Getting rejected from an apartment stings. But here’s something most renters — young or old — don’t know: if a background check is why you got turned down, you don’t have to just accept it and move on.
Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), a landlord who denies your rental application because of something in a tenant screening report is required by law to tell you that’s what happened. It’s called an “adverse action notice” — usually a letter or email — and it has to tell you what reporting agency provided the report that was used against you.
And once you know who ran the report, you have the right to get a free copy of it — but act quickly. Under federal law, you typically have 60 days from receiving the adverse action notice to request that free copy, so don’t sit on it.
Why does that matter? Because these reports have errors. Sometimes a lot of them. Wrong criminal records showing up under your name, evictions that belong to someone else, outdated information that should’ve been removed — it happens more than you’d think. You can’t fight something you can’t see.
So if you get denied, here’s what to do. First, look for that adverse action notice. If the landlord didn’t send one, that’s actually a violation of federal law in itself. Second, contact the screening company named in the notice and request your free report. Third, read through it carefully and look for anything that seems wrong or doesn’t belong to you.
If you find errors, you have the right to dispute them directly with the reporting agency. They’re required to investigate.
This applies whether you’re 18 and renting your first place, or helping a parent figure out what happened after a rejection. The law covers you either way.