Tenant screening sits squarely under the FCRA, and smart building systems add sensor data most landlords have no policy for. This hub covers both.
FCRA
October 12, 2026
A tenant screening report is a consumer report, so the company that sells it carries the Fair Credit Reporting Act's accuracy, obsolescence and dispute duties, and the landlord who turns an applicant down on the strength of it owes a section 1681m notice. The CFPB's two advisory opinions on matching and public records were withdrawn in May 2025; the statute was not.
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Background Checks
October 12, 2026
Massachusetts runs criminal record checks through a state system with tiered access. An employer or landlord sees convictions only within fixed lookback windows, must collect a signed acknowledgment and check identification first, must hand the record to the applicant before asking about it, and holds the result under storage and logging rules set by regulation.
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Biometric Privacy
October 12, 2026
Local Law 63 of 2021 added a tenant data privacy chapter to the New York City Administrative Code for apartment buildings that use key fobs, phone apps or biometric scanners at the door. It lists the only data such a system may hold, puts 90-day clocks on keeping it, bars its sale and several surveillance uses, and gives occupants a damages action for one violation only: an unlawful sale.
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Background Checks
October 12, 2026
The federal Fair Credit Reporting Act regulates the company that sells a rental screening report. Colorado, Washington and Oregon regulate the landlord who buys it: what the applicant can be charged, whether a report the applicant already paid for has to be accepted, how far back criminal and eviction history can reach, and what a denial letter has to say.
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