If a landlord or property manager turned you down and the letter mentioned RentGrow, you are probably searching the name for the first time. RentGrow is a real company. It is a tenant screening service, and under federal law it is a consumer reporting agency, which means it holds a file on you and you have rights against it.
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Who RentGrow is
RentGrow, Inc. sells resident screening reports to property owners and managers. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau lists it among the consumer reporting companies that hold files on ordinary people, and that listing describes RentGrow as a wholly owned subsidiary of Yardi Systems, Inc. Its consumer relations line is 800-898-1351, open Monday through Friday, and its dispute materials are published on rentgrow.com.
You never chose RentGrow and you have no contract with it. The landlord is the customer. You are the subject of the report, which is a different thing entirely, and it is the reason the denial felt like it came from nowhere.
Why you were denied, and why nobody explained it
A screening report usually combines several things: a credit check, a criminal records search, an eviction or civil court records search, income or employment verification, and sometimes a numerical score that packages all of it into a single recommendation to the landlord. A property manager often sees only the recommendation.
That is how an error becomes a denial without anyone examining it. If a court record belongs to somebody with a similar name, or an eviction that was dismissed still appears as though it were entered against you, or a debt you already paid is still listed as outstanding, the report carries the mistake into the recommendation and the recommendation is what the landlord acts on.
Get your own copy first, before you argue with anyone
You are entitled to see the file. RentGrow will provide a copy of your screening report on request if it holds one on you, and there is no charge for it. Ask for the report itself rather than a summary, because you cannot dispute what you have not read.
Ask the landlord or property manager for the adverse action notice as well. When an application is refused because of information in a consumer report, the Fair Credit Reporting Act requires the company that made the decision to tell you so and to identify the agency that supplied the report. That notice is what names RentGrow in the first place, and it is worth keeping.
How to dispute a RentGrow report
RentGrow accepts disputes by email, by fax and by mail, and it publishes a dispute form and a current mailing address on its own website. It asks for a legible copy of a government-issued photo identification along with the form and whatever documents support your position. Send the identification it asks for, because an incomplete submission is the most common reason a dispute stalls before it starts.
Two points are worth more than anything else you do. Say precisely what is wrong and why, rather than that the report is generally inaccurate, and attach the proof: the docket sheet showing the eviction was dismissed, the satisfaction of judgment, the paid-in-full letter, the identification showing the record belongs to somebody else. Keep a copy of everything you send and a note of the date you sent it.
Dispute with the source as well as with RentGrow where you can identify it. If a court record is wrong at the courthouse, correcting it there removes the problem at its origin rather than one report at a time.
What happens to disputes like yours
The CFPB publishes every complaint it receives, including the category covering tenant screening and other personal consumer reports. In the twelve months to 30 June 2026 that category recorded 20,331 complaints. Here is how they ended.
| Outcome | Complaints | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Closed with an explanation | 14,467 | 71.2% |
| Closed with non-monetary relief | 5,220 | 25.7% |
| Still in progress | 525 | 2.6% |
| Untimely response | 90 | 0.4% |
| Closed with money paid | 29 | 0.14% |
Twenty-nine, out of more than twenty thousand. Roughly one complaint in seven hundred ended with any money changing hands. Half of the complaints, 10,182 of them, said the same thing: the information on the report was wrong. A further 4,452 concerned the investigation that was supposed to fix it.
None of that means a dispute is pointless. A quarter of these complaints did produce a correction, and for most people that is the outcome they wanted. It does mean that complaining is not the same as being compensated for a lost apartment, and it is worth knowing the difference before you rely on the process alone.
When a screening error becomes a legal claim
The Fair Credit Reporting Act requires a consumer reporting agency to follow reasonable procedures to assure maximum possible accuracy, and to conduct a reasonable investigation when a consumer disputes an entry. A reasonable investigation means more than asking the original source whether it stands by what it reported.
Where those duties are not met, the Act provides for actual damages, and for statutory and punitive damages where the failure is willful. Actual damages in a tenant screening case are not abstract: the application fees paid on apartments you did not get, the cost of somewhere else to live, a deposit lost, time off work, and the position you were put in by a document you never saw.
There is a deadline. FCRA claims generally must be brought within two years of the date you discovered the violation, and in any event within five years of the violation itself.
The other screening companies
RentGrow is one of several. If your denial named a different company, these pages cover the others: SafeRent, CoreLogic, RealPage and TransUnion SmartMove. If the report that cost you the apartment was an employment or general background check rather than a tenant screen, start with background check errors.
Frequently asked questions
Is RentGrow a scam?
No. It is an established tenant screening company and a consumer reporting agency subject to the Fair Credit Reporting Act. The question people usually mean is whether the report about them was accurate, which is a separate matter and one you can test by obtaining the file.
How long does a RentGrow dispute take?
Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act a consumer reporting agency generally has 30 days to investigate a dispute, extendable to 45 days if you send additional information during the investigation period.
Can I still get the apartment if the report was wrong?
Sometimes. If the unit is still available and you can show the landlord a corrected report quickly, some property managers will reconsider. Speed matters more than anything else here, which is why getting your own copy first is the step that saves the most time.
Does a dismissed eviction show up?
It can. Court records are often collected in bulk, and a case that was dismissed, withdrawn or decided in the tenant’s favor can still appear as a filing. That is one of the more common tenant screening errors and one of the most straightforward to document.
What does it cost to get legal help?
These cases are handled on contingency. You pay nothing unless we win.
If your dispute did not fix it
If you have disputed properly, sent the proof, and the entry is still on the report, that is the point at which the question stops being administrative. The Kim Law Firm represents consumers in credit and consumer reporting matters under the FCRA. 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 — you pay nothing unless we win.