Get the adverse action notice, then pull your file
Get the adverse action notice from the landlord first. If a report is why you were turned down, that notice names the company that produced it: name, address, and phone. Without it you're guessing across eight companies that don't share files: SafeRent, RealPage, Experian RentBureau, TransUnion SmartMove, First Advantage, Contemporary Information Corp, Screening Reports Inc, and LexisNexis.
Then ask that company for your file. You're entitled to a free copy if you request it within 60 days of the denial, per the CFPB's Review your rental background check, and SafeRent sends its file disclosure within three business days of a request through its consumer support page. Nobody may charge you for it.
Read the file against the real docket
Open your case on the court's own docket and read it against the report, line by line. You're looking for a filing reported as a judgment, a dismissal reported as a loss, or a disposition missing entirely. That gap is the dispute. Write down the case number, the filing date, the property address, and in one sentence what the report has wrong.
If the case is in California, check this before anything else. Under CCP 1161.2 the clerk masks an unlawful detainer file from non-parties for 60 days, and it stays masked unless the landlord won inside that window. Dispute it with the screening company, and don't file a sealing motion you don't need.
Send a written dispute to each company, one at a time
Every company needs its own written dispute with its own ID packet, and fixing SafeRent does nothing at RealPage. SafeRent takes disputes on its Dispute Request Form, and RealPage runs its own through a form on its consumer page, which wants two of four identifiers: state ID, last four of your Social Security number, date of birth, or your last three addresses.
Check the opt-out box in Section D before you sign the SafeRent form and send it. Left alone, SafeRent sends your dispute results to every client you screened with in the last 60 days, automatically.
Then send the packet to Consumer@SafeRentSolutions.com, or to SafeRent Solutions, Consumer Relations Department, P.O. Box 3890, Coppell TX 75019, and call (888) 333-2413 if something on the form is unclear. Send the same packet to every other company holding a copy, separately, and keep proof of what you mailed. No company may charge you to dispute, and 15 U.S.C. 1681i is what makes them act on it: 30 days to reinvestigate, and anything inaccurate, incomplete, or unverifiable gets deleted or corrected.
Check whether your state seals the court record
Check your own state's statute before you pay anyone to file anything. California masks the file automatically under CCP 1161.2, with no petition to file. Massachusetts lets you petition to seal under G.L. c.239 s.16: any time after the case ends if it was no-fault, dismissed, or you won; not less than four years for nonpayment, with a certification that the nonpayment was due to economic hardship; not less than seven years for fault.
Minnesota expunges under Minn. Stat. 484.014, and the court orders it without a motion when you prevailed, the complaint was dismissed for any reason, the parties agreed to it, or three years have passed since the eviction was ordered. Nevada seals automatically under NRS 40.2545 on dismissal, ten judicial days after a denial, and 31 days after a tenant affidavit the landlord never answered.
Texas has no route. The Texas State Law Library says the state has no process to remove or seal an eviction from your record. If you were rejected in Philadelphia, you're on two clocks instead: tell the landlord you intend to dispute within 48 hours of the rejection notice, and get your evidence in within seven business days, per the city's Renters' Access Act tenant screening guidelines.
If you get a sealing order, mail it yourself
The court won't tell the screening companies anything. Mail a copy of the order to every company that reported the case, then call each one to confirm the item stopped reporting. Send it with the same packet you'd send for a dispute, and say plainly what you want done: the case number, the property address, and one line stating the record is sealed and has to come off the report. Assume the order does nothing until it's in the mail with your name on it.
In Massachusetts, date your letter and diary the deadline. The statute gives a reporting agency 30 days from the sealing to get the record off your report, so you have a fixed day to call back on.
What to expect, and what to do when nothing moves
Each dispute runs 30 days, 45 if you send new information while it's open, and the results reach you within five business days of completion. Nothing in these statutes sets a deadline for the court's decision, so keep the screening dispute moving while the court takes its time.
If a company verifies the item, it can keep reporting it, and it can end a reinvestigation it deems frivolous. If a deleted item comes back, you get written notice within five business days, and that notice is your opening to go back at them.
What this doesn't reach, and what it costs you
Removing an aggregator's copy doesn't seal, expunge, or alter the court's own record. Some aggregators offer nothing to remove at all: judyrecords' terms page carries no removal procedure, no form, and no contact, so don't spend an afternoon hunting for one.
Every step here is free except a court filing fee, and you can ask the court to waive that with an in forma pauperis request. What it costs you is assembly: one ID packet per company, each one mailed, each carrying its own case numbers, property addresses, and a specific written reason. Start with the screening file.