Denied an Apartment Because of a Background Check? What to Do

By Derek Holt · Last checked October 20, 2026

The short version

A landlord who rejects you because of something in a tenant background check has to tell you so, and has to tell you where the report came from. That notice is your way in. It lets you get the report free, find out what is in it, and fix anything that is wrong.

The same rule covers more than a flat no. The FTC lists these as adverse actions when they are based on a background check: denying the application, requiring a cosigner, requiring a deposit another applicant would not have to pay, requiring a larger deposit, and charging higher rent.

What a tenant background check is

Landlords often pay a company to pull a report on applicants. The FTC says these are called tenant background checks, tenant screening reports, or resident screening reports. Under federal law they are consumer reports, so the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) applies.

According to the FTC and the CFPB, a report can include:

• Credit reports and payment history on your accounts
• Rental history and housing court records, including eviction cases
• Criminal records
• Employment and income checks
• Bankruptcies and lawsuits
• A score or recommendation based on criteria the landlord picked

The CFPB keeps a list of consumer reporting companies that includes tenant screening companies.

What the landlord has to give you

The duty comes from 15 U.S.C. 1681m. The FTC’s guidance for landlords spells it out. If a landlord takes an adverse action based partly or completely on a consumer report, the landlord must give you a notice in writing, electronically, or orally. It must include:

Two details from the FTC’s landlord guidance are worth knowing. The notice is required even if the report played only a small part in the decision. And if the landlord used a credit score, it must also give you, in writing or electronically, the score, where it came from, the date it was created, the range of possible scores, and the key factors that hurt it.

The FTC adds that local law may give you more rights about this notice.

Step 1: Get the free report within 60 days

Under 15 U.S.C. 1681j(b), the screening company must give you your file free if you ask within 60 days of receiving the notice. You can ask the landlord to share the report too. The FTC says that even if the landlord says no, the screening company still has to give you the free copy within that window.

Ask in writing if you can, and keep a copy of what you sent and when. If you only got an oral notice, the FTC suggests asking the landlord for a written copy.

Step 2: Check it line by line

The FTC says screening companies must take reasonable steps to keep reports accurate, but errors still happen. Its list of common ones:

• Information that belongs to someone else, often a person with a similar name or birth date
• Cases shown without their outcome, such as an eviction case that was dismissed
• The same record listed twice, so it looks like two cases
• Information too old to be reported
• Criminal or eviction records that were sealed or expunged

Use the FTC’s federal time limits to spot the “too old” items:

The CFPB says some states go further. Some let you seal eviction or criminal records, and some prohibit using eviction lawsuit information in rental decisions. State laws vary, so check yours.

Step 3: Dispute what is wrong

Send the dispute to the screening company named on the notice. The FTC’s advice:

• Describe each error and include copies of documents that back you up, such as a court order dismissing an eviction case or proof a debt was paid.
• If you call, follow up in writing.
• Tell the landlord you have filed a dispute.

The law gives the company a deadline. Under 15 U.S.C. 1681i(a)(1), it must do a reasonable reinvestigation, free, within 30 days of getting your dispute. That can stretch by up to 15 more days if you send relevant information during the first 30. The FTC notes some states set shorter deadlines. If the information turns out to be inaccurate, incomplete, or cannot be confirmed, the company must correct or delete it, and it must tell you the results in writing.

If the company corrects the report, give the landlord the updated version or ask the company to send it.

Fix the source, not just the report

A screening report is only as good as the records it pulls from. The FTC suggests two more places to fix errors:

• The creditor or old landlord. If a debt or a rent payment is reported wrong, contact whoever reported it and send proof. If they reported it wrong, they must send the correction to the companies they reported it to.
• The court. If a housing or criminal court record is wrong, ask the court to correct it. You can also ask your former landlord, in writing, to send the court updated information. The FTC says some courts have self-help centers, and legal aid offices can help if yours does not.

If the dispute does not go your way

The FTC says you can ask the screening company to add a statement of the dispute to your file and to future reports. You can also ask it to send your statement, or a summary, to anyone who got your report in the last six months. The company may charge a fee for that.

If a landlord skipped the notice, or a company ignored your dispute, you can report it to the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov or submit a complaint to the CFPB. Both agencies enforce the FCRA. Your state attorney general and local legal aid office are other places to ask. The CFPB says that if your FCRA rights were violated, you may have a right to sue, and deadlines apply, so talk to a lawyer soon rather than later.

Worked example

This is an illustration, not a real person or landlord. Wendell applies for a one-bedroom. Two days later the leasing office calls: he is approved, but only if he adds a cosigner. He asks why. They say his screening report showed an eviction.

Wendell has never been evicted. Here is what he does:

1. He asks for the notice in writing. The email names the screening company, its address, and its phone number, and mentions the free report and the right to dispute.
2. That week he requests his free report from the screening company, well inside 60 days.
3. The report shows an eviction case from a city he has never lived in, under a man with the same first and last name and a different middle name.
4. He sends a written dispute with a copy of his ID and his leases from the past three years, and emails the leasing office to say the dispute is open.
5. The company deletes the record and sends him the result in writing. He asks the company to send the corrected report to the landlord and forwards a copy himself.

The cosigner request was an adverse action under the FTC’s definition, so the notice was owed even though he was not flatly turned down.

Before your next application

The FTC suggests a few steps that cut the chance of errors before you pay any fee:

• [ ] Give your full first, middle, and last name and your date of birth, so the company pulls the right person.
• [ ] Before paying an application or screening fee, ask what information the landlord uses to decide.
• [ ] Pull your free credit reports at AnnualCreditReport.com and fix errors first.
• [ ] If you ever had a housing court case, check the court record shows the right outcome.
• [ ] Keep any court orders, dismissals, or payoff letters where you can find them fast.

The FTC also tells landlords that a blanket policy of refusing anyone with a criminal record may violate the Fair Housing Act. If you think a decision was discriminatory, a local fair housing organization or legal aid office can tell you what applies where you live.

Related reading

Start with how much rent you can actually afford so the unit fits your budget before you pay to apply. To clean up your credit file ahead of time, see how to get your free credit reports and how to dispute an error on your credit report.