Best background check for landlords: what to buy, and how reliable each part is

What each provider publishes about its own price

How to set up tenant screening you can defend

1. Write your criteria before you see an application. Income multiple, treatment of prior evictions, credit position and how you handle criminal records. Written criteria applied to everybody are the strongest answer to a discrimination claim and they make decisions faster.
2. Collect the same information from every applicant. Full legal name, date of birth, current and previous addresses, employment and income with verification contacts, and previous landlord references. A process that varies between applicants is the easiest route to a fair housing problem.
3. Get a separate written authorization to screen. You need a permissible purpose, which a genuine tenancy application provides, and you must certify it to the provider. Written authorization is the standard way to evidence it, and it should not be buried in the application text.
4. Plan the adverse action notice before you need it. Declining, raising a deposit or requiring a guarantor because of a report is adverse action. You must identify the reporting agency, say it did not make the decision, and tell the applicant they may get a free copy and dispute it.

What the published price actually is

RentSpree is the one provider on the tenant side of this record that publishes a rate, printing $39.99 for a standard screening report and $49.99 for a comprehensive one, both quoted from its own pricing page with the date read. Every other tenant screening provider here either answers with no figure or could not be read at all, so a landlord comparing this market on published prices is comparing one data point.

That is not a criticism of the others. AmRent, RentGrow, SafeRent and Screening Reports sell largely to property management operators on contracted terms, and TransUnion SmartMove's page appears to carry a pricing table whose figure is injected by script, so what the page actually serves contains no price. All of that is recorded here with the pages and the dates, rather than filled in with an estimate.

Eviction data is the weakest part of a tenant rental history

Eviction records come from civil court filings, and a filing is not an outcome. Cases that were dismissed, settled or decided for the tenant appear, dispositions are frequently missing, and matching is often on name alone because the filing itself contains little else. The CFPB has criticised the accuracy of tenant screening data publicly, and an applicant who says a record is not theirs is making a plausible claim.

Treat an eviction entry as a question to put to the applicant and, where it matters to your decision, check the court record directly. That is slower than reading the report and it is the difference between a defensible decision and a repeated error.

Criminal records and fair housing

HUD's guidance is that a blanket refusal to rent to anybody with any criminal record risks a disparate impact violation of the Fair Housing Act. The expectation is an individualised look at what the record was, how long ago it was, and its relevance to tenancy, applied consistently. A policy that says no records ever is both riskier and less useful than one that says which records matter and why.

Colorado is a useful example of a state layering its own rules on top: its tenant screening legislation restricts how far back a landlord may consider certain records and constrains the use of some information entirely, and several other states have their own limits on application fees, on providing a copy of the report, and on the reporting of sealed eviction records. Check your own state before finalising criteria.

The tenant screening checklist, in the order to run it

Write the criteria first: income multiple, acceptable income sources, credit threshold, what rental history you require and what criminal findings are relevant to the tenancy, all written down before anyone applies. Then take a complete application with the applicant's address history on it, because the addresses decide which courts get searched. Take the standalone written authorization before ordering anything. Order the report, and read the eviction section knowing it is the weakest part of it.

Then apply the criteria you wrote, the same way, to every applicant, and record the reason for each decision. If the report is part of why you decline somebody, run the adverse action steps: tell them, give them the summary of rights and the agency's details, leave them a real opportunity to dispute, and only then confirm. The checklist's value is not the order of the steps but that it is the same order every time, because consistency is the whole of your defense if a decision is ever challenged.

Questions buyers ask before they order

What does tenant screening cost?

The one provider in this record that publishes a rate prints $39.99 for a standard report and $49.99 for a comprehensive one. The rest sell to property operators on contracted terms and publish nothing.

Can I reject an applicant with an eviction record?

You can consider it, but read the disposition first. Filings appear whether or not the tenant lost, dispositions are often missing, and name-only matching produces mistaken identities.

Do I have to tell an applicant why I declined?

If the decision was based on a consumer report, yes. An adverse action notice must identify the reporting agency, state it did not make the decision, and tell the applicant they may obtain a free copy and dispute it.

Can I charge an application fee?

In most states, within limits. Many cap the fee, require it to reflect actual screening cost plus reasonable administration, and some require a refund of the unused portion or a copy of the report on request.

What do Colorado tenant screening laws restrict?

Colorado's tenant screening legislation restricts how far back a landlord may consider certain records and constrains the use of some information entirely. Several other states have their own limits on application fees, on providing a copy of the report, and on the reporting of sealed eviction records.

Screening rules by state