You can view your rental history report for free by requesting it directly from the tenant screening companies that collect rental data on you. Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, each of these companies has to give you a copy of your file once every 12 months at no charge, and they must deliver it within 15 days of receiving your request.1Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Experian RentBureau The catch is that there’s no single site to visit. You have to figure out which companies hold data on you and ask each one.
Find the Companies That Have a File on You
Tenant screening companies are specialty consumer reporting agencies. Most won’t have anything on you unless you’ve applied for a rental before or a past landlord reported your payment history to them. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau publishes a list of consumer reporting companies, organized by category, that identifies the major tenant screening firms along with their contact information and request instructions.2Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. List of Consumer Reporting Companies Start there.
Experian RentBureau runs the largest rental payment database and is a reasonable first stop. You can request your file online at experian.com/rentbureau, by phone at (877) 704-4519, or by mailing a written request to Experian RentBureau, P.O. Box 26, Allen, TX 75013.1Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Experian RentBureau CoreLogic, TransUnion SmartMove, and LexisNexis also operate tenant screening files; their request details are on the same CFPB list.
What You’ll Need to Request a Copy
Each company will ask for enough identifying information to locate your file. Expect to provide your full name, date of birth, Social Security number, and your previous addresses. Some companies have online portals; others require a form you download and mail in. If you don’t get a response within 15 days, follow up in writing and keep a copy.
If a Landlord Just Denied Your Application
A denial based on a screening report comes with its own free-copy right. When a landlord turns you down, raises your deposit, requires a co-signer, or otherwise offers worse terms because of what a screening report said, they have to give you an adverse action notice that names the screening company they used. From the date you receive that notice, you have 60 days to request a free copy of the report from that company, in addition to the free annual copy you’re already entitled to.3Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 U.S. Code 1681j – Charges for Certain Disclosures This is often the fastest way to learn which company a landlord actually used. Act on the notice right away.
What the Report Will Show
Contents vary by company, but a typical tenant screening report pulls together:
- Eviction filings, judgments, and dismissals from court records. A single case can sometimes appear more than once if different stages (filing, detainer, judgment) are listed separately.
- Rental payment history reported by landlords or property managers to databases like Experian RentBureau.
- Previous addresses from public records and data aggregators.
- Misdemeanor and felony records from state and county courts.
- Credit information such as overdue bills, collections, and scores from the three major credit bureaus.
Some companies also pull liens, bankruptcies, and property ownership history. Negative information has limits: eviction records and civil judgments can appear for up to seven years, and sealed or expunged records should not appear at all.4Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Review Your Rental Background Check
Pull Your Credit Reports Too
Landlords typically order a credit report alongside the tenant screening report, so checking your credit file is part of seeing what a landlord sees. You can get free reports from Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion every week through AnnualCreditReport.com, which is the only site authorized by the federal government for free reports.5Annual Credit Report. Getting Your Credit Reports The three bureaus made weekly free access permanent, replacing the former once-a-year limit.6Federal Trade Commission. Free Credit Reports
Rental-related items that may appear on a credit report include unpaid rent sent to collections and any rent-payment tradelines a landlord or reporting service has added. An eviction judgment itself can still appear on your tenant screening report even if it’s not on your credit report, so pulling both gives you the fuller picture.7Experian. Judgments No Longer Appear on a Credit Report
Ask Former Landlords Directly
Screening databases miss a lot. Smaller landlords often don’t report to any database, so your formal report may be thin or incomplete. Contact previous landlords and ask for your tenancy dates, payment history, the condition of the unit when you left, and the reason you moved. They may give you a verbal reference, a written letter, or a copy of the payment ledger. Keep old leases, rent receipts, and bank statements showing recurring payments. Those records help confirm what a landlord tells you and become evidence if you need to challenge something later.
Dispute Anything That’s Wrong
Once you have the report in hand, go through it line by line. Check tenancy dates, payment amounts, eviction entries, and any criminal information. Watch for the same eviction listed multiple times, dismissed cases shown without the dismissal, or records that belong to someone else. An eviction that was dismissed should say so plainly; if the entry only reflects the filing, that’s worth disputing.4Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Review Your Rental Background Check
Send disputes in writing to the screening company or credit bureau that produced the report, and attach supporting documents such as leases, receipts, bank statements, or court records showing a dismissal. The agency has 30 days to investigate, extendable to 45 if you submit additional information during the window.8Federal Trade Commission. Fair Credit Reporting Act Section 611 If the investigation confirms an error, the agency has to correct or delete it and notify anyone it previously shared the data with.9Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. How Do I Dispute an Error on My Credit Report?
You can also dispute directly with the company that reported the bad information, such as a former landlord or property manager. Those furnishers are held to the same 30-day investigation requirement.10Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. 12 CFR 1022.43 – Direct Disputes If the problem isn’t fixed, file a complaint with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau at consumerfinance.gov/complaint; the bureau forwards it to the company and tracks the response.11Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Submit a Complaint The FCRA also lets you add a brief statement to your file explaining your side of any item that stays on the report after a dispute.