Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) Notice & Consumer Rights

1. About This Notice

VerticalRent is operated by ScreenForge Labs LLC ("VerticalRent," "we," "us," or "our"). As part of our tenant screening services, we obtain, use, and furnish consumer reports — including criminal background reports, eviction records, and rental history reports — in connection with residential rental housing decisions. Credit reports from TransUnion or Experian are planned and are not ordered in the product today.

These activities are governed by the Fair Credit Reporting Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1681 et seq. ("FCRA"). This notice describes your rights as a consumer and our obligations under the FCRA.

2. What Is a Consumer Report?

Under the FCRA, a "consumer report" is any written, oral, or other communication of information bearing on a consumer's creditworthiness, credit standing, credit capacity, character, general reputation, personal characteristics, or mode of living — used or expected to be used for the purpose of serving as a factor in establishing eligibility for credit, insurance, employment, housing, or other permissible purposes.

When a landlord orders a report on an applicant, VerticalRent obtains that consumer report solely for the permissible purpose of tenant screening— evaluating an applicant's suitability as a residential tenant. We do not use landlord-ordered consumer report information for any other purpose.

Renters may also request their own criminal, eviction, and rental-history reports (self-screening). A self-requested report is for the renter's own records. It is not furnished to a landlord as a consumer report unless the renter later shares it (for example by creating a share link or releasing reports on an application).

3. Permissible Purpose

We access screening databases only when one of the following applies:

• Landlord-initiated tenant screening: a landlord has placed a screening order for a specific applicant and unit; the applicant has provided written FCRA consent; the landlord has certified the permissible purpose of tenant screening; and the consent timestamp is stored in our audit log.
• Renter self-screening: you have requested reports on yourself, provided FCRA consent, and paid any applicable screening credits. You can share a completed report with landlords or dispute inaccurate information.

Landlords on VerticalRent are required to certify their permissible purpose before any landlord-initiated screening order is placed.

4. Your Rights as a Consumer Under the FCRA

You have the following rights under the FCRA:

• Right to know if a consumer report was used against you. If a landlord takes adverse action against you (denial, conditional approval, higher deposit) based in whole or in part on information in a consumer report, they are required to provide you an adverse action notice.
• Right to know what is in your file. You may request and obtain a copy of all information in your consumer file held by any consumer reporting agency (CRA). Under certain circumstances, this disclosure is free of charge.
• Right to request your credit score. Consumer reporting agencies that provide credit scores to lenders and landlords may provide your credit score and related information upon request.
• Right to dispute inaccurate or incomplete information. If you believe your consumer report contains inaccurate or incomplete information, you have the right to dispute it with the CRA that furnished the report. The CRA must investigate your dispute, typically within 30 days.
• Right to have inaccurate, incomplete, or unverifiable information removed or corrected. If a dispute results in a finding that information is inaccurate, incomplete, or cannot be verified, the CRA must delete or correct it.
• Right to have outdated negative information excluded. In most cases, a CRA may not report negative information that is more than seven (7) years old, or bankruptcies that are more than ten (10) years old.
• Right to seek damages from violators. If a CRA, landlord, or other user of consumer reports violates the FCRA, you may have the right to sue in state or federal court.
• Right to place a security freeze. You have the right to place a "security freeze" on your credit report, which will prevent a CRA from releasing information about you without your express authorization.
• Right to place a fraud alert. You may place a fraud alert on your credit file to warn potential creditors to verify your identity before extending credit.

5. Adverse Action Notices

If a landlord using VerticalRent takes adverse action against a rental applicant based in whole or in part on information in a consumer report, the landlord is required by law — and VerticalRent's platform is designed to support this obligation — to provide the applicant with an adverse action notice that includes:

• The name, address, and phone number of the consumer reporting agency that provided the report;
• A statement that the CRA did not make the adverse decision and is unable to explain why the decision was made;
• Notice of the consumer's right to obtain a free copy of the consumer report from the CRA within 60 days of the adverse action notice; and
• Notice of the consumer's right to dispute the accuracy or completeness of the report with the CRA.

6. SSN Protection and Data Security

VerticalRent does not store Social Security Numbers (SSNs) in plain text. All SSN data collected for screening purposes is encrypted at rest using AES-256 encryption. Only the last four digits of an SSN are stored in retrievable form for identity verification purposes. Full SSNs are transmitted securely to our screening partners and are never retained in our database after transmission.

7. Our Screening Partners

VerticalRent fulfills screening orders through ScreenForge Labs LLC and licensed data partners. Current partners include:

• Data Divers — criminal background, SSN trace / address history
• DX Data Exchange — eviction / national rental court records
• TransUnion / Experian — credit reports (partnership and FCRA review planned; not available to order in the product today)

All partners are licensed consumer reporting agencies operating under the FCRA. Their contact information and consumer dispute processes are available on their respective websites.

8. Criminal Background Report Review

When a criminal background search returns potential matches, specific record details may be withheld from the initial consumer report pending verification by VerticalRent's licensed CRA review team. This practice helps ensure that only accurate, complete, and properly attributed information is furnished in accordance with the FCRA.

If potential matches are identified, ScreenForge Labs LLC's CRA review team manually verifies each potential match against source records and furnishes a complete consumer report upon completion of review at no additional charge. Most screening orders with no potential matches return results in minutes; when CRA review is required, completion typically takes up to 3 business days (weekends excluded).

VerticalRent does not furnish unverified criminal record details in consumer reports. All reviews are conducted in accordance with FCRA requirements for accuracy, completeness, and permissible purpose.

9. FCRA Summary of Rights

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has prepared a summary of your rights under the FCRA. You may obtain a copy of this summary at: www.consumerfinance.gov/learnmore

10. How to Contact Us

If you have questions about our FCRA practices, wish to dispute information in a screening report obtained through VerticalRent, or wish to exercise any of your rights described above, you can file an in-app dispute from My Screening Reports or contact us: