Employment & Tenant Screening
The gatekeepers to jobs and housing
Employment and Tenant Screening Brokers
These companies act as gatekeepers to housing and employment, collecting and selling background check data, employment history, income verification, eviction records, and criminal records. A single inaccurate report can cost someone a job offer or an apartment — and the errors are far more common than the industry admits.
Employment Screening
First Advantage / Sterling – First Advantage completed its acquisition of Sterling Check Corp. on October 31, 2024 in a $2.2 billion cash-and-stock transaction (approximately $1.2 billion cash plus 27.15 million shares),[1] creating a combined entity with pro forma revenue of approximately $1.5 billion and projected run-rate synergies of $50–$70 million.[2] Performs background screens across 200+ countries for clients in healthcare, retail, transportation, financial services, and other industries. The deal received a DOJ second request on May 28, 2024 before clearing on October 29, 2024.[1]
HireRight – Taken private by General Atlantic and Stone Point Capital — who already beneficially owned approximately 75% of outstanding shares — in an all-cash merger completed June 28, 2024 at $14.35 per share, representing an equity value of approximately $1.65 billion (enterprise value ~$1.7 billion).[3] Provides criminal background checks, employment verification, drug screening, and identity verification. HireRight’s common stock ceased trading on the New York Stock Exchange upon completion of the transaction.[3]
Checkr – Valued at approximately $5 billion after raising $250 million in its Series E round,[4] Checkr reported $800 million in revenue and 100,000+ customers in 2025. Acquired Inflection (parent of GoodHire, a small-business background check provider) in April 2022 for approximately $400 million,[5] and Truework (income and employment verification platform) in April 2025.[6] Building an end-to-end employment data ecosystem spanning background checks, identity verification, and income verification. Despite its scale, Checkr faces ongoing FCRA litigation: a January 2026 class action (Davis v. Checkr) alleges the company misreported criminal records belonging to other individuals to prospective employers.[7]
Equifax Workforce Solutions / The Work Number – 813+ million employment and income records from 3 million employers nationwide, including salary, pay history, and benefits coverage.[8] Originally TALX Corporation, acquired by Equifax for $1.4 billion in 2007 and rebranded as Equifax Workforce Solutions in 2012.[9] In 2025, The Work Number processed 58 million verifications outside regular business hours.[8] Criticized for selling salary data without employees’ informed consent; a Fast Company investigation found that companies including Facebook contribute payroll data to The Work Number, which then sells it to third parties including debt collectors, landlords, and lenders.[10] In January 2025, the CFPB ordered Equifax to pay a $15 million civil penalty for ignoring consumer documents submitted with disputes, allowing previously deleted inaccuracies to be reinserted into credit reports, and using flawed software code that produced inaccurate credit scores for several hundred thousand consumers.[11]
ADP Screening and Selection – Background checks integrated with ADP’s payroll and HR platform, which processes payroll for approximately one in six U.S. workers across 1.1 million clients in 140+ countries.[12]
Accurate Background – The largest privately held and minority-owned global provider of background checks and workforce monitoring. Acquired Orange Tree Employment Screening in June 2024 to expand healthcare-sector screening capabilities.[13]
Cisive, InfoMart, Asurint – Additional employment screening providers serving regulated industries including financial services and healthcare.
Tenant Screening
The tenant screening industry has grown largely unregulated. These companies profit from eviction records, sometimes using incomplete or inaccurate data that follows tenants for years or decades. Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, eviction records can be reported for up to seven years, and records that have been sealed or expunged should not appear in FCRA-compliant reports — but enforcement of these protections remains inconsistent.
