Beginning July 1, 2017, the three largest nationwide credit reporting agencies, Experian, Equifax and Transunion, implemented new enhanced public records standards and related requirements as a result of an enforced settlement agreement between the credit reporting agencies and more than 30 state Attorneys General. The new practices will delete certain civil judgment and lien information from the databases they use to create credit reports. These changes will significantly affect the ability to evaluate creditworthiness based on the information obtained solely from these credit reports.
In an effort to improve the accuracy of credit reporting information and provide a better consumer experience, the credit reporting agencies will only accept and report civil judgment and tax lien data from counties which provide the (1) name, (2) address and (3) either date of birth or social security number in association with the judgments and tax liens. Since most data being submitted to these credit reporting agencies do not include a date of birth or social security number, it is anticipated that most judgment public records data and tax lien public data will be removed from the databases of the credit reporting agencies. The removal of this data may affect the evaluation of creditworthiness for consumers who have civil judgments or tax liens against them.
By excluding this information from credit reports, a consumer’s credit score may appear much higher than it otherwise should be. As a result, lenders utilizing information from credit reports should be aware of the exclusion of this data and seek judgment and tax lien information from other sources. Lenders would be wise to search for civil judgements and tax liens in the state in which the borrower lives or has previously lived in recent years.