FTC settlement bars RentGrow from inaccurate tenant screening reports and imposes $2.25 million penalty
Tenant-screening consumer reporting agencies must maintain accuracy, source-disclosure and dispute-handling procedures under the FCRA or face court-enforceable penalties
Change
On 9 July 2026 the FTC announced a $2.25 million settlement with tenant-screening agency RentGrow over alleged FCRA and FTC Act violations. Under a stipulated order filed by the DOJ in U.S. District Court — which takes the force of law once signed by the judge — RentGrow is barred from failing to maintain reasonable report-accuracy procedures, from failing to disclose data sources to consumers on request, from mishandling FCRA disputes, and from misrepresenting post-dispute report updates to landlords.
Why it matters
The stipulated order translates the alleged failures into court-enforceable prohibitions: allowing duplicate records for the same criminal or eviction proceeding, not disclosing data sources such as LexisNexis Accurint on request, and mishandling consumer disputes are barred, as is telling landlords that a report was not changed after a consumer successfully disputed it. Because the order binds a consumer reporting agency on the adequacy of its accuracy and dispute procedures, it sets an enforcement benchmark that any CRA compiling background or tenant screening reports can expect to be measured against.
Implications
- — Consumer reporting agencies that compile tenant or background screening reports must maintain and document procedures that prevent duplicate entries for the same criminal or eviction proceeding, so reports do not overstate an applicant's record — the order makes this a court-enforceable obligation under the FCRA and FTC Act, and the FTC treated pre-existing awareness of the defect without remediation as an aggravating factor.
- — Consumer reporting agencies must disclose all data sources used in a screening report when a consumer requests them, including third-party vendors such as LexisNexis Accurint where used to match records to a consumer, since non-disclosure obstructs the consumer's ability to dispute inaccurate data.
- — Consumer reporting agencies must follow FCRA dispute-resolution procedures rather than labelling disputes 'invalid' without further action, and must not misrepresent dispute outcomes to landlords or property managers — telling a consumer a correction was communicated while telling the property owner nothing changed is an FTC Act violation exposed to civil enforcement.
Who is affected
- — Consumer reporting agencies that compile tenant or background screening reports
What to watch
- — Pending court approval: the stipulated order was filed by the DOJ in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia and takes the force of law once approved and signed by the District Court judge.