The Story Behind Every Report We Deliver
A licensed private investigations firm that built tenant screening — not a database vendor that hired support. FCRA-compliant, investigator-reviewed background reports trusted by landlords, attorneys, and property managers nationwide.
Watch: Who We Are & What We Do
A quick walkthrough of our investigator-reviewed screening process.
Tenant Screening Background Check is the consumer-facing tenant-screening service of Private Eye Reports™, a licensed investigations firm operating continuously since 2004. We deliver fast, accurate, FCRA-compliant tenant background reports — reviewed by experienced investigators rather than spit out by an automated database. Over two decades of skip tracing, judgment enforcement, and asset-recovery work informs every report we produce. Landlords, property managers, attorneys, and process servers rely on us to find the things automated systems miss.
Our Origin
Private Eye Reports was founded in 2004 as a private investigations firm focused on skip tracing, judgment enforcement, and asset recovery. The work attracted a steady stream of attorneys, debt collectors, and process servers who needed people found and money collected — fast and accurately. Over time, those same professionals asked for a screening product they could use for tenants. The pattern was clear: the most common reason a landlord ends up needing a skip tracer is because they didn’t screen well at the front end.
So we built Tenant Screening Background Check — the same investigative approach, applied at the start of a tenancy rather than after a problem. Every report we produce is reviewed by someone who has spent years finding people who don’t want to be found and unwinding tenancies that went wrong. That experience shapes what we look for, where we look for it, and how we flag it.
Why we exist
We’re an investigations firm that built a tenant-screening product — not a database vendor that hired customer service. Twenty-plus years of finding people and recovering judgments informs every report we deliver.
The Private Eye Difference
Most online tenant-screening services are wrappers around the same three or four big consumer-data aggregators. Order a report, the system pulls a credit report and a national criminal database, and the result comes back in seconds with whatever the database happened to return — often incomplete, sometimes wrong, occasionally misattributed to the wrong person entirely.
Our reports are different in four specific ways:
Investigator Review
Every report passes through a real person — an experienced investigator who knows what hidden gaps in a credit or criminal record can hide. Automated screening misses things that a 20-year skip tracer spots in 30 seconds.
Statute-Based Methodology
We don’t just dump data on a landlord. Reports are organized around what landlord-tenant statutes in the applicant’s jurisdiction actually allow you to consider — and what they don’t.
FCRA Compliance Built In
The Fair Credit Reporting Act sets strict rules on what landlords may use, how they must notify rejected applicants, and what records they must keep. Our reports include adverse-action support and FCRA-compliant disclosures by default.
Nationwide Jurisdictional Depth
State, county, and municipal record sources vary widely. We’ve spent two decades mapping which sources matter in which jurisdiction — coverage breadth and depth no aggregator-resold report can match.
FCRA Compliance & Industry Standards
Tenant screening in the United States is governed by the Fair Credit Reporting Act (15 U.S.C. § 1681 et seq.), which classifies our service as a “consumer reporting agency” and imposes specific obligations on both us and the landlords who use our reports. We operate within that framework, and we help our clients do the same.
What FCRA compliance means for our reports
- Permissible purpose verification. Every landlord must certify that the report is being pulled for a permissible purpose — a tenancy application, lease renewal evaluation, or similar use authorized under § 1681b. We require that certification before any report is generated.
- Applicant consent. Landlords must obtain the applicant’s written authorization before pulling a report. We provide compliant authorization forms and remind landlords of this requirement at every step.
- Adverse-action support. When a landlord rejects an applicant based on a report, FCRA § 1681m requires specific notice to the applicant. Our reports come with adverse-action notice templates that meet the statutory requirements.
- Re-investigation procedures. If an applicant disputes information in a report, FCRA § 1681i requires re-investigation within 30 days. We have a dedicated dispute-handling process that meets and beats the statutory deadline.
- Record retention. We retain records of every report pulled, who pulled it, and the certification under which it was pulled — protection for both us and our clients in the event of a regulatory inquiry.
Beyond FCRA — state-specific rules
Some states have additional tenant-screening laws beyond FCRA: California’s restrictions on credit reports for low-income applicants, New York’s Fair Chance Housing Act, Illinois’s source-of-income protections, Seattle’s First-in-Time rule, and others. We track these requirements jurisdiction-by-jurisdiction so landlords using our service stay compliant without having to become amateur compliance officers.
Who We Serve
Our reports are used across the spectrum of professionals who screen tenants or investigate adults:
Landlords & Property Managers
The core of our client base. Individual landlords with one rental through to property-management companies running thousands of units rely on our reports for tenant selection, lease renewals, and adverse-action support.
Attorneys
Landlord-tenant attorneys, judgment-collection attorneys, family-law attorneys, and litigators use our reports to verify identity, locate parties, and document court-ready findings.
Process Servers
Service of process requires accurate identification and location. Our investigator-reviewed reports help process servers serve the right person at the right address the first time.
Debt Collectors
FDCPA-compliant skip tracing and asset location for collection agencies, judgment creditors, and assignees pursuing judgment recovery.
The Team Behind Every Report
U.S.-based investigators & analysts
Our entire screening and investigation team is U.S.-based, FCRA-certified, and trained in the specific record sources, statutory requirements, and procedural nuances that vary state to state. We keep our specialists out of the spotlight so they can stay focused on speed, accuracy, and applicant privacy.
The team has collective experience covering all 50 states and DC, with deep specialization in California (Civil Code § 1786 et seq., AB 2801), New York (HSTPA 2019), Texas (Property Code Ch. 92), and the other major landlord-tenant law jurisdictions.
What Sets Us Apart
Why Landlords Choose Tenant Screening Background Check
Eight reasons over 10,000 clients have trusted us since 2004
- Continuous operation since 2004. Twenty-plus years in business under the same ownership.
- Licensed private investigations firm. Our screening operation is the consumer arm of a licensed investigations practice (Private Eye Reports™), which holds active investigations licenses where required.
- FCRA-compliant reporting. Every report follows § 1681 disclosure and certification requirements.
- Nationwide coverage. All 50 states + DC + U.S. territories.
- Investigator review on every report. No automated black-box decisions; a real person reviews and flags concerns.
- State-specific compliance. We track FCRA-plus state rules (CA, NY, IL, WA, OR, and others) so our clients stay compliant.
- Free legal-form library. Hundreds of state-specific landlord-tenant forms available free at tenantscreeningbackgroundcheck.com/free-landlord-forms/.
- Attorney-reviewed content. Our published landlord-tenant law guides are reviewed by attorneys familiar with the relevant jurisdiction’s statutes and case law.
In short
Twenty-plus years. Real investigators. FCRA-compliant reports. Coverage in every state. The same team that’s been finding people, recovering judgments, and protecting landlords since 2004 — now applied at the start of tenancy, where it matters most.
Ready to Screen Smarter?
Run an investigator-reviewed tenant background check on your next applicant. FCRA-compliant, fast, and accurate — the same standard that’s protected landlords since 2004.
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Published by Tenant Screening Background Check
Established 2004 · 20+ Years · All U.S. States & Territories · Statute-Based · Attorney-Reviewed
A Private Eye Reports™ service trusted by landlords, property managers, and attorneys.
