Who maintains tenant blacklists?
There are a number of tenant blacklist firms. Some of the largest are U.D. Registry, The Registry, RentCheck, and TeleCheck. According to a 1989 article from Whole Earth Review: U.D. Registry, in Van Nuys, CA, has over 2 million tenant records on file, information gleaned from housing-court records and provided by irate landlords. For less than $15, UDR reports to any landlord any eviction proceedings, or statements from former landlords against a given tenant. The effect of UDR has been to blacklist tenants who attempt to exercise their rights; a lawsuit attacking UDR has been pending in California courts for more than two years. UDR’s clients control 90 percent of the rental market in southern California, and the company performs over 250,000 searches per year, according to Harvey Saltz, the company’s owner. Saltz says he lets tenants place statements in their files explaining “their side” of the story, but many of UDR’s victims aren’t even aware of the company’s existence. Indeed, s
