If a Landlord Rejected You Over a Background Check, Read the Report First

If a landlord just turned you down because of a background check, there is a real chance your report is wrong.

RentGrow, one of the biggest tenant screening companies in the country, paid the FTC $2.25 million on July 9 to settle allegations that its reports counted the same criminal case two, three, four times. One arrest, in the wrong report, can look like three arrests. A single eviction filing can look like a pattern of trouble.

Christopher Mufarrige, the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection Director, said it flat: “Companies that provide background reports have a responsibility under the law to take reasonable steps to ensure the accuracy of those reports and to comply with other requirements of the FCRA.”

RentGrow did not, according to the settlement. The FTC’s July 9 filing says the company failed to filter duplicate case records, failed to disclose that it was pulling data through a LexisNexis product called Accurint, and told renters their disputed information had been “corrected” while telling the property managers that nothing had changed.

Translation. A ten-year-old dismissed charge, matched three times in the database, becomes a stack of “prior offenses” a landlord sees before they see your income. Or you dispute an eviction that was not yours, RentGrow marks it fixed in your file, and the property manager who already turned you down never gets the update.

Here’s what they don’t tell you. Most rejected renters never ask for the report. The landlord sends a form letter, you move on, the bad report keeps circulating to the next landlord and the one after that. The Fair Credit Reporting Act, the same law that governs your credit score, gives you two rights that a lot of people forget.

First, if a landlord turned you down based on a screening report, they must send you an adverse action notice with the screening company’s name and contact info. You have 60 days from that notice to ask for a free copy of the report. Ask.

Second, when you spot an error, you dispute it in writing. The screening company has 30 days to investigate and correct or delete the bad data. Send it certified mail. Keep the receipt.

Do this now. If you were denied in the last 60 days, pull the report today. If you were denied longer ago, you can still buy a copy and dispute. Check for the same case listed more than once. Check for names or birthdays that are not yours. If the report shows data pulled from Accurint or another LexisNexis product, ask for the source records too.

If the dispute goes nowhere, file a complaint at reportfraud.ftc.gov and one with your state attorney general. Under the FCRA, you can also sue for actual damages plus attorney’s fees. Not the fast path, but a real one.

The RentGrow settlement does not create a consumer refund. It is an injunction plus the fine to the government. What it does give you is proof: if your report was wrong, you were not imagining it. The FTC found the practice serious enough to name the company and take the money.

File this away for anyone you know shopping for a rental. The best time to catch an error is before the landlord sees it.

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