What does a tenant screening report look like?

A tenant screening report is a stack of separate search modules bound into one document. It opens with an identity block (name, masked Social Security number trace, date of birth confirmation, address history), then a credit section with a score and the underlying tradelines, then public records such as judgments and liens, then a nationwide eviction search, then criminal database and sex offender and OFAC watchlist searches, then residence history and household members, then employment history when it is available. Some reports close with a risk score or a recommendation calculated against criteria the landlord chose; the sample on this page does not - it closes with a specific warning about each red flag found. Each module is a separate database search, so each one can be clear, thin, or wrong on its own.

What is a good credit score for a tenant?

There is no legal or universal cutoff. In common market practice many landlords set a floor near 620 to 650 for standard rentals and near 700 for competitive or premium units, but that is convention, not law. The score matters less than the pattern beneath it: an applicant at 640 with a clean 24-month payment grid and stable income is usually a safer tenant than an applicant at 720 carrying three fresh delinquencies. Whatever floor you choose, write it down before you screen and apply it identically to every applicant, because an inconsistently applied score cutoff is how a fair housing complaint starts.

Which credit score does the sample report show?

A FICO® Score, on FICO's 300 to 850 scale. FICO groups scores into five ranges: poor (300-579), fair (580-669), good (670-739), very good (740-799), and exceptional (800-850). The sample applicant's 648 is in the fair range, where the payment history beneath the number matters more than the number itself. Other scoring models, such as a VantageScore or the rental-specific scores some screening products show, are built differently, so never compare a number from one model with a number from another; a 650 in one is not a 650 in the other.

How long does a tenant screening report take?

Results are delivered the same day, after an investigator reviews the report. It covers credit, national criminal, sex offender, OFAC watchlist, eviction search, identity and Social Security number trace, residence history and household members, and employment history when it is available. Checks that depend on a person answering a phone or an email - calling a prior landlord, reviewing the applicant's income documents - are not part of the report; they are steps the landlord takes, and they commonly take 24 to 72 hours.

How far back does a tenant screening report go?

It depends on the item, under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, 15 U.S.C. section 1681c(a). Civil suits, civil judgments, and arrest records may be reported for seven years or until the governing statute of limitations expires, whichever period is longer. Paid tax liens run seven years from the date of payment. Collection accounts and any other adverse item run seven years. Bankruptcies run ten years from the date of entry of the order for relief. Records of criminal convictions have no federal time limit at all and may be reported indefinitely, though many states and cities impose their own lookback limits that are stricter than federal law.

When does a landlord have to send an adverse action notice?

Whenever information in the screening report causes you to take an adverse action - denying the application, requiring a co-signer, demanding a larger deposit, or offering less favorable lease terms. Under 15 U.S.C. section 1681m(a) the notice must state the adverse action, disclose the numerical credit score you used along with the required score information, give the name, address, and telephone number of the consumer reporting agency that furnished the report, state that the agency did not make the decision and cannot explain the reasons, and tell the applicant of the right to a free copy of the report from the agency within sixty days under 15 U.S.C. section 1681j(b) and the right to dispute inaccurate information under 15 U.S.C. section 1681i.

How much does a tenant screening report cost and who pays?

Across the market, screening commonly runs roughly thirty to seventy-five dollars per adult applicant depending on how many modules are included, and in most states the landlord may pass that cost to the applicant as an application or screening fee. Several states cap it. New York limits cumulative background and credit check fees to the actual cost or twenty dollars, whichever is less, under Real Property Law section 238-a(1)(b). California sets a base cap of thirty dollars per applicant under Civil Code section 1950.6, adjustable annually for the Consumer Price Index since January 1, 1998, and requires an itemized receipt. Always confirm your own state and city rule before charging.

Can a landlord deny an applicant based on criminal history alone?

Often not, and never safely as a blanket rule. HUD's April 2016 guidance applies the Fair Housing Act's disparate impact framework to criminal screening: because incarceration rates differ sharply by race and national origin, a categorical criminal-history ban can produce a discriminatory effect even without discriminatory intent. Under the three-step burden-shifting test, once a disparate impact is shown the housing provider must prove with reliable evidence that the criteria are necessary to achieve a substantial, legitimate, nondiscriminatory interest. HUD states that screening on arrests that did not lead to conviction cannot meet that burden, because an arrest is not proof of conduct. Many fair chance jurisdictions restrict the practice further.

