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Who cares
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Sponsors
3 Co-sponsors
History
- Referred to consumer protection
- Referred to consumer protection
Full text
The text isn't available here yet. Check nysenate.gov.
Sponsor's memo
BILL NUMBER:S1896
Title of bill
An act to amend the general business law, in relation to applying the fair credit reporting act to tenant screening companies
Purpose
The purpose of this bill is to prevent tenants from wrongfully being blacklisted by tenant screening companies
Summary of provisions
This bill would amend subdivision (e) of section 380-a of the General Business Law to apply the Fair Credit Reporting Act to tenant screening companies.
Justification
Under current New York State Law, tenant screening companies are not required to abide by the fair credit reporting statutes, which can lead to the unfair treatment of prospective tenants who may he unknowingly screened. Screening companies receive fees for their services from landlords wishing to avoid undesirable tenants.
Problems arise because many tenants are unaware that they are being screened and are often placed in a position where they cannot refute dubious information that may be supplied by a not so thorough screening company. One particular tenant was blacklisted by a Rhode Island based tenant screening company because the company discovered that she liked bingo and in their report to the landlord, they listed her as a "chronic excessive gambler."
This legislation would eliminate such abuse of a tenant's rights by requiring that the tenant be notified that such an investigation will be conducted and that the tenant must give written permission for the report. Upon completion of the report, the tenant is notified and will receive and inspect a copy of such a report. In addition, the tenant would receive the same right to dispute any item of information contained in his/her screening company to promptly reinvestigate and correct any errors found in such a file.
Legislative history
03/16/09 REFERRED TO CONSUMER PROTECTION 01/06/10 REFERRED TO CONSUMER PROTECTION
Fiscal implications
None.
Effective date
This act shall take effect on the thirtieth day after it shall become a law.
Summaries, headlines and scores are AI-generated from the official bill text. How we score bills. Source: NYS Open Legislation.