Landlords - Your Requirements Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act

Author : Miller Kirkpatrick | Published On : 13 Oct 2025

Every landlord should run a appraisal of creditworthiness on all potential tenant applications. The report will assist you to observe the possibility tenant has paid his bills in the past 7 years. The report will highlight the outstanding balances on most of his / her debts in addition to their minimum payment per month. The report will reveal whether they have made the money they owe on time every single month or would they pay 30, 60 or even 90 days late. Most reports will provide you with a credit rating that may show their current credit history.
Landlords will attempt to rent out a house they may have purchased sometimes for over six figures. In addition they have spent thousands or hundreds and hundreds of dollars on repairs. Landlords could have big money vested of their property. The last thing you need is always to lose that property due to a lawsuit for violating the Fair Credit Reporting Act or FCRA. Even should you don't lose the home you may be facing step fines and penalties for each violation. The only way to avoid this disaster is to ensure you tend not to violate the FCRA.
The Fair Credit Reporting Act covers the rejection associated with a potential tenant application based on any information found in their credit history. If you use the data in the credit profile you should give you a notice towards the applicant. This notice is commonly termed as an "adverse action notice." This notice must include the name of the credit scoring agency that provided the credit history. It must also include the consumer's rights beneath the FCRA. You can get examples of what you ought to include in this information in the Federal Trade Commission website.
Even in case you reject an application for whatever reason aside from the report on their credit, you have to still provide notice on the applicant. This notice is essential when you did use a set of credit in considering the potential applicant.
The purpose from the notice is always to allow the potential applicant the authority to obtain a copy of these credit report in the credit rating agency that you just used. This allows them to review their credit profile for almost any errors and also to have them corrected.
If you neglect to supply the notice, the potential tenant can sue you for damages in federal court. If they are successful within their lawsuit against you, they are able to recover court costs and reasonable attorney's fees. property management doncaster would be in addition to the amount they collect for damages.