Tenant screening company National Tenant Network and its affiliate LCIJ agreed to a settlement fund of no less than $1,625,000 to resolve claims that marketing postcards mailed to landlords disclosed that a resident had a previous eviction filing. If one of those postcards named you between June 30, 2018 and December 3, 2023, you can claim an equal share of the fund — but the online form is gated on the Unique ID and PIN from the postcard notice you were mailed.
Current Status
Claims are open. The deadline to file online or postmark a paper Claim Form is 11:59 p.m. PST on September 22, 2026, which is also the deadline to exclude yourself or object. The court has certified the class and approved the notice program, but final approval has not been granted: the final approval hearing before Judge Madeline Cox Arleo in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey is scheduled for December 8, 2026 at 2:00 p.m. No payment date has been announced. If you received a postcard notice in the mail, the practical step now is to file with the Unique ID and PIN printed on it before the September deadline.What Changed Recently?
The court approved a notice program for this settlement and a claim window is now running, with postcard notices carrying a Unique ID and PIN mailed to identified class members and a claim portal live at the official settlement website. The underlying case, Clermont v. National Tenant Network, Inc. and LCIJ, Inc., has been pending in the District of New Jersey since 2023, and the court certified a class before the settlement was reached.The dispute is about marketing postcards. According to the notice, the postcards were addressed to landlords and stated that a resident "had a previous eviction filing" and that "NTN would have warned you about trouble tenants like this BEFORE they became YOUR residents." The complaint alleges those postcards were consumer reports under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, and that sending them was a willful violation carrying statutory damages of $100 to $1,000 per violation.
National Tenant Network and LCIJ each deny any wrongdoing, deny that the postcards are consumer reports under the FCRA, and deny that they violated the FCRA or any other law. No court has found that either company broke the law; the settlement resolves the claims without any admission.
Who Qualifies?
The certified class covers all people who were the subject of National Tenant Network's and LCIJ's postcards that were substantially similar to the postcard concerning the named plaintiff, addressed to landlords and stating that a resident had a previous eviction filing, sent within the FCRA statute of limitations period under 15 U.S.C. § 1681p.The class period runs from June 30, 2018 to December 3, 2023. In plain terms: if a postcard about your eviction history went to a landlord during that window, you are covered — the postcard had to be about you, not one you received. Class members were identified from the defendants' own records, which is why notices were mailed with a Unique ID and PIN rather than opened to general self-identification.
How Much Can You Get?
The settlement fund is no less than $1,625,000. Every class member who files a valid, timely claim receives an equal share of what is left after the court-approved deductions: administration costs, attorneys' fees and expenses, and any incentive award. Class counsel will ask for fees of up to 33% of the fund plus expenses, and the class representative will ask for an incentive award of up to $20,000 — both subject to court approval.No per-person estimate has been announced, and none can be calculated honestly yet, because the payment is an equal share divided by the number of valid claims that come in. There are no tiers: a claim is either valid or it is not, and nothing you upload increases the amount. Any leftover funds or uncashed checks go to a charitable organization under the settlement's cy pres provision.
What Proof or Notice ID Is Required?
Proof Required: Yes. The online claim portal requires the Unique ID and PIN printed on the postcard notice mailed to you, so a person who never received a notice or threw it away cannot simply log in and file. No receipts, lease documents, or eviction paperwork are requested — the identifier is the gate, and under our standard an administrator-issued code counts as proof.There is also a paper route: the settlement website posts a downloadable Claim Form that can be completed and mailed to the settlement administrator. If you believe you are a class member and cannot find your notice, use the contact page on the official settlement website to reach the administrator well before the deadline.
What Is the Deadline?
All claim forms must be filed online or postmarked no later than 11:59 p.m. PST on September 22, 2026. The notice states that time zone explicitly, so it is the operative cutoff for online submissions.September 22, 2026 is also the deadline for the other two options. Exclusion requests must be postmarked by that date, and objections must be filed with the Clerk of the Court and served on counsel and the administrator by that date. Excluding yourself means no payment but keeps your right to sue individually; objecting keeps you in the class but tells the court why you think the deal is unfair.
How Do You Take Action?
Go to the official settlement website, NTN Postcard Settlement.com, and open the Submit a Claim section, then enter the Unique ID and PIN from your postcard notice on the claim portal and complete the form. The site also hosts the settlement agreement, the long-form notice, the claim form download, and the case documents, and it is the place to confirm the hearing date has not moved.You do not have to attend the December 8, 2026 hearing to receive a payment, and you do not need a lawyer of your own — the court appointed Lemberg Law, LLC as class counsel to represent the class. You may hire your own attorney, but at your own expense.
What Happens Next?
The next milestone is the final approval hearing on December 8, 2026 at 2:00 p.m. in Newark, where the court will decide whether the settlement is fair, reasonable and adequate and will rule on the fee and incentive-award requests