Tenant screening companies · FloridaA RealPage or SmartMove report cost you an apartment? Here is who they are and what the law requires of them.

Last reviewed October 8, 2026 by Jackson McMillan, Florida attorney

Short answer: If a RealPage (LeasingDesk) or TransUnion SmartMove report cost you an apartment and it contains an eviction, criminal record, or credit entry that is wrong or not yours, you can get your file free, dispute it in writing, and, if the company's procedures or reinvestigation fell short of the Fair Credit Reporting Act, pursue a claim for your losses and attorney's fees.

What is in a RealPage or SmartMove tenant screening report?

Three kinds of information, from three kinds of sources. Court records, searched for eviction filings and criminal cases and matched to you mostly by name. Credit data, supplied by one of the nationwide credit bureaus. And a score or recommendation the company computes from the rest. An error in any layer can sink an application.

The court-record layer is where wrong-person errors live, because court files seldom include a Social Security number and a last name plus a birth date can describe more than one Floridian. The credit layer imports whatever the bureau has, including a mixed file. The scoring layer turns a single wrong entry into a "decline" the leasing agent never questions.

What to look for when the report arrives:

• An eviction filing with no disposition, when the case was dismissed, settled, or decided for you.
• The same eviction case listed more than once.
• A sum labeled like a judgment that was only the amount a landlord demanded.
• A sealed case, or a criminal record from a county you never lived in.
• Collections or late payments in the credit section that are not yours.
• Anything older than seven years other than a criminal conviction.

Who are RealPage and TransUnion SmartMove, and who regulates them?

RealPage, Inc. is a Richardson, Texas company, privately held by Thoma Bravo since April 2021, that sells resident screening products to landlords. TransUnion SmartMove is run by TransUnion Rental Screening Solutions, Inc., a Colorado-based subsidiary of Trans Union LLC. Each has been the subject of federal FCRA enforcement: RealPage by the FTC in 2018, and the TransUnion unit by the CFPB and FTC in 2023.

RealPage and LeasingDesk Screening

RealPage's screening products include "AI Screening," and the consumer-facing unit that handles file requests and disputes is called LeasingDesk Screening. In 2018 the FTC alleged that RealPage's tenant screening matching procedures did not meet the FCRA's accuracy standard. RealPage settled for a $3 million civil penalty and a permanent injunction requiring reasonable accuracy procedures, without admitting or denying the allegations. The FTC is the agency that has enforced the FCRA against RealPage; I found no CFPB enforcement action against it.

If you were screened through RealPage or LeasingDesk, you can request a copy of your file and dispute errors by phone at 866-934-1124, by email, by fax, by mail, or through the forms on RealPage's consumer support page. The CFPB's 2025 list of consumer reporting companies says RealPage will provide one free report every 12 months on request. Credit-data disputes sent to LeasingDesk are forwarded to the bureau that supplied the data, which is one reason to dispute credit items with that bureau directly as well.

TransUnion SmartMove

In October 2023 the CFPB and the FTC alleged that the TransUnion rental screening unit's reports contained inaccurate or incomplete eviction records and that its file disclosures did not name the third-party vendors that supplied data. The companies agreed to a federal court order requiring $11 million in consumer redress and a $4 million civil penalty, plus accuracy and disclosure procedures, without admitting or denying the allegations. The CFPB lists the matter as post-order. Under that order, the company must give you your complete file at no charge when you ask.

Disputes go to the TransUnion Rental Screening Solutions Consumer Dispute Team by phone at 800-230-9376, by email at TURSSDispute@transunion.com, or by mail to P.O. Box 800, Woodlyn, PA 19094. TransUnion asks you to identify each item you dispute and may ask for a copy of a government ID. Neither TransUnion's nor SmartMove's website terms contain an arbitration clause.

What about SafeRent?

SafeRent Solutions, LLC is the tenant screening business that used to operate as CoreLogic Rental Property Solutions; CoreLogic sold it in 2020 and 2021. SafeRent describes itself as a specialty consumer reporting agency under the FCRA and a reseller of consumer reports. You can request a free copy of your SafeRent file (once every 12 months, per the CFPB's list) and dispute by phone at 888-333-2413, by email, or by mail to P.O. Box 3890, Coppell, TX 75019; SafeRent says it completes reinvestigations within 30 days and sends written results. Its website terms contain an arbitration clause and a class action waiver, so phone or mail is the safer channel. An older report under the CoreLogic name should be disputed through SafeRent.