How do I get a copy of my own tenant screening report and dispute an error?

Ask the consumer reporting agency named in the adverse action notice - not the landlord, who cannot correct the file. If you were denied housing because of the report you are entitled to a free copy from that agency within sixty days under 15 U.S.C. section 1681j(b). Read every module, because errors cluster in name-matched searches like criminal and eviction records where a common name can pull another person's record into your file. Dispute anything inaccurate directly with the agency under 15 U.S.C. section 1681i, which generally requires reinvestigation within thirty days and correction or deletion of information that cannot be verified.

What is a portable or reusable tenant screening report?

It is a screening report the applicant orders once and reuses across multiple rental applications, so they pay a single fee instead of one per property. As of 2026 seven states have portable tenant screening report laws - Colorado, Illinois, New York, Rhode Island, Maryland, Washington, and California - and they differ sharply. Colorado, under House Bill 23-1099, bars a landlord from charging an application fee when the applicant supplies a compliant report. New York requires the fee to be waived when the applicant provides a background or credit check conducted within the past thirty days. Washington does not compel acceptance but requires a landlord advertising rentals on a website to state its acceptance policy there.

Does a tenant screening credit check hurt the applicant's credit score?

Not when the report uses a soft inquiry. A hard inquiry is recorded on the file, is visible to other lenders, and can shave a few points from a score. A soft inquiry does not affect the score and is not shown to other lenders. Tenant Screening Background Check uses a soft-pull credit inquiry, which matters most to an applicant who is applying to several properties in the same month and would otherwise stack hard inquiries while doing nothing wrong.

What will a tenant screening report not tell you?

More than most landlords assume. It does not show rent payment history unless a prior landlord reported it to a bureau, which most never do, so a perfect rent record can be invisible. It does not show cash income, informal or family loans, or a roommate's finances. It does not show an eviction that was settled before filing, or one filed in a court that does not release records electronically. It does not show why a negative mark exists - a medical collection and a defaulted credit card look identical in the data. And it does not tell you whether someone will be a good neighbor. The report narrows uncertainty; it does not remove it.

Is the sample applicant on this page a real person?

No. "Jordan A. Sample" is entirely fictional, invented for this walkthrough. Every name, address, account number, case number, employer, dollar figure, and date in the sample report above is fabricated for illustration. No real applicant's data appears on this page, and nothing here was drawn from a live report. Real screening reports contain applicant-specific information furnished by consumer reporting agencies and are governed by the Fair Credit Reporting Act.

Tenant Screening · Annotated Sample Report

Sample Tenant Screening Report

A complete screening report, rendered section by section for a synthetic applicant – and, beside every section, how to actually read it and what it obligates you to do.

A tenant screening report is not one document – it is roughly a dozen separate database searches bound together under one cover page. It opens with identity verification (a Social Security number check and a deceased-file match), then a credit section with a score and the tradelines behind it, then public records such as judgments and liens, then a nationwide eviction search, then criminal, sex offender, and OFAC watchlist searches, then residence history and household members, then employment history when it is available. Some screening products close with a risk score or an approve/deny recommendation; this report does not – when the searches turn up a red flag, it closes with a specific warning about each one, and the decision stays with you. Each module is its own search with its own coverage, its own failure modes, and its own legal baggage. Reading the report means reading every section, not one number.

Most “sample report” pages show you the artifact and stop, or explain the concept and never show you anything. This page does both. Below is a full report for Jordan A. Sample – a synthetic applicant invented for this walkthrough, containing no real person’s data – with an interpretation panel under every module explaining what the fields mean, what is signal, what is noise, and which findings trigger a legal duty under the Fair Credit Reporting Act. Jordan’s file is deliberately mixed rather than spotless, because a clean report teaches you nothing.

Video: a short overview of what a comprehensive tenant screening report contains – credit, eviction, criminal history, residence history, and employment history (when available).

Key Takeaways

A report is a bundle of independent searches. Credit, eviction, criminal, identity, employment, and residence history each succeed or fail separately. “Clear” in one module says nothing about the others.
The score is the summary, not the evidence. Read the payment grid, the collections, and the recency of negatives underneath it. A modest score with a clean recent grid beats a high score with fresh delinquencies.
Identity drives coverage. The Social Security number trace and address history decide which counties get searched. A weak identity match quietly narrows every search that follows.
Reporting limits differ by item under 15 U.S.C. section 1681c(a): seven years for collections, judgments, and arrests (or the statute of limitations, whichever is longer), ten years for bankruptcy, and no federal limit on conviction records.
Acting on the report triggers a duty. Any denial, higher deposit, or co-signer demand driven by the report requires an adverse action notice under 15 U.S.C. section 1681m – including the numerical score you relied on.