SafeRent Solutions – Formerly known as CoreLogic Rental Property Solutions, SafeRent was spun off and is now owned by Park Hill Holdings (via IAC Capital Group).[14] Claims to be the nation’s single largest aggregator of tenant screening data. In November 2024, a federal court approved a $2.275 million settlement in Louis v. SafeRent Solutions after plaintiffs demonstrated that SafeRent’s algorithmic “SafeRent Score” (ranging from 200 to 800) disproportionately harmed housing voucher recipients, including Black and Hispanic applicants.[15] The algorithm relied heavily on credit history and eviction data but failed to account for voucher subsidies — even though vouchers guarantee that the majority of rent is paid directly by a public agency — resulting in lower scores and higher rejection rates for voucher holders. SafeRent agreed to revise its practices and prohibit inclusion of its scoring feature in reports when an applicant uses a housing voucher.[16]
RealPage – Background Screening: Paid a $3 million FTC settlement in October 2018 — the largest FTC penalty against a background screening company at that time — for failing to ensure the accuracy of tenant screening reports. RealPage used broad matching criteria (exact last name only, with “soft” matches for first name, middle name, and date of birth), resulting in reports falsely linking applicants to criminal records and sex offender registries.[17]
RealPage – DOJ Antitrust (2025): In a separate and far larger matter, RealPage — taken private by Thoma Bravo in April 2021 for $10.2 billion[18] — became the center of the most significant algorithmic pricing case in U.S. history. On January 7, 2025, the DOJ filed an amended complaint adding six of the nation’s largest landlords as co-defendants: Greystar, LivCor (Blackstone), Camden Property Trust, Cushman & Wakefield / Pinnacle, Willow Bridge, and Cortland Management.[19] The DOJ alleged these landlords “actively participated in a scheme to set their rents using each other’s competitively sensitive information through common pricing algorithms.”[19] On November 24, 2025, the DOJ filed a proposed settlement with RealPage requiring the company to stop using competitors’ nonpublic data in pricing tools, limit model training to historic data at least 12 months old, and accept a three-year independent monitor. RealPage did not admit liability, and no financial penalties were imposed.[20][21] Separately, Greystar — the nation’s largest property manager — agreed to a $50 million class action settlement in October 2025[22] and a $7 million settlement with nine state attorneys general led by California AG Rob Bonta in November 2025.[23] In total, 26 landlord defendants agreed to pay more than $141 million to settle the class action.[22]
TransUnion SmartMove – Uses proprietary ResidentScore (ranging from 350 to 850) predicting eviction risk. TransUnion claims ResidentScore identifies 15% more evictions and 19% more skips than traditional credit scores.[24]
Experian RentBureau – The largest rental payment database in the United States, with data on 26+ million residents nationwide.[25] Property management companies send rental payment data directly to RentBureau daily or monthly. Positive rent payment data may be included in standard Experian credit reports.[25]
AppFolio – $4.25 million FTC settlement (December 2020) for screening inaccuracies. The FTC alleged AppFolio failed to take reasonable steps to ensure accuracy of tenant screening reports, included non-conviction criminal and eviction records older than seven years, and did not maintain reasonable reinvestigation procedures despite receiving numerous consumer complaints.[26]
RentGrow (Yardi Systems) – In October 2024, the National Association of Consumer Advocates (NACA) and the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) filed a consumer protection lawsuit against RentGrow in D.C. Superior Court, alleging that RentGrow’s automated tenant screening reports contain “a significant number of erroneous reports” and that its use of AI and automated decision-making without proper safeguards constitutes unfair and deceptive practices.[27] In November 2025, the court denied RentGrow’s motion to dismiss, ruling that the D.C. Consumer Protection Procedures Act is not preempted by the FCRA, allowing the case to proceed to discovery.[27]
National Tenant Network, RentPrep, RentSpree – Additional tenant screening services, all pulling from overlapping databases of court records, credit reports, and eviction data.
Regulatory Landscape
In January 2024, the CFPB issued two advisory opinions on background screening, affirming that consumer reporting agencies must have procedures to prevent the reporting of information that is duplicative, expunged, sealed, or legally restricted from public access, and must include disposition information for any arrests, criminal charges, or eviction proceedings.[28] However, in May 2025, the CFPB withdrew the guidance as part of a broader deregulatory shift, prioritizing future notice-and-comment rulemaking over advisory opinions.[29]
Sources & References
[1] First Advantage: Completes Sterling Acquisition ($2.2B) – October 31, 2024; ~$1.2B cash + 27.15M shares; DOJ second request May 28, 2024; cleared October 29, 2024.
[2] GlobeNewsWire: First Advantage/Sterling Combination – Pro forma combined revenue of ~$1.5B; $50–$70M run-rate synergies.
