Send FCRA Notice to Applicant After Taking an Adverse Action

You can use a letter like the one below to tell applicants you have rejected their request for housing at your site partly or completely on information in a consumer report. This letter may be used in addition to a general adverse action notice stating why an application is being denied. This letter spells out the applicant’s rights under the Fair Credit Reporting Act.

MODEL NOTICE

 

[Insert date]

[Insert applicant name & address]

Dear _______________________,

Thank you for your recent rental application. Based on provided information, we find that we are unable to accept your application for rental at this time.

This decision was based in whole or in part on the information provided to us in a Consumer Report or Investigative Consumer Report prepared on our behalf by a consumer-reporting agency.

The consumer reporting agency that provided that report was:

Credit Reporting Agency Name: _______________________________________________________

Phone Number:             ______________________________________________________________

Address:           _____________________________________________________________________

Pursuant to the Fair Credit Reporting Act, you have a right to obtain a copy of your Consumer Report. To obtain a free copy of your Consumer Report, you must request a copy within sixty (60) days of the date you received this letter by writing or telephoning the consumer reporting agency(ies) indicated above. If you believe your report contains any erroneous information, is inaccurate or incomplete, you have the right under the Fair Credit Reporting Act to dispute its accuracy or completeness of the information. You also have certain rights under Credit Reporting and Consumer Protection Laws of your state.

A copy of A Summary of Your Rights Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act is included with this letter for your review. For further information, you can contact your state or local consumer protection agency, or your state’s attorney general’s office.

Sincerely,

[Insert Site Manager’s Signature]

A SUMMARY OF YOUR RIGHTS UNDER THE FAIR CREDIT REPORTING ACT

The federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (“FCRA”) is designed to promote accuracy, fairness, and privacy of information in the files of every “consumer reporting agency” (“CRA”). Most CRAs are credit bureaus that gather and sell information about you—such as if you pay your bills on time or have filed for bankruptcy—to creditors, employers, landlords, and other businesses. You can find the complete text of the FCRA, 15 U.S.C. §§1681–1681u, at the Federal Trade Commission’s website (http://www.ftc.gov). The FCRA gives you specific rights, as outlined below. You may have additional rights under state law.

You may contact a state or local consumer protection agency or a state attorney general to learn those rights.

You must be told if information in your file has been used against you. Anyone who uses information from a CRA to take action against you—such as denying an application for credit, insurance, or  employment—must tell you, and give you the name, address, and phone number of the CRA that provided the consumer report.

You can find out what is in your file. At your request, a CRA must give you the information in your file, and a list of everyone who has requested it recently. There is no charge for the report if a person has taken action against you because of information supplied by the CRA, if you request the report within 60 days of receiving notice of the action. You also are entitled to one free report every 12 months upon request if you certify that: (1) you are unemployed and plan to seek employment within 60 days; (2) you are on welfare; or (3) your report is inaccurate due to fraud. Otherwise, a CRA may charge you up to eight dollars.

You can dispute inaccurate information with the CRA. If you tell a CRA that your file contains inaccurate information, the CRA must reinvestigate the items (usually within 30 days) by presenting to its information source all relevant evidence you submit, unless your dispute is frivolous. The source must review your evidence and report its findings to the CRA. (The source also must advise national CRAs—to which it has provided the data—of any error.) The CRA must give you a written report of the investigation and a copy of your report if the investigation results in any change. If the CRA’s investigation does not resolve the dispute, you may add a brief statement to your file. The CRA must normally include a summary of your statement in future reports. If an item is deleted or a dispute statement is filed, you may ask that anyone who has recently received the report be notified of the change.

Inaccurate information must be corrected or deleted. A CRA must remove or correct inaccurate or unverified information from its files, usually within 30 days after you dispute it. However, the CRA is not required to remove accurate data from your file unless it is outdated (as described below) or cannot be verified. If your dispute results in any change to your report, the CRA cannot reinsert into your file a disputed item unless the information source verifies its accuracy and completeness. In addition, the CRA must give you a written notice telling you it has reinserted the item. The notice must include the name, address, and telephone number of the information source.

You can dispute inaccurate items with the source of the information. If you tell anyone—such as a creditor who reports to a CRA—that you dispute an item, they may not then report the information to a CRA without including a notice of your dispute. In addition, once you’ve notified the source of the error in writing, it may not continue to report the information if it is, in fact, an error.

Outdated information may not be reported. In most cases, a CRA may not report negative information that is more than seven years old; ten years for bankruptcies.

Access to your file is limited. A CRA may provide information about you only to people with a need recognized by the FCRA—usually to consider an application with a creditor, insurer, employer, landlord, or other business.

Your consent is required for reports that are provided to employers, or reports that contain medical information. A CRA may not give out information about you to your employer, or prospective employer, without your written consent. A CRA may not report medical information about you to creditors, insurers, or employers without your permission.

You may choose to exclude your name from CRA lists for unsolicited credit and insurance offers. Creditors and insurers may use file information as the basis for sending you unsolicited offers of credit or insurance. Such offers must include a toll-free phone number for you to call if you want your name and address removed from future lists. If you call, you must be kept off the lists for two years. If you request, and return the CRA form provided for this purpose, you must be taken off the lists indefinitely.

You may seek damages from violators. If a CRA, a user, or (in some cases) a provider of CRA data, violates the FCRA, you may sue them in state or federal court.

The FCRA gives several different federal agencies authority to enforce the FCRA. You can find these federal agencies at www.FTC.gov. For questions concerning CRAs and creditors, you can reach the Federal Trade Commission Consumer Response Center at (202) 326-3761.