You found an apartment, filled out the application, and now a stranger is pulling your credit, your court history, and possibly your criminal record. Massachusetts regulates every step of that process more tightly than almost any other state, and some of the most common screening practices here, including the application fee itself, violate state law. This guide explains what a tenant screening background check contains in Massachusetts, what landlords can consider, what they can never reject you for, and how to use the eviction sealing law, in effect since May 5, 2025, to clean up your record before you apply.
The Short Version: Allowed vs. Not Allowed
| A Massachusetts landlord CAN | A Massachusetts landlord CANNOT |
|---|---|
| Pull your credit report with your written consent | Charge you an application fee or credit check fee (G.L. c. 186, § 15B) |
| Run a “standard access” CORI check through the state’s iCORI system | See sealed criminal records or sealed eviction cases |
| Search public eviction dockets on masscourts.org | Require you to pay the broker fee for a broker the landlord hired (law effective August 1, 2025) |
| Call prior landlords and verify your income and employment | Reject you for using a Section 8 voucher or other rental assistance (G.L. c. 151B, § 4(10)) |
| Reject you for insufficient verified income or a poor payment history | Turn you away because you have children, including because the unit has lead paint |
| Consider a relevant, recent criminal conviction that appears on a lawful CORI report | Refuse to rent because of race, disability, national origin, sex, or the other protected classes |
Everything below unpacks that table, starting with what screening companies actually compile.
What Is in a Rental Screening Report
When a landlord orders a rental background check in Massachusetts, whether directly or through a screening company like TransUnion SmartMove, RentPrep, or a local realtor’s vendor, the file usually pulls from four sources:
- Credit history. Balances, payment history, collections, and a score, pulled from Equifax, Experian, or TransUnion. This requires your authorization, usually buried in the application form.
- Eviction court records. Summary process (eviction) cases scraped from public court dockets. In Massachusetts these are searchable by anyone on masscourts.org, which is why a case filed against you can follow you even if you won it. The sealing law discussed below changes this.
- Criminal records. In Massachusetts this is governed by the CORI system, not by whatever a national database happens to hold. The rules are strict and covered in their own section below.
- Verification calls. Prior landlords, current employer, and personal references. Nothing stops a landlord from asking a former landlord whether you paid on time.
Screening companies are consumer reporting agencies under the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act, which gives you specific rights when a report costs you an apartment. Those rights are covered further down.
The Rule Most Screening Articles Miss: Application Fees Are Illegal
Under G.L. c. 186, § 15B, a landlord in Massachusetts may collect only four things at or before the start of a tenancy: first month’s rent, last month’s rent, a security deposit of no more than one month’s rent, and the actual cost of a new lock and key. That list is exclusive. An “application fee,” a “credit check fee,” a “background check fee,” a “holding deposit,” or a “pet deposit” charged by the landlord is not on the list and is not lawful, no matter how routine it looks on the application form.
Violating § 15B is also an unfair practice under Chapter 93A, the consumer protection law, which can mean multiple damages and attorney’s fees. Most renters pay the $35 quietly because they want the apartment. Knowing the rule lets you push back, or recover the money later.
One related change: licensed brokers historically charged tenants the broker’s fee, and that was legal. As of August 1, 2025, state law requires the fee to be paid by whoever hired the broker, which is almost always the landlord, unless you independently retained your own agent first. None of this stops a landlord from ordering a screening report; it just means the landlord absorbs the cost.
Criminal Records: How CORI Works in Housing
Massachusetts landlords do not get your full criminal history. Private landlords, property managers, and real estate agents can register with the Department of Criminal Justice Information Services and run checks through iCORI at what the regulations (803 CMR 5.00) call “standard” access. A standard access report shows:
- Pending criminal cases
- Misdemeanor convictions for 5 years after conviction or release from incarceration, whichever is later
- Felony convictions for 10 years after conviction or release, whichever is later
- Convictions for murder, manslaughter, and sex offenses regardless of age
What a landlord does not see: sealed or expunged records, cases that ended without a conviction once they fall outside the reporting rules, and older convictions beyond the 5 and 10 year windows (except the permanent categories). If you sealed a record, it does not appear, and the landlord has no lawful way around that.
Process protections matter too. The landlord needs your signed acknowledgment before running CORI, and an adverse decision based on the report entitles you to a copy. Attorney General guidance also warns that a blanket “no criminal records” policy can violate fair housing law as disparate impact discrimination; screening is supposed to weigh how old the offense is, how serious it was, and whether it relates to tenancy.
Eviction Records and the New Sealing Law
For years, the single most damaging item in any screening file was an eviction case, because Massachusetts dockets are public and screening companies index them. A tenant who was sued, won, and stayed in the apartment still showed a “prior eviction” to every future landlord. That changed with the Affordable Homes Act of 2024, which created G.L. c. 239, § 16 and made eviction record sealing in Massachusetts available for the first time. The sealing provisions took effect on May 5, 2025.
Who Can Seal, and When
- You won, or the case was dismissed: you can petition once the case is over and appeal periods have run. No waiting period.
- No-fault eviction (the landlord ended the tenancy to sell, renovate, or simply not renew): you can petition once the case concludes. No waiting period.
- Non-payment of rent: if the judgment is satisfied, you can petition after the case concludes. If it is not satisfied, you generally wait 4 years and must not have had certain intervening cases.
- Fault eviction (lease violations other than non-payment): a 7 year wait after the case ends, with no new fault evictions during that period.
How to File
Filing is free. You file a Petition to Seal Eviction Record (Trial Court form TC0106) in the court that heard the case, and the Trial Court offers a free online guided interview that fills out the forms for you. The other parties to the original case get notice and 7 days to object. If nobody objects, the court can seal the record without a hearing. Once sealed, the case disappears from public view and from tenant screening databases, and the statute lets you answer “no record” when a rental application asks about prior evictions. Credit reporting agencies are barred from reporting sealed cases.