11 sectionsReport sections in this sample

Same dayDelivered after investigator review

7 / 10 yrsFCRA reporting limits

60 daysFree copy after adverse action

About the applicant in this sample

“Jordan A. Sample” is a fictional person created for this walkthrough. Every name, address, account, case number, employer, and date below is invented. No real applicant’s data appears anywhere on this page, and nothing here is drawn from a live report. Real reports contain applicant-specific data furnished by consumer reporting agencies and are governed by the Fair Credit Reporting Act.

1. The Cover Page: Score, Status, and Summary

Direct answer: the cover page is a summary of the modules beneath it, and it is the part of the report you should trust least on its own. It compresses a dozen searches into a score and a one-word status flag. That compression is useful for triage across twenty applicants and dangerous as a basis for a decision, because the cover page cannot tell you whether the “REVIEW” flag came from a twelve-year-old misdemeanor or an eviction filed last spring.

Tenant Screening Report · Jordan A. Sample

Report #: SAMPLE-0001 · Generated: sample document · Requested by: Sample Property Management

648 FICO® Score (300-850)

Report Summary REVIEW

Identity (SSN verification, deceased file)Verified

CreditFICO® Score 648 – review

Public records1 satisfied judgment

Eviction search1 filing, dismissed

Criminal search1 misdemeanor (2019)

Sex offender / OFACNo matches

Employment history1 employer reported

Residence history & household3 addresses, 2 household members

How to read it: “REVIEW” is not a denial and it is not an accusation – it is the report telling you that at least one module returned something that a human has to look at. Landlords who treat REVIEW as a rejection are, in practice, letting a status flag make their housing decisions for them, which is precisely the arrangement the adverse action rules assume you are not in. Open every flagged module before you form a view.

Why 648 is a “fair” score

Notice the scale label: FICO® Score, 300 to 850. This is a generic credit score: it predicts whether someone will repay borrowed money, not how they will behave as a tenant. FICO calls 580 to 669 the fair range and starts good at 670, so Jordan’s 648 is a fair score – not poor, not good. It is the range where the number settles least on its own and the payment history underneath it has to decide, which is why sections 4 and 5 below matter more than the number on the cover.

The practical consequence: name the score model in your criteria. A FICO Score, a VantageScore, and the rental-specific scores some other screening products show are different models, and a 648 in one is not a 648 in another. If your written criteria say “minimum 650,” you must specify which score, or your standard is unenforceable and inconsistently applied – which is a fair housing problem, not just a sloppiness problem. Our guide to setting a minimum credit score for renting works through how to write a defensible cutoff.

2. Identity and the Social Security Number Trace

Direct answer: identity is the module every other module depends on, and it is the one landlords skim. A screening report is only a report about your applicant if the searches ran against your applicant’s true identifiers. If the Social Security number trace fails or the name match is loose, the criminal and eviction searches may have been run against a partial or wrong identity – and a “clear” result means nothing at all.

Identity Verification & SSN Trace VERIFIED

Full nameJordan A. Sample

Also known asJ. Sample; Jordan Sample

SSN (masked)XXX-XX-0000

SSN trace resultValid – issued, matches name

SSN issuanceSample state, sample year range

Deceased file matchNone

Date of birthConfirmed (not displayed)

How to read it: the Social Security number trace does not tell you the applicant is honest – it tells you the number is real, was issued, is not on the deceased file, and is associated with the name and addresses given. Its actual job is to produce the address list that drives every county-level search below it. Treat “SSN trace: valid” as the foundation of the report’s coverage, not as a character reference.

The identity red flags that matter

Trace returns a different name. A number associated primarily with someone else is the classic signature of a borrowed or stolen identity. Stop and ask for documentation before you go further.
Deceased file hit. Numbers of deceased people are a known fraud vector. This is a full stop, not a discussion.
Trace returns no addresses. A number with no address history behind it is either newly issued – plausible for a young or recently arrived applicant – or synthetic. The distinction matters and is worth a conversation.
Address list contradicts the application. If the applicant listed two prior addresses and the trace shows five in three states, ask why. Sometimes it is a spouse’s mail. Sometimes it is the two years they hoped you would not search.

