A tenant screening report cost you the apartment, and you have never seen it.
10,333 complaints about six specialty screening companies reached the federal regulator in twelve months, and not one of them was closed with any relief for the person who complained.
The clocks are fixed: 60 days from the adverse action to request your free report copy, then 30 days for the screening company to conclude a dispute investigation — 45 days if you send additional information while it is running. Put the date on your denial letter in and get the actual dates.
Runs entirely in your browser — the date is never sent to us and never stored. General information based on FCRA consumer rights as explained in FTC and CFPB guidance. Sources re-checked September 28, 2026: 9 of 9 unchanged. Your denial letter and the agencies' own pages govern your case.
Or let the Screening Dispute Kit write the letters.
“Credit check shows eviction, but I wasn't actually evicted.”
We hear this most. a thread title on r/personalfinance, read September 3, 2026 — from someone in the same position.
The landlord has to tell you a report was used and name the company behind it, under 15 U.S.C. §1681m(a). You then have 60 days to ask that company for a free copy. A dispute gives it 30 days to reinvestigate, and up to 15 more with new evidence.
Here is the one number that tells you which route is worth your evening. Over the same twelve months, on the same regulator, Equifax closed 46% of the complaints it closed with relief and TransUnion 42%. So a complaint to the regulator is not the thing that moves this. The clock is, and the clock is in the statute.
What to do tonight →Free, and it stays free. Nothing on this page sits behind a payment, an account, or a form — and we never ask for your name, your Social Security number, or your case. The tools here run entirely in your browser; we never see your answers.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau answers this on its own page, What should I do if my rental application is denied because of a tenant screening report? We read it on October 8, 2026. Its list has 4 items, and the first is that the notice can be written, oral or electronic. The notice names the company that provided the report, with its address and phone number. It also explains your right to a free copy within 60 days, and your right to dispute. The statute behind that list is 15 U.S.C. §1681m(a).
The same page says a refusal is only 1 kind of adverse action. Co-signer demands count, and so do a larger deposit or higher rent than others pay. If 1 of those happened to you, you are owed the same notice. The CFPB also suggests asking the landlord which part of the report was the problem.
CFPB page last reviewed May 28, 2024 and last modified October 30, 2025, both dates printed on the page; read October 8, 2026.
Your dispute is the clock under 15 U.S.C. §1681i(a)(1). The screening company has 30 days from receiving it to reinvestigate. If you send relevant information meanwhile, it can be extended by up to 15 further days – 45 days in total. The CFPB page puts it the same way: generally 30 days, longer in some cases. Some states, it adds, set shorter deadlines.
2 more details from that page matter tonight. If the tenant report holds a credit report from a nationwide bureau, you can dispute that error with the bureau, with whoever supplied the information, or with both. And the free copy runs under 15 U.S.C. §1681j(b), which counts the 60 days from your notice.
Statute read at govinfo.gov, United States Code, 2023 edition, on October 8, 2026.
A tenant screening dispute is 1 letter you can write tonight. You call a lawyer instead, or as well, when:
We read the CFPB's own page on rental denials on October 8, 2026. Its final lines say: If you sue under this federal law and win, you may be able to recover damages and your attorney fees.
The same page says lawsuit deadlines apply, so do not let a lost apartment sit for months before you ask.
The National Association of Consumer Advocates keeps a Find an Attorney directory of consumer lawyers, searched by area and kind of case. Credit reporting is 1 of its case types, and NACA says that covers credit report errors. Ask any lawyer how they charge before you sign anything.
When money is the problem, the Legal Services Corporation's Find Legal Aid page takes an address and names the LSC-funded legal aid organization there. LSC describes its funding as civil legal aid for low-income Americans.
Our pages earn no referral fee from NACA, LSC or any lawyer, and Axion Labs passes nothing you type here to them.
Disputes fix errors. They don't erase history that's true — accurate records survive investigation. If the record is real, what helps is settling and documenting it, second-chance programs, and time. We built this site for honest people hit by wrong records.
If you would rather not assemble it by hand: the Screening Dispute Kit (USD 39) writes the letter to the screening company and the one to whoever turned you down, dates your clock and gives you the CFPB text, in your browser. Everything above stays free.
Now you know the landlord owes you the screening company's name, that the free copy is yours within 60 days of the notice, and that a written dispute gives the company 30 days to answer.
A tenant screening denial usually arrives as 1 line in an email. The instinct is to apply somewhere else and hope; do that if you need to, but send the 2 letters first. If the next landlord uses the same company, it sees the same file, so a wrong line you dispute tonight may never reach that landlord.
— Andrew at Axion Labs. Write to me at hello@getaxionlabs.com if a page here is wrong or a step does not work. I read that inbox.Next, on this site: Denied and told nothing: what you can demand · An eviction on your record that is not yours · A tenant score too low to rent: what the score is · Background check dispute: the same clock for a job.
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