If you have any old summary process case, sealing it before you start apartment hunting is the highest-value move available under current law. The petition costs nothing, and an unsealed case will surface in nearly every tenant screening background check run against you.
Credit Checks and Your FCRA Rights
A tenant background credit check is a consumer report under the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act, and that statute does real work for rejected applicants. If a landlord denies you, requires a co-signer, or demands a larger deposit based even in part on the report, that is an “adverse action,” and the landlord must tell you:
- That a report was used against you
- The name and contact information of the screening company that supplied it
- That you can get a free copy of the report from that company within 60 days
- That you can dispute inaccurate or incomplete information with the company
Many small landlords skip the adverse action notice entirely, which is itself a violation. If you are denied and suspect the report, ask in writing which screening company was used and request your copy. Massachusetts law separately caps what a landlord can collect up front, as covered above, so the credit check happens at the landlord’s expense.
Reasons a Landlord Can Never Reject You
Screening ends where discrimination law begins. Chapter 151B and the federal Fair Housing Act make certain rejections illegal regardless of how the landlord dresses them up:
- Section 8 and other rental assistance. G.L. c. 151B, § 4(10) prohibits rejecting an applicant because of a housing subsidy. “No Section 8” in a listing is illegal on its face, and so are the softer versions: income multipliers applied to a voucher holder’s full rent, or refusing the program’s inspection requirements. This protection reaches most Massachusetts rentals, including many owner-occupied buildings exempt from other parts of the statute.
- Children and the lead paint trap. Familial status is protected. A landlord cannot refuse to rent to you because you have kids, and cannot use lead paint as the excuse. Massachusetts law requires an owner to delead (or bring under interim control) any unit where a child under 6 will live; refusing families to dodge that duty is discrimination under both the lead law and c. 151B. It is one of the most common fair housing violations MCAD sees.
- Disability. A landlord cannot reject you because of a disability and must grant reasonable accommodations in the screening process itself, such as accepting a co-signer or an assistance animal despite a no-pets policy.
- The rest of the protected classes. Race, color, national origin, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, veteran status, age, and ancestry. A screening criterion applied only to some applicants, like running CORI only on certain names, is discrimination even if the criterion itself is lawful.
Complaints go to the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination (MCAD) or HUD, generally within 300 days of the refusal, and fair housing organizations regularly run testers to document exactly this conduct.
Fixing Errors in a Screening Report
Screening files are wrong more often than people expect: cases matched to a similar name, dismissed evictions reported as judgments, sealed matters still showing. The repair sequence:
- Get the report. After any denial, request your free copy from the screening company named in the adverse action notice.
- Dispute in writing with the screening company. The FCRA requires a reinvestigation, normally within 30 days, and deletion of anything unverifiable.
- For CORI errors, file a correction request with DCJIS; for court record errors, ask the clerk’s office of the court that heard the case.
- If a sealed eviction still appears, cite G.L. c. 239, § 16 in your dispute; reporting a sealed case is prohibited.
- Keep the paper trail. A screening company that ignores disputes faces FCRA liability, including damages and fees, and tenant attorneys do take these cases.
If you are rejected while a dispute is pending, a short letter to the landlord explaining the error, with documentation, sometimes reverses the decision faster than any formal process.
One More Cost Rule: Deposits
The same statute that bans application fees imposes strict rules on security deposits: separate interest-bearing escrow accounts, receipts, statements of condition, and annual interest, with triple damages for violations. If you pass screening, a deposit request comes next, so read our companion guide to Massachusetts security deposit rules before you hand over a check.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can a landlord charge an application fee in Massachusetts?
No. G.L. c. 186, § 15B limits upfront charges to first month’s rent, last month’s rent, a security deposit up to one month’s rent, and the cost of a new lock and key. Application, credit check, and holding fees charged by a landlord are unlawful, and charging them can violate Chapter 93A.
Can landlords see sealed evictions?
No. Once a court seals a summary process case under G.L. c. 239, § 16, it is removed from public view, screening companies and credit reporting agencies cannot report it, and the statute permits you to answer that you have no record of that eviction on an application.
Can a landlord reject Section 8 in Massachusetts?
No. G.L. c. 151B, § 4(10) makes it illegal to refuse an applicant because they receive a housing subsidy, including Section 8 vouchers, RAFT, or other rental assistance. “No Section 8” advertisements and income rules that screen out voucher holders both violate the law. Complaints go to MCAD or HUD.
Do I have to pay the broker fee?
Usually not anymore. Since August 1, 2025, the broker’s fee must be paid by the party who engaged the broker, which is almost always the landlord. You owe a fee only if you hired your own agent before that agent began working with the landlord’s listing.
What shows up on a CORI check for an apartment?
Landlords get “standard” access: pending cases, misdemeanor convictions within 5 years, felony convictions within 10 years (measured from conviction or release), and murder, manslaughter, and sex offense convictions at any age. Sealed and expunged records do not appear.
How long does it take to seal an eviction record?
After you file the free petition (form TC0106), the other parties have 7 days to object. With no objection, the court can seal without a hearing, so the process can finish in a matter of weeks. Contested petitions take longer because the court schedules a hearing.
Massachusetts gives tenants more leverage in screening than nearly any other state: no application fees, limited criminal record access, subsidy protection, and a working path to erase old eviction cases. If a landlord has crossed one of these lines, MCAD, the Attorney General’s consumer complaint process, and private counsel are all realistic options, and the deadlines are shorter than you think.