Tenant Screening in California

FCRA-compliant tenant screening for landlords in California — serving Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, San Jose, Sacramento and every other California market. Reports start at $24.99 with no subscription. California-specific reporting-law overlays are applied automatically before the landlord sees any record.

What landlords in California can include in a screening report

• Credit report and score — TransUnion VantageScore plus tradeline detail.
• Criminal background — nationwide criminal record search with California-specific look-back limits applied.
• Eviction / housing-court records — sealed, dismissed, and time-barred records filtered before they reach you.
• Income verification — optional payroll + bank-link verification via Pinwheel.
• AI landlord reference call — optional AI agent calls the applicant’s prior landlord and produces a structured summary.

Eviction record reporting in California

California imposes one of the strictest eviction-reporting regimes in the country. Sealed cases, dismissed cases, and any case older than seven years are excluded from consumer reports under the CCRAA. AB 2747 (2024) further narrowed which evictions may be reported.

Statutory citation: Cal. Civ. Code § 1786.18; CA AB 2747 (2024)

How reporting limits interact with what you may lawfully consider is covered in what landlords can screen for and the investigative consumer report explainer.

Criminal-record reporting in California

California limits consumer reports to convictions within the past seven years. Arrests not resulting in conviction may not be reported. ICRAA also restricts adverse-action use of certain conviction types in employment, with parallel principles applied in tenant-screening contexts.

Fair housing in California

The California Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA), Cal. Gov. Code § 12955 applies in addition to the federal Fair Housing Act. Source of income is a protected class statewide in California — landlords may not refuse to consider an applicant solely because they intend to pay with a housing-choice voucher or similar lawful source.

Notable California considerations

Source of income is a protected class statewide (Cal. Gov. Code § 12955(p)). Local ordinances (Berkeley, San Francisco, Oakland, Los Angeles) impose additional rent-control and just-cause requirements.

How RentalApplication.ai works for California landlords

1. You start a screening at rentalapplication.ai/apply. Enter the applicant’s name and email; pick the reports you want.
2. The applicant gets an email with a secure link, completes the application, and authorizes the screening (FCRA § 1681b(b)(2)).
3. The applicant pays at the moment of submission (or you can land-lord-pay).
4. Reports are delivered to you in minutes (credit) to a few hours (housing/criminal). State-law overlays are applied before the landlord sees any record.
5. If you decline based on the report, we generate the FCRA § 1681m adverse-action notice for you.

This page is an informational summary, not legal advice. State and local landlord-tenant law changes frequently — verify against current statute and local counsel before relying on this content. RentalApplication.ai is a reseller of consumer reports under FCRA § 1681a(u) and does not make tenancy decisions. The landlord (the “end user”) is the party who decides whether to approve or deny an application.