This is where document fraud dies. Fabricated pay stubs and edited bank statements are increasingly easy to produce, and generative tools have made fake identity documents markedly better than they were. The defense is not a sharper eye – it is verification against independent data sources that the applicant does not control. See our guides to forged documents and fake identity scams and AI and deepfake application fraud.

3. Address History: The Module That Decides What Gets Searched

Direct answer: address history is not biography, it is a search plan. Criminal records in the United States live in county courthouses and state repositories, not in a single national vault. The “national criminal database” is an aggregation with real gaps. What closes those gaps is knowing where the person actually lived, so the screening company can order county-level searches in those jurisdictions. That is what this module produces.

Address History (7-Year Trace) 3 ADDRESSES

Current100 Example Ave, Sampleton, ST 00000

Reported sinceSample year 5

Prior 1200 Specimen Rd, Testville, ST 00000

Prior 1 datesSample years 2-5

Prior 2300 Placeholder Ln, Mocktown, ST 00000

Prior 2 datesSample years 1-2

Counties triggered3 county searches ordered

Application matchConsistent with stated history

How to read it: compare this list to what the applicant wrote on the rental application, line by line. Agreement is a quiet vote of confidence in everything else. A gap – an address the trace found and the application omitted – is the single most useful question you can ask an applicant, because the omitted jurisdiction is disproportionately the interesting one.

Reading the gaps

Address traces are built from credit header data, which means they lag reality and miss people who live outside the credit system. Expect imperfection: a recent move can take months to surface, and someone who has rented informally or lived with family may show a thin trace through no fault of their own. The inference to draw from a thin trace is “I have less coverage here than I think,” not “this person is hiding something.” Ask, and then decide with the answer in hand.

The trap runs the other way too. If your applicant lived in a county the trace missed, the criminal search never covered that county – and your report will say “no records found” with complete confidence. “No records found” means “none found in the places we looked.” Knowing where you looked is the whole point of this module.

4. Credit Summary and What the Score Bands Mean

Direct answer: the credit module answers one question – does this person pay recurring obligations on time – and the score is a lossy summary of the answer. Read the summary for orientation, then go to the tradelines. Two applicants with identical scores can have opposite risk profiles.

Credit Summary REVIEW

FICO® Score648 (300-850 scale) – fair range

Inquiry typeSoft pull – score unaffected

Open accounts6

Total revolving balance (USD)4,120

Total revolving limit (USD)9,500

Credit utilization43%

Oldest account9 years

Late payments (24 mo)2 x 30-day, 1 x 60-day

Most recent late14 months ago

Collections1 (telecom, 340 USD)

Charge-offsNone

BankruptciesNone on file

Hard inquiries (6 mo)3

Monthly debt obligations (USD)690

How to read it: this is a recovering file, not a deteriorating one. The negatives are real – three late marks and a telecom collection – but the most recent late is fourteen months old, there are no charge-offs, and the oldest account has nine years of history. The direction of travel is the finding. A file with the same 648 where the lates were last month would be a completely different applicant wearing the same number.

Score reason codes: why the number is what it is

Most reports include reason codes – short statements of the factors that most depressed the score. They are the closest thing the file offers to an explanation, and they are also what you will need if the score drives a denial, because an adverse action notice must disclose the score and the key factors behind it.

Reason code (sample)	What it means	Rental read
Proportion of balances to limits is too high	Utilization at 43 percent of available revolving credit	Financial stress; less cushion if income pauses
Serious delinquency on file	The 60-day late mark is the heaviest single drag	Check the date – old and isolated is far weaker evidence than recent
Number of accounts with delinquency	Lates touched more than one account	Suggests a period of trouble rather than one clerical miss
Presence of a collection	The 340 USD telecom collection	A small unpaid phone bill from two years ago; ask about it and weigh it by size and date

Credit score bands

These bands are the ranges FICO uses for its 300 to 850 scale. They describe the score, not a legal standard, and no band obliges you to do anything.

Jordan’s 648 lands in the Fair row (580-669). Read the row’s advice literally: in the fair range the score does not settle the question, and the payment grid in the next section does. If a report in front of you shows a different score model, such as a VantageScore or a rental-specific score, read it against that model’s own bands, never against these.

