Landlords are generally allowed to tell the truth
There's no law that requires a former landlord to give you a glowing reference, or even a neutral one. If you paid late repeatedly, damaged the unit, or violated your lease, your former landlord can generally share that honestly with a prospective landlord who asks — truthful information about your tenancy isn't something you can force them to hide.
Where it crosses a legal line
What a landlord can't do is make false statements that damage your ability to rent — claiming you were evicted when you weren't, inventing damage that never happened, or saying you broke rules you never actually broke. Knowingly false statements that harm your reputation can amount to defamation under your state's law, though proving it, and that it caused you real harm, is a real legal burden, not just an accusation.
Tenant-screening reports are a separate, more regulated channel
If a prospective landlord runs a formal background or tenant-screening report through a paid screening company, that company is a "consumer reporting agency" under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, and your former landlord becomes a "furnisher" of information to it, the same legal category as a bank reporting to a credit bureau. That means if inaccurate information about your tenancy ends up in a screening report, you have the right to dispute it with both the screening company and the landlord who furnished it, and they generally have to investigate. An informal phone call between landlords isn't a "consumer report" in that same regulated sense — the extra protections apply specifically to the formal screening-report channel.
What to do if you think a reference is hurting you
Ask the prospective landlord, specifically and politely, what they were told — some will tell you, some won't. If you're getting rejected and suspect it's your former landlord's doing, ask your former landlord directly what they've been saying when contacted. A calm, direct conversation resolves a surprising number of these before they become a real dispute.
If it's a formal screening report, not a phone call
Request a copy of the report from the screening company that ran it — you're entitled to see what's in your file. If something is factually wrong, dispute it in writing with the screening company and separately with your former landlord, laying out specifically what's inaccurate and why. See how do I dispute security deposit deductions for how a similar written-dispute process generally works, since the mechanics are similar.
Some states limit what shows up in a screening report
Separate from the truthfulness question, some states restrict how long an eviction filing can appear in a tenant-screening report, or allow you to petition for eviction record sealing in certain circumstances, such as cases you won or that were dismissed. These protections vary significantly and are newer in some states than others, so check your specific state's current rules rather than assume you're covered.
When a bad reference might reflect retaliation
If your former landlord's negative reference seems timed to punish you for something protected, like reporting a habitability complaint or joining a tenant organization, that can raise a separate retaliation issue under your state's law, on top of any truthfulness question. Document the timeline connecting your protected action to the reference if you suspect this is what's happening.
Building your own reference packet
You don't have to rely entirely on what a former landlord says. Keep your own file: your lease, proof of on-time payments, your move-in and move-out condition photos, and any positive written communication from your landlord over the tenancy, like a thank-you email or a maintenance request response. Some renters offer this packet proactively to a new landlord who seems hesitant, which can offset a shaky or unclear reference from a previous one.
Protecting your rental history going forward
Keep your own paper trail from every tenancy: your lease, your move-out condition photos, your final rent and deposit accounting, and anything in writing that shows you left in good standing, or, if there was a dispute, your side of it. That record is what lets you push back credibly if a future reference doesn't match reality. If you're worried about how your current lease's rules could affect your standing at move-out, Honestkey™ can flag the relevant lease clauses from an uploaded copy so nothing about your move-out catches you by surprise.