When people make a big mistake in life, it shouldn't be a surprise when it comes back to haunt them. Committing a felony and going to prison means having a criminal record that will place big stumbling blocks on the road to the future. Unintended mistakes can cause grief -- late credit card or car payments become blemishes on credit reports that can result in higher interest rates and the inability to qualify for a loan. Even completely innocent victims suffer mightily should their identities be stolen.
Regardless of whether a person ultimately pays a debt, or is exonerated from duty or a false allegation, the fact that the accusation was made can completely disrupt the ability to get on with life. For low-wage or unemployed renters, the struggle is especially difficult. Attorneys who handle eviction cases say they're a stubborn blot on any renter's history and nearly impossible to scrub away, even if the tenant made good on the obligation, or it was only a scare tactic by an aggressive landlord.
Housing advocates point out that landlords have used eviction actions as a cudgel in a variety of ways, even if they didn't ultimately intend to remove the tenant. But now the pandemic has given the problem new urgency. Some landlords filed eviction actions during the federal moratorium as a means of prodding tenants to apply for rental assistance or other government financial relief. However, just filing an eviction case can stigmatize a rental applicant as a risk -- something tenant advocates say is like making them wear a Scarlet E. The Biden administration announced a new moratorium for much of the country through October 3, but an estimated 11 million renters are still behind on their payments and could face eventual eviction.
Nearly nine out of ten landlords use tenant screening companies that generate automated background checks. The reports can contain multiple errors; nevertheless, an eviction showing up on a renter's record, correct or not, likely means denial of the application. Some states and cities have stepped up to make it easier for tenants with evictions to seal their records. A new Illinois law automatically seals most eviction cases filed since the start of the pandemic, and tenants who prevailed in older court cases are permitted to wipe them from court records.
Similar laws have been passed in Nevada, Washington D.C., and New Jersey. North Carolina is considering such legislation, but most states aren't. And at least one state, Nebraska, has rejected a proposal to ease sealing eviction cases. Landlord groups and tenant screening companies are critical of some of the new eviction privacy laws because they complicate the ability of property owners to properly review potential tenants. One official with the Consumer Data Industry Association says the new laws make it difficult to "distinguish nonpayment evictions from criminal activity and other lease violation evictions." (NYT)
