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The ABA’s House of Delegates adopted a resolution adopted in 2020 on tenant screening. According to the summary,
The Resolution urges federal, state, local, territorial, and tribal governments to address the COVID-19 eviction and housing crisis and its collateral harm by (1) providing rental assistance to rental property owners where tenants are facing COVID-19 economic hardship, and (2) precluding in tenant screening practices the use of nonpayment of rent or eviction records that occur during a particular jurisdiction’s COVID-19 pandemic state of emergency or in the 90 days immediately following the lifting of such emergency.
This resolution was initiated by the King County Bar Association, the Task Force on Legal Needs Arising Out of the COVID-19 Pandemic, and the Section of Real Property, Estate and Trust Law.
The commentary to the resolution criticizes tenant screening by noting that
[m]any property owners screen families for prior evictions and reject applicants with evictions on their record. Even when an eviction case is dismissed, the fact of filing can result in denial of rental housing applications. The practice of denying renters based on their eviction and rental history has become commercialized, with companies selling compiled lists of renters with prior evictions filings. In 2019, the practice was so widespread and egregious that New York passed legislation to ban it.
Report, 7 (citations omitted). The report supports automatic sealing of “nonpayment of rent or eviction records” as a “successful method for preventing the deleterious effects of eviction” for screening tenants. The commentary notes that some
states have already enacted or introduced laws that seal eviction records universally or under certain circumstances in order to prevent a landlord from considering the tenant’s prior rental history. In other jurisdictions, legislation has been enacted that bars landlords from considering a tenant’s rental or credit history after a certain period of time.Ultimately, public funds to ensure landlords receive rent payments and precluding the use of eviction records in tenant screening practices will prevent severe and long-term harm to renters and small property owners affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and economic recession.
Report, 12-13 (citations omitted).