If a landlord turned you down after you applied through Zillow, the report behind that decision did not come from Zillow alone. A Zillow rental application bundles a credit report from Experian with a background check from CIC, and the landlord sees both. When something in that package is wrong, the Fair Credit Reporting Act gives you the right to see the report, to dispute it, and to recover damages if the companies responsible do not fix it.
What is in a Zillow background check
According to Zillow’s own rental application pages, the screening reports attached to a Zillow application include a credit report provided by Experian and a background check performed by CIC, which covers a nationwide eviction search, a sex offender search and a nationwide criminal search. Zillow says the credit and background information is pulled once during the 30 days in which a renter can use the application. In a federal court filing, Zillow describes the credit report as generated by Experian through its Experian Connect service and delivered through Zillow.
That means a single Zillow application can carry two separate reports from two separate companies. When you dispute, it matters which one holds the error.
Where these reports go wrong
The errors we see in tenant screening reports follow a few patterns: an eviction case that was dismissed or settled reported as a judgment against you, the same case listed more than once, a criminal record that belongs to someone with a similar name, and credit accounts reported with the wrong status. Federal regulators have brought actions against other tenant screening companies over these same problems, including TransUnion’s rental screening unit in 2023 and RentGrow in 2026.
A lawsuit over Zillow’s screening reports
In July 2026, a renter filed a proposed class action against Zillow in federal court in Virginia (Dobbins v. Zillow, Inc., No. 3:26-cv-00670, E.D. Va.). He alleges that his Zillow-provided report marked two credit accounts as included in bankruptcy although he had never filed for bankruptcy, that a landlord denied him housing because of it, and that Zillow did not investigate his dispute or send him a copy of his file. The complaint argues that Zillow is itself a consumer reporting agency under the Fair Credit Reporting Act.
Zillow has asked the court to send the case to arbitration, or to transfer it to federal court in Washington State, or to dismiss the class claim as filed too late. These are allegations and arguments, and the court has not ruled on them.
Two lessons from that case
Watch the deadline. A Fair Credit Reporting Act claim must be filed within two years after you discover the violation, and no later than five years after it happened (15 U.S.C. § 1681p). Zillow’s main defense to the class claim is that the renter learned of the error in May 2024 and did not sue until July 2026. If a screening report cost you an apartment, write down the date you found out. Our article on the FCRA statute of limitations explains how the dates are counted.
Know what you agreed to. Zillow told the court that renters cannot finish a Zillow rental application without clicking “I agree” to Experian’s terms for its Experian Connect service, and that those terms contain an arbitration clause and a waiver of class actions. Whether terms like these apply to a particular claim is often contested, which is one more reason to have a lawyer look at the paperwork early.
What the landlord has to tell you
A landlord who takes adverse action against you based on a screening report must give you notice of that decision, the name, address and telephone number of the company that supplied the report, a statement that the company did not make the decision, and notice of your right to a free copy of the report and to dispute it with that company (15 U.S.C. § 1681m(a)). With a Zillow application, ask which part of the report the decision rested on: the Experian credit report, the CIC background check, or both.
How to dispute a Zillow screening report
Send the dispute to the company that supplied the wrong information. Credit report errors go to Experian; eviction and criminal record errors go to CIC. According to the complaint in the Virginia case, Zillow’s support team told the renter to contact Experian directly to dispute information on his credit report. If you cannot tell where an error came from, send a copy of the dispute to Zillow as well.
Put the dispute in writing, name each wrong item, attach the court records or account statements that show the error, and keep a copy of everything you send and receive. The company generally has 30 days to complete a reasonable reinvestigation (15 U.S.C. § 1681i(a)(1)(A)). Our pages on Experian credit report errors and CIC background checks explain each company’s process, and our guide to disputing a background check covers what the letter should say.
How far back a tenant screening report can go
The Fair Credit Reporting Act limits how long most negative information can be reported. Civil suits, civil judgments and records of arrest cannot be reported once they are more than seven years old from the date of entry, or after the governing statute of limitations expires if that period is longer (15 U.S.C. § 1681c(a)(2)). An eviction case is a civil suit. Most other negative items are limited to seven years, but records of criminal convictions have no federal time limit (§ 1681c(a)(5)). The time limits do not apply to jobs paying $75,000 or more a year or to credit or life insurance of $150,000 or more (§ 1681c(b)); a rental application is none of those.
When it becomes a legal claim
If a screening company reported something inaccurate and did not fix it after your dispute, you may have a claim under the Fair Credit Reporting Act. For a negligent violation, you can recover your actual damages, such as the costs of losing an apartment, plus attorney’s fees. For a willful violation, you can recover actual damages or statutory damages of $100 to $1,000, punitive damages and attorney’s fees (15 U.S.C. §§ 1681n, 1681o). That is why we handle these cases on contingency.
Zillow sits alongside RentGrow, SafeRent, TransUnion SmartMove and the other services in our tenant screening directory, and our tenant screening report errors practice covers what comes next.
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Published by The Kim Law Firm, LLC — about attorney Richard Kim. Last updated October 2026.