[3] HireRight: Completion of Acquisition – $14.35/share; ~$1.65B equity / ~$1.7B enterprise value; completed June 28, 2024; sponsors owned ~75% of shares.
[4] Checkr: Raises $250M at $4.6B Valuation – Series E funding; investors include Durable Capital Partners, Fidelity, Franklin Templeton.
[5] Checkr: Acquires GoodHire (Inflection) – April 2022; ~$400M per WSJ; SMB background check expansion.
[6] Checkr: Acquires Truework – April 2025; income and employment verification; serves eight of top ten U.S. lenders.
[7] Top Class Actions: Checkr Misreported Criminal Records – Davis v. Checkr Inc., Case No. 0:26-cv-60088, S.D. Fla.; alleges FCRA violations from mismatched records.
[8] The Work Number – 813+ million records from 3 million employers; 58 million after-hours verifications in 2025.
[9] Equifax: Completes TALX Acquisition – $1.4 billion (2007); rebranded Equifax Workforce Solutions (2012).
[10] Fast Company: Equifax Salary Data and The Work Number Database – Companies including Facebook contribute payroll data; sold to debt collectors, landlords, lenders.
[11] CFPB: Orders Equifax to Pay $15 Million – January 17, 2025; ignored consumer dispute documents; reinserted deleted errors; flawed software produced inaccurate credit scores.
[12] ADP Payroll Services – 1.1 million clients in 140+ countries; pays one in six U.S. workers.
[13] Accurate Background: Acquires Orange Tree Employment Screening – June 2024; healthcare-sector expansion; largest privately held minority-owned global screening provider.
[14] IAC Capital Group: SafeRent Portfolio – SafeRent (formerly CoreLogic Rental Property Solutions) acquired by Park Hill Holdings.
[15] Cohen Milstein: SafeRent $2.275M Settlement – AI-powered screening discrimination; housing voucher disparate impact.
[16] Lawyer Monthly: SafeRent Settlement Approved – Nov 20, 2024; Judge Angel Kelley, D. Mass.; injunctive relief for voucher holders.
[17] FTC: RealPage $3M Settlement (October 2018) – Largest FTC penalty against background screener; broad matching linked applicants to wrong criminal records.
[18] Thoma Bravo: Completes RealPage Acquisition – April 22, 2021; $10.2 billion including net debt; $88.75/share; serves 19+ million units worldwide.
[19] DOJ: Sues Six Large Landlords for Algorithmic Pricing Scheme – January 7, 2025; Greystar, LivCor (Blackstone), Camden, Cushman & Wakefield/Pinnacle, Willow Bridge, Cortland.
[20] DOJ: RealPage Antitrust Settlement (November 2025) – Seven-year settlement; stop using competitors’ nonpublic data; limit model training to 12+ month old historic data.
[21] ProPublica: DOJ and RealPage Agree to Settle Rental Price-Fixing Case – No financial penalties; three-year monitor; no admission of liability.
[22] SC Lawyers Weekly: Greystar $50M Rent-Algorithm Settlement – October 2025; 26 landlord defendants; $141M+ total class action settlements.
[23] CA AG Bonta: Greystar $7M Settlement – November 2025; nine state attorneys general; algorithmic rent alignment scheme.
[24] TransUnion SmartMove: ResidentScore – Score range 350–850; identifies 15% more evictions and 19% more skips than traditional credit scores.
[25] Experian RentBureau – Largest U.S. rental payment database; 26+ million residents; positive data included in standard credit reports.
[26] FTC: AppFolio $4.25M Settlement (December 2020) – Failure to ensure accuracy; included records older than seven years; inadequate reinvestigation procedures.
[27] EPIC: RentGrow Tenant Screening Lawsuit – NACA v. RentGrow, D.C. Superior Court; filed October 2024; motion to dismiss denied November 2025; AI/automated decision-making claims.
[28] CFPB: Tenant Background Checks – January 2024 advisory opinions; CRAs must prevent reporting of expunged/sealed records; must include disposition information.
[29] Hudson Cook: CFPB Withdrawal of Tenant Screening Guidance – May 2025; deregulatory shift; prioritizes future notice-and-comment rulemaking.