Tenant Screening & Background Checks

Screening is not available yet — no consumer reporting agency is connected and no fee is charged. How it will work, and the FCRA responsibilities that come with it.

Not available yet — read this first

Seayora has no consumer reporting agency connected at the moment, so no screening report can be ordered through the platform and no screening fee is charged. Where a screening step appears in an application, it says so rather than taking a payment. The rest of this article describes how it works once an agency is connected, and the FCRA responsibilities you take on when you use it.

We say this plainly because the alternative — a fee taken for a report nobody obtained, and a leasing decision made against it — is exactly what the FCRA exists to prevent. When an agency is connected we’ll name it here, in the Privacy Policy, and on every adverse-action notice.

Screening helps you assess applicants consistently. Reports are prepared by independent consumer reporting agencies — Seayora is not a CRA and does not make decisions.

What a report can include

Credit report and score.
Criminal and eviction history, where legally permitted.
Identity verification.

Your FCRA responsibilities

If you request or use a screening report you must have a permissible purpose, obtain the applicant’s consent, use the report only for that purpose, and follow adverse-action requirements — including pre-adverse and adverse-action notices — if a report contributes to a denial. Apply criteria consistently and comply with fair-housing and any local “ban the box” rules.

See the FCRA compliance doc for a step-by-step on adverse action.

Screening fees and refunds, by state

Whether a screening fee may be charged, how much, and when it has to be refunded depends on the state the home is in. The applicant is shown the rule for their home, with its citation, before anything is charged. In every state the fee is refunded in full if no report is ordered after it was charged.

California, Washington, Oregon, Minnesota, Maryland and Colorado require the fee — or the part not spent on the report — to be refunded in some cases. The refund is paid from the landlord’s account, so applicants for a home there can be screened only once its owner turns screening on for that state and accepts that. On the website that is on the Rental Applications page; on iPhone and Android it is “Offer screening in a refund state” in your portfolio. You can withdraw it later; fees already paid keep their refund promise.
New York limits the fee to $20 or its actual cost. While the fee would be higher, screening is not offered there.
Massachusetts and Vermont do not allow a screening or application fee to be charged to an applicant, so screening is not offered on homes there.

These rules are summaries of each state’s statute, not legal advice. Check them with your own counsel for the homes you let.

How long screening takes

Turnaround depends on the consumer reporting agency and the applicant’s history — most reports return quickly, though some criminal or eviction records take longer to verify. You’ll be notified when a report is ready.

Reading a screening report

Reports typically summarize credit history and score, and — where legally permitted — criminal and eviction records. Apply the same criteria to every report you review, and remember a single negative item isn’t necessarily disqualifying; consider the full picture consistently across applicants.

Frequently asked questions

Can I run a screening report today?

No. No consumer reporting agency is connected to Seayora at the moment, so nothing can be ordered and nothing is charged. The application flow tells the applicant so rather than presenting a card form that cannot complete.

Who pays for the screening report?

The applicant pays it at submission, and the amount is shown before they authorize anything. It is disclosed up front — and while screening is unavailable, it is not charged at all.

Can an applicant see their own report?

Applicants have FCRA rights to know what’s in a report used against them and to dispute inaccurate information with the consumer reporting agency, particularly if the report contributes to a denial.

Can I screen an applicant more than once?

Re-screening is possible, but each report generally requires its own permissible purpose and consent — don’t reuse consent from an earlier, unrelated request.

Related guides

Related features and guides

Rental Applications — Documentation. How online rental applications work on Seayora — what applicants submit, how landlords review, and how to keep the process fair and consistent.
FCRA & Screening Compliance — Documentation. A practical walkthrough of your FCRA obligations when using screening reports, including adverse action.
Fair Housing Basics — Documentation. The core fair-housing rules that apply when advertising, screening, and leasing on Seayora.
Online Rental Applications — Feature. Collect complete rental applications online and track every applicant in one pipeline, with the same questions and the same criteria for everybody. Screening reports are not available through Seayora yet — no consumer reporting agency is connected — so nothing is ordered and no screening fee is charged.
Reusable Renter Profile — Feature. Build a reusable renter profile once and apply to multiple Seayora properties without starting over — and, once screening is available, without paying a new application fee each time.
Tenant Screening: What Landlords Need to Know — Guide. How to screen rental applicants fairly and legally — credit and background checks, what you can and can’t consider, and staying compliant with the FCRA and Fair Housing.