Experian Rentbureau Report Errors? How to Dispute and Win

Experian – one of the largest credit bureaus – provides more than just credit report compilation and related services. It also offers residential screening services to rental agencies, landlords, and similar organizations. In essence, it checks apartment applicants’ backgrounds to make sure that landlords only accept the best tenants for their open units.

Normally, you shouldn’t have any trouble applying for an apartment with a landlord that uses Experian RentBureau for background checks. But what if you encounter Experian RentBureau report errors? In that case, you need to know what to do and how to contact Fair Credit to dispute that info and get it fixed.

Experian RentBureau – What is It?

Experian RentBureau is a part of the larger Experian organization. Experian is one of the big three credit bureaus, alongside TransUnion and Equifax. In a nutshell, Experian creates and provides credit reports to lenders, financial institutions, homeowners, landlords, and anyone else who may request them.

But RentBureau specifically is a specialized service that provides residential screening services to landlords and property owners. For example, when a property owner wants to know whether an apartment tenant is really trustworthy, they may want to look at more than just a credit report. So they contact Experian RentBureau in order to get both a credit check and a residential background check completed at the same time.

What Are RentBurea Rental History Reports?

Experian RentBureau our comprehensive, thorough reports of a potential tenant’s rental and housing history. They include:

• Credit and financial information about the tenant
• A list and breakdown of the tenant’s previous living arrangements, including whether they were ever evicted from housing
• Tenant employment history, to an extent
• A check for criminal history – many landlords don’t want to extend tenancy offers to applicants who have criminal backgrounds

Think of these as essentially background checks for apartment or house tenancy. If you’re looking to rent property from someone, and they use Experian RentBureau, you can bet that most of your history will be included in the report.

Fortunately, you should also receive a copy of this report if you are denied employment or housing. According to the FCRA, a landlord has to provide you with an adverse action letter if they choose not to go forward with housing on the basis of your background information.

When you get this letter, you can scan it for potential errors or mistakes.

Experian RentBureau Report Errors Explained

Experian RentBureau report errors are issues – ranging from outdated information to inaccurate line items and more – that you spot on your residential history report.

Say that you are denied an opportunity to live in an apartment on the basis of your background info. When you scan through the report, you find that there’s a negative line item saying that you went bankrupt three years ago. You know that’s not the case, but your landlord doesn’t. As a result, they decided not to go forward with your apartment application.

Some common types of Experian RentBureau report errors include:

• Outdated information, like old bankruptcy files or old debts that you paid off many years ago and that should have no bearing on your actions now
• Mistaken information, like a criminal record that does not belong to you or that shouldn’t exist
• Mistaking identities. For example, Experian might confuse you with another person if it mixes up your Social Security numbers or if you have a similar name to another individual

Any of these issues can lead to wide-ranging consequences for apartment seekers and house hunters like yourself.

Are Experian RentBureau Report Errors Bad?

Yes, always. Experian RentBureau report errors, no matter what exactly they are, can compromise your employment and financial prospects well into the future.

Say that you are trying to rent a house. The landlord for the property orders a rental history report from Experian RentBureau. When they look at the report, they find inaccurate line items stating that you did not make several rental payments with the last person you rent from. You know it’s an accurate, but that doesn’t stop the landlord from denying you the housing opportunity.

Under the FCRA, landlords must use up-to-date and accurate information when making these decisions. But if you don’t dispute the inaccurate information, landlords are allowed to use that information to make housing or tenant decisions.

In the future, the same errors or mistakes from Experian RentBureau can crop up again and again, making it difficult to qualify for loans, preventing you from qualifying for jobs, etc. Therefore, it’s in your best interest to both find Experian RentBureau report errors quickly and get them fixed as soon as you can.

What to Do After Spotting an Experian RentBureau Report Error

Fortunately, when you spot an Experian RentBureau report error, there are a few key steps you can take to fix the issue promptly and stand up for your rights under the FCRA.

Contact Legal Experts

To begin, contact knowledgeable, trustworthy legal experts like Fair Credit. Why start working with attorneys right from the get-go?

For one, you don’t need to worry about paying attorneys like Fair Credit’s lawyers. We operate on a contingency fee basis. That means you don’t owe us a penny unless we recover compensation from your residential history report error case, such as through a lawsuit.

For another, with attorneys on your side from the beginning, you’ll proceed through the dispute process without any errors, delays, or other issues. Experian RentBureau is required by law to investigate any incorrect information or disputes within 30 days of being made aware of it.

However, if you don’t provide adequate information, or if Experian RentBureau has a question about how to locate the inaccurate info, it can delay the process indefinitely. Therefore, working with attorneys means your dispute letter will have the necessary information from the get-go and won’t need to be returned back and forth several times. 

File a Dispute with Experian

Once you’ve contacted the right attorneys, it’s time to file your dispute with Experian. As a massive credit agency, Experian must allow you to file a dispute online or by physical mail (it actually allows both, as well as filing by phone).

When you file a dispute, you:

• Break down the erroneous or inaccurate information you’ve found on your residential history report. It’s important to be as specific and accurate here as possible. If you have a specific line out of you want Experian to look at, for example, highlight that line on a copy of your report so the agent can find it quickly
• Include a request for Experian RentBureau to fix the issue and inform your landlord, homeowner, or other interested party ASAP

Again, Experian has 30 days to investigate claims of erroneous information. If it locates the inaccurate information, the odds are good that it will fix the issue quickly.

But what if it doesn’t? In that case, Experian RentBureau is deliberately violating your rights under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), so you could have grounds for a lawsuit. That’s another big reason why you should contact experienced attorneys.

How Can Fair Credit Help?

Fair Credit’s specialized lawyers are well-equipped and ready to assist with any lawsuit or arbitration push you wish to pursue. When rental screening agencies like Experian RentBureau don’t to do their jobs correctly, they can compromise the livelihoods of individuals like you. We don’t think that’s fair, which is why we will support you if you want to sue RentBureau for not investigating inaccurate information or correcting mistaken line items.

Fair Credit can provide a lot of assistance to your case. We can gather extra evidence for you, ranging from credit report information to old bills and more. We’ll also be ready to present that evidence to court or to an arbitration meeting depending on what you need.

More importantly, we can counsel you about what you should expect, what you should say, and how you should care yourself in these meetings. With us on your side, you will feel peace of mind and won’t feel as anxious or nervous if push comes to shove.

If your lawsuit is successful, you could recover compensation to cover your attorney fees and up to $1000 in damages. Furthermore, you may get another chance to apply for the apartment or home you wanted to live in previously.

That’s another way our attorneys can help. If you discover inaccurate information about your residential history report, we can help you draft a letter to the landlord or homeowner concerned with the matter. In that letter, you can ask them to hold off on their final decision while you resolve things with Experian. 

Contact Fair Credit Today

When you contact Fair Credit, you’ll get access to trained, highly educated attorneys who are willing to do whatever it takes to make sure Experian RentBureau fixes inaccurate information. Not only can we help you file a dispute letter quickly, we’ll support you through the lawsuit process if it’s necessary. Contact us today to learn more.