McMillan Law PLLC is not affiliated with RealPage or TransUnion SmartMove and does not represent it. RealPage or TransUnion SmartMove is named here because people search for help with its decisions.

What does the FCRA require of these companies?

The same things it requires of a credit bureau. Reasonable procedures for maximum possible accuracy. A free copy of your file. A reinvestigation within 30 days of your dispute, with deletion of anything inaccurate, incomplete, or unverifiable. Written results, and a description of how the reinvestigation was done if you ask.

A tenant screening report is a consumer report, and the company that compiles it is a consumer reporting agency (15 U.S.C. § 1681a(d), (f)). The accuracy duty is § 1681e(b): the company must follow reasonable procedures to assure the maximum possible accuracy of what it reports about you. The dispute duty is § 1681i: a free reinvestigation, generally finished within 30 days, with up to 15 more only if you send relevant new information during the first 30; notice to the source of the record within 5 business days; deletion or correction of anything that cannot be verified; written results within 5 business days after it finishes; and, within 15 days of your request, a description of the procedure used and the name and address of each source contacted.

Companies that keep tenant history files on a nationwide basis are also nationwide specialty consumer reporting agencies, which must provide a free file once every 12 months through a toll-free number, within 15 days of the request (§§ 1681a(x), 1681j(a)(1)(C), 1681j(a)(2)). Separately, when a landlord turns you down because of the report, you can get a free copy from the company within 60 days of the notice (§ 1681j(b)). The notice itself must name the company (§ 1681m(a)), but most courts, including a federal court in Florida, hold that a missing or defective notice is not something you can sue over. The claim, if there is one, is against the screening company.

The CFPB's 2021 advisory opinion on name-only matching and its 2024 advisory opinion on background screening were withdrawn in May 2025. That withdrawal changed no statutory text. The accuracy and dispute sections above are the law a case is built on, along with the court decisions applying them.

Why did my dispute to the screening company fail?

Most failed disputes trace to one of four things: the company re-ran the same name match and called the record confirmed; nobody went back to the courthouse to check the current disposition; the wrong item was really a bureau item that needed a bureau dispute; or the dispute was a web form that never let you attach the docket. Each has a fix.

Court-record errors need court records. If the eviction on your report was dismissed, the dispute should enclose the clerk's docket showing the dismissal and ask the company to report the disposition or delete the case. If the defendant was a different person, enclose your ID and the docket page showing the other person's identifiers. A dispute that only says "this isn't mine" invites a repeat of the original match.

Credit-section errors need a second dispute. The screening company got that data from a nationwide bureau, and a dispute sent to the bureau is what triggers the duty of the bank or collector that reported the item to investigate (§ 1681s-2(b)). Dispute with the bureau and send the screening company a copy.

And keep expectations tied to the law: the FCRA does not make a company liable for every mistake. The question is whether its procedures were reasonable and whether its reinvestigation was. A careful dispute that still fails is what puts those questions in front of a court.

Can a Florida renter sue a tenant screening company?

Yes, in federal or state court, when the company's procedures or its reinvestigation fell short of the FCRA and the error caused you a real harm. A report sent to a landlord that cost you an apartment is the kind of concrete injury the Supreme Court and Florida's appellate courts require.

The statute allows suit in any federal district court or any other court of competent jurisdiction (§ 1681p). Standing comes first in either forum. Under TransUnion v. Ramirez (2021), you need a concrete harm, and sending an inaccurate report to a third party is the classic one. Florida state court applies the same requirement; a Florida appeals court said so in 2023. So the leasing office's denial, and the notice that names the company, are not just paperwork. They prove the report was delivered and relied on.

Florida is in the Eleventh Circuit, which has upheld a jury's willfulness finding against a screening company whose matching put another person's Florida criminal records on an applicant's report. That decision is the backdrop for every wrong-person tenant screening case here. I handle these cases statewide from my Tampa office, and the review starts with the documents, not a visit.

What is a RealPage or SmartMove error case worth?

If the company was negligent, the FCRA allows your actual losses plus reasonable attorney's fees and costs. If it acted willfully, which includes reckless disregard, it allows actual losses or $100 to $1,000 in statutory damages, plus punitive damages, fees, and costs. For a renter, the losses are the apartment, the fees, the higher rent elsewhere, the moving costs, and the distress.

