The California Apartment Association is reminding its members to ensure their rental application includes critical components that, if omitted, could end up being very costly.
Under the California Investigative Consumer Reporting Agencies Act (ICRAA), landlords who use certain types of screening reports — such as eviction or criminal background checks — must:
- Disclose to the applicant that such reports will be used;
- Give the applicant a summary of their rights under the law; and,
- Provide a check box allowing the applicant to request a copy of any report prepared.
Including this required information in the rental application is the best approach, as it ensures the necessary disclosures are provided to the applicant before any screening report is prepared and offers landlords an easy way to document their compliance with ICRAA.
If a landlord violates an applicant’s rights under ICRAA, the applicant can sue for a minimum amount of damages of $10,000, plus attorney’s fees and costs. Notably, the applicant does not need to demonstrate that they suffered actual harm as a result of the violation to claim these damages. Because of this, the fact that an applicant was approved for tenancy or was actually provided with a copy of their screening reports is unlikely to serve as a defense if the technical requirements of the law, such as providing the mandatory check box to request a copy of the screening reports, were not met.
CAA’s Application to Rent form has included the required disclosures and check box since 2018, following a ruling by the California Supreme Court that expanded the interpretation of ICRAA’s applicability. Recently, CAA has received reports of several landlords who do not use CAA’s Application to Rent form facing lawsuits due to the omission of required items in their application materials and of plaintiffs’ attorneys actively seeking out residents to participate in such lawsuits against landlords.
In light of these developments, it is imperative that landlords review their application and screening materials to ensure they are ICRAA-compliant to safeguard against legal challenges.
Additional information about ICRAA, including the requirements it also imposes on adverse action notices, is available in CAA’s Industry Insight entitled Screening Potential Tenants: Using Consumer Reports, available here.
