TenantReports.com Illegally Includes Outdated, Non-Conviction Info in Consumer Reports, Lawsuit Alleges

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TenantReports.com, LLC faces a proposed class action over its alleged practice of including in consumer reports non-conviction information that is outdated by more than seven years.

The 10-page case in Philadelphia’s Court of Common Pleas alleges TenantReports.com, who provides consumer reports to landlords about prospective tenants, has violated the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), a federal law that prohibits the reporting of adverse non-conviction information about consumers that is more than seven years old.

“Defendant’s practice of including non-convictions older than seven years on reports violates a fundamental protection afforded to consumers under the FCRA, is contrary to the unambiguous language of the statute, and is counter to longstanding judicial and regulatory guidance,” the complaint reads.

According to the suit, the defendant’s allegedly unlawful reporting has harmed consumers by “prejudicing their prospective landlords” with outdated information, as well as violated the individuals’ privacy and damaged their reputations.

The lawsuit alleges TenantReports.com has failed to implement industry-standard practices for the removal of outdated information from its reports. Per the case, the defendant “could have easily written an algorithm” to filter out non-convictions older than seven years, as is standard practice among consumer reporting agencies. Moreover, the company could have regularly purged old data from its system or had a trained individual review consumer reports to detect non-reportable information, the suit adds.

TenantReports.com, however, failed to take any of these industry-standard steps to avoid including adverse and outdated information in consumer reports, the lawsuit alleges, claiming that the defendant has showed a “knowing and reckless disregard” for its obligations under the FCRA.

The plaintiff says he was harmed by TenantReports.com’s allegedly unlawful reporting when he applied for rental housing in Burlington, New Jersey in November 2021. According to the suit, the man’s prospective landlord purchased from the defendant a consumer report about him that included seven felony counts that were dismissed on the prosecution’s motion in 2007 and three charges from the same year that were dismissed as part of a plea bargain agreement.

Per the case, all 10 entries in the plaintiff’s consumer report were non-convictions that predated the report by more than seven years and thus should not have been included.

The plaintiff says his rental application was unsuccessful due to TenantReports.com’s reporting.

The lawsuit looks to cover anyone who was the subject of a consumer report furnished by TenantReports.com to a third party within the past two years, where the report contained at least one record of a criminal non-conviction that predated the report by at least seven years.

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