Those remedies are 15 U.S.C. §§ 1681n and 1681o. Actual damages are read to include a lost housing opportunity, out-of-pocket costs, time spent, and emotional harm when you can connect them to the violation. In a case about a mishandled dispute, the recoverable losses are the ones that came after the failed reinvestigation, so keep the denials and the lease terms dated after your results letter. Each separate failure to comply with the statute is a separate violation.

The fee provision is what lets a renter take on a national screening company. When the consumer wins, the court can order the company to pay the consumer's reasonable attorney's fees and costs. You don't pay me unless you win. I take these cases on contingency: no attorney's fees and no case costs owed to me unless you recover money. If a case is lost, a court can sometimes order the losing side to pay the other side's court costs, and some Florida laws, including the security deposit and deceptive practices statutes, also let the winner recover attorney's fees from the loser. I explain that risk before anything is filed, and every term is in a written agreement before you sign. The statute also permits fees against a consumer who files in bad faith, so I vet the report and the dispute file before anything is filed.

What are the deadlines?

Request the free copy within 60 days of the denial notice. Expect the company's results about 30 days after it receives your dispute. Sue within two years of discovering the violation, and in no event more than five years after it happened.

• 60 days from the adverse action notice for the free denial-based copy of the report (§ 1681j(b)). After that, the free yearly file and your general right to your file still apply.
• 30 days from receipt for the reinvestigation, plus up to 15 if you add proof; written results 5 business days after completion (§ 1681i(a)). Company pages that mention 30 days are describing this statutory period.
• 15 days for the description of the reinvestigation procedure after you request it (§ 1681i(a)(7)).
• 2 years from discovery, 5 years from the violation, to file suit (§ 1681p). For a mishandled dispute, the clock usually starts with the failed reinvestigation. A fresh, documented dispute may start a fresh period, but don't plan around it.

What should I do today?

• Keep the adverse action notice that names RealPage, LeasingDesk, or TransUnion SmartMove, and note its date.
• Request your complete file from the company named, by phone or mail where you can, and ask for every source it used.
• Pull the clerk's docket for each eviction or criminal case on the report, showing the disposition and the defendant's full name and birth date.
• Get your credit reports from AnnualCreditReport.com and compare them with the credit section of the screening report.
• Dispute in writing by certified mail with the screening company, and with the bureau for any credit item. Enclose the docket and your ID. My sample dispute letter can be adapted for either company.
• Document the loss: application fees, the lease you signed elsewhere, the rent difference, moving and storage receipts.
• Send it to me. Request a free case review and attach the notice, the report, the dockets, your dispute, and the results. I'll tell you whether the company met the FCRA and what the claim may be worth.

Sources: Fair Credit Reporting Act, 15 U.S.C. §§ 1681a(d), 1681a(f), 1681a(x), 1681c, 1681e(b), 1681i(a), 1681j(a)(1)(C), 1681j(a)(2), 1681j(b), 1681m(a), 1681m(h)(8), 1681n, 1681o, 1681p, 1681s-2(b); Federal Trade Commission v. RealPage, Inc., No. 3:18-cv-02737 (N.D. Tex.), complaint and stipulated order filed Oct. 16, 2018; CFPB and FTC v. TransUnion Rental Screening Solutions, Inc. and Trans Union LLC, No. 1:23-cv-02659 (D. Colo.), stipulated order entered Oct. 18, 2023; CFPB, List of Consumer Reporting Companies (2025 edition); RealPage, TransUnion, SmartMove, and SafeRent consumer pages and website terms as checked Oct. 8, 2026; TransUnion LLC v. Ramirez, 594 U.S. 413 (2021); Williams v. First Advantage LNS Screening Sols., 947 F.3d 735 (11th Cir. 2020); Saleh v. Miami Gardens Square One, Inc., 353 So. 3d 1253 (Fla. 3d DCA 2023); Soroka v. Homeowners Loan Corp. (M.D. Fla. June 12, 2006); CFPB, Interpretive Rules, Policy Statements, and Advisory Opinions; Withdrawal, 90 Fed. Reg. 20084 (May 12, 2025). Last reviewed October 8, 2026.