fee provision matters because it makes it economically viable for tenants to sue even when their actual damages are small.