A reference page for employment and tenant screening under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1681 and following. Every figure and rule below is taken from the text of the Act, checked against the U.S. Code as published by the Government Publishing Office and by Cornell Law School’s Legal Information Institute, and against the Federal Trade Commission’s guidance for employers. Section numbers are given as the U.S. Code section and, in brackets, the Act’s own section. Last checked September 2026. Federal law only; state law can add rights but cannot take these away.
How to cite this page: The Kim Law Firm, Background Checks by the Numbers, thekimlawfirmllc.com/background-check-by-the-numbers/ (September 2026). Writers and researchers are welcome to quote any line with attribution. The general figures for credit reports — damages, filing limits, dispute clocks — are on the companion page, FCRA by the Numbers.
Before the check: what the employer must do
| Rule | What the statute says | Section |
|---|---|---|
| A standalone disclosure | No report for employment purposes unless “a clear and conspicuous disclosure has been made in writing to the consumer … in a document that consists solely of the disclosure.” The FTC’s guidance for employers puts it as: “The notice must be in writing and in a stand-alone format.” A paragraph inside an application, or a form that also carries a release of liability, is not that document. | § 1681b(b)(2)(A)(i) [§ 604] |
| Written authorization | The applicant must authorize the report in writing before it is obtained. | § 1681b(b)(2)(A)(ii) |
Before the decision: the pre-adverse-action step
| Rule | What the statute says | Section |
|---|---|---|
| A copy of the report | Before taking any adverse action “based in whole or in part on the report,” the employer must give you a copy of the report itself. | § 1681b(b)(3)(A)(i) |
| The summary of rights | … and “a description in writing of the rights of the consumer under this subchapter, as prescribed by the Bureau” — the CFPB’s Summary of Your Rights Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act. | § 1681b(b)(3)(A)(ii); § 1681g(c) |
| No fixed number of days | The statute sets no waiting period. It requires that the copy and the summary reach you before the decision, so that an error can be corrected first; an employer that rescinds the offer in the same breath as sending the report has not honored the sequence. | § 1681b(b)(3)(A) |
| 3 business days | The one exception with a number: for certain transportation jobs applied for by mail, telephone or computer, the employer may instead give notice within 3 business days after acting, with the report and summary available on request. | § 1681b(b)(3)(B) |
What to do when an offer is pulled after the background check walks through this window with the paperwork you should have received.
After the decision: the adverse-action notice
Whether the decision is a job, a promotion or an apartment, the person who acted on the report must then tell you: that the action was taken; the name, address and telephone number of the screening company; that the screening company “did not make the decision to take the adverse action and is unable to provide the consumer the specific reasons”; that you may obtain a free copy of the report from that company within 60 days; and that you may dispute its accuracy or completeness. § 1681m(a) [§ 615]. Landlords and property managers are covered by this section in the same terms as employers. An applicant told they “failed” a check has been given exactly this decision, and what a failed background check actually means walks through the two notices in order.
What the screening company itself owes you
| Rule | What the statute says | Section |
|---|---|---|
| Maximum possible accuracy | “Whenever a consumer reporting agency prepares a consumer report it shall follow reasonable procedures to assure maximum possible accuracy of the information concerning the individual about whom the report relates.” A match on name and date of birth alone, or a record reported without its disposition, is where many claims against screening companies begin. | § 1681e(b) [§ 607(b)] |
| Public records: notify you, or keep them current | A screening company that reports public-record information “likely to have an adverse effect upon a consumer’s ability to obtain employment” must either notify you “at the time such public record information is reported,” with the name and address of the employer receiving it, or “maintain strict procedures designed to insure that whenever public record information … is reported it is complete and up to date.” Arrests, indictments, convictions, suits, tax liens and judgments count as up to date only if “the current public record status of the item at the time of the report is reported” — a dismissed or expunged case reported as pending is neither. | § 1681k(a) [§ 613] |
| 30 days / 45 days | When you dispute an item, the screening company must reinvestigate within 30 days (45 if you send more information during the first 30), delete or correct what it cannot verify, and send you written results within 5 business days of finishing. | § 1681i(a) [§ 611] |
The dispute route is set out in how to dispute a background check; the company’s duties, and what happens when it verifies an error anyway, in background check errors.
How far back a report may go
| Figure | The rule | Section |
|---|---|---|
| 7 years | Records of arrest, civil suits and civil judgments: seven years from entry, “or until the governing statute of limitations has expired, whichever is the longer period.” | § 1681c(a)(2) [§ 605] |
| 7 years | Any other adverse item — a dismissed charge, a non-conviction disposition, a collection — after seven years. | § 1681c(a)(5) |
| No federal limit | Records of criminal convictions are excluded from the seven-year rule and may be reported without a federal time limit. State law may add a limit on convictions; the Act sets none. | § 1681c(a)(5) |
| $75,000 | None of the time limits apply to a report for a job with an annual salary that “equals, or which may reasonably be expected to equal $75,000, or more.” | § 1681c(b)(3) |
A case that was dismissed and still shows as a charge is a common error on employment reports; on rental reports it is an eviction filing that was dismissed or settled: dismissed charges still on a background check and a dismissed eviction still on a rental background check cover each.
What a violation costs, and how long you have
| Figure | The rule | Section |
|---|---|---|
| $100 to $1,000 per violation | For a willful violation — by the employer that skipped the disclosure or the pre-adverse-action step, or by the screening company that reported the wrong record — actual damages or statutory damages “of not less than $100 and not more than $1,000,” plus punitive damages as the court allows, plus attorney’s fees and costs. | § 1681n(a) [§ 616] |
| Actual damages | For a negligent violation, the loss itself — the job, the apartment, the wages between — plus attorney’s fees and costs. | § 1681o(a) [§ 617] |
| 2 years / 5 years | Suit must be filed within 2 years of discovering the violation and never more than 5 years after it happened. | § 1681p [§ 618] |
The employer’s failures and the screening company’s failures are separate claims against separate defendants, and a lost offer often involves both: the report was wrong and the copy never arrived. Employment background checks sets out how I handle each; the screening companies behind many employment reports each have their own page, starting with First Advantage. Tenant reports run under the same sections: tenant screening report errors.
Sources
15 U.S.C. §§ 1681b(b), 1681c, 1681e(b), 1681g(c), 1681i, 1681k, 1681m, 1681n, 1681o and 1681p, read in the U.S. Code as published by the Government Publishing Office (govinfo.gov) and by Cornell Law School’s Legal Information Institute; Federal Trade Commission and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Background Checks: What Employers Need to Know; the CFPB’s model Summary of Your Rights Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, 12 C.F.R. part 1022, Appendix K. The general credit-report figures are collected on FCRA by the Numbers.
If one of these rules was not honored
An offer withdrawn without the copy and the summary, a record that belongs to someone else, a dismissed case reported as pending, a conviction reported past a state limit: each is a claim under the Act, and the last table is what it is worth. I review the report and the employer’s paperwork at no cost and bring these cases on contingency — you pay nothing unless we win. Admitted in Pennsylvania and New Jersey; available to appear pro hac vice in other federal courts. Get a free case review or call 855-996-6342.
Reviewed by Richard H. Kim, Esq., consumer protection attorney. Last updated September 2026.