Score range	Tier	Rental risk read
300-579	Poor	Expect derogatory marks; read the file closely before assuming the worst
580-669	Fair	Mixed; the payment grid decides
670-739	Good	Typically approvable on credit alone
740-799	Very good	Strong, consistent payment history
800-850	Exceptional	Near-spotless record

A score floor is a policy, and policies get audited

Landlords commonly set a floor near 620 to 650 for standard units and near 700 for competitive ones. That is convention, not law – no statute sets a minimum credit score for renting. The exposure is not in the number you choose; it is in applying it unevenly. Waiving 650 for one applicant and enforcing it against another is the fact pattern behind a great many fair housing complaints. Write the number down before you screen, record which score type it refers to, and apply it identically. Note also that a growing number of jurisdictions restrict credit-based screening for applicants using housing subsidies – check your state and local screening laws.

5. Tradelines and the Payment Grid

Direct answer: the tradeline section is the evidence, and the payment grid inside it is the single most predictive thing in the entire report. Everything above is a summary of this. Each tradeline is one account: who it is with, when it opened, what is owed, and a month-by-month record of whether it was paid on time.

Account (sample)	Type / ECOA	Opened	Limit / High (USD)	Balance (USD)	Rating	Recent grid
Sample Bank Card	Revolving / Individual	9 yrs ago	4,000	2,180	R1	OK OK OK OK OK OK
Example Store Card	Revolving / Individual	4 yrs ago	1,500	1,290	R2	OK OK 30 OK OK OK
Specimen Credit Union	Revolving / Joint	6 yrs ago	4,000	650	R1	OK OK OK OK OK OK
Placeholder Auto Finance	Installment / Individual	3 yrs ago	19,000	9,940	I3	OK OK OK 60 30 OK
Mock Student Loan Servicer	Installment / Individual	8 yrs ago	12,000	6,300	I1	OK OK OK OK OK OK
Testville Telecom Collections	Collection / Individual	2 yrs ago	340	340	9	Unpaid

Decoding what you just read

The rating code is a letter plus a number. The letter is the account type – R for revolving, I for installment, M for mortgage, O for open. The number is payment behavior, from 1 (paid as agreed) up to 9 (charge-off or collection). So R1 is a credit card paid on time; I3 is an installment loan that reached 60 to 89 days past due.
The ECOA designator says who is legally responsible. Individual means the applicant alone owes it. Joint means shared liability. Authorized user means they can use the account but are not liable for it – and this is the quiet trap. An applicant whose only pristine tradelines are authorized-user accounts has borrowed someone else’s history, not built their own.
The grid is one marker per month. OK is on time; a number is days past due. Read it left to right and ask two questions: is the trouble recent, and does it repeat?

Jordan’s grid tells a specific story. The auto loan went 60 days past due, then 30, then recovered – one episode, roughly fourteen months back, on the largest fixed obligation in the file. The store card took a single 30-day mark. Everything else is clean, including a nine-year card and a student loan that never missed. That shape – a cluster of lates concentrated in one window, then a return to normal – almost always reflects an event, not a habit. A job change, a medical bill, a divorce. It is worth asking about, and the answer is usually mundane and verifiable. Our full guide to understanding credit report codes decodes every rating and status code you will meet.

The comparison that matters. Put Jordan’s file next to a hypothetical 648 where six accounts each carry a 30-day mark in the last four months and none is older than two years. Same score. Opposite tenant. The score cannot distinguish them; the grid does it instantly. This is the entire argument for reading tradelines rather than filtering on a number.

6. Collections, Judgments, and Liens

Direct answer: this module carries the money-owed history that is not a normal credit account – and for a landlord, one category of it is more predictive than anything in the credit score. A civil judgment obtained by a prior landlord is not just a debt; it is a court’s finding about how a tenancy ended.

Public Records: Judgments & Liens 1 RECORD

Civil judgments1 – satisfied

Case numberSAMPLE-CV-000000

CourtSample County Civil Court, ST

PlaintiffExample Medical Group

Amount (USD)1,850

FiledSample year 3

DispositionSatisfied in full, sample year 4

Liens (federal / state tax, judgment)None

Landlord-obtained judgmentsNone

BankruptcyNone on file

How to read it: read three fields in order – who sued, how much, and was it satisfied. A satisfied medical judgment for one thousand eight hundred fifty dollars says someone had a bill they could not pay and then paid it. An unsatisfied judgment obtained by a landlord for unpaid rent is a different species entirely: it is a prior housing provider who went to court and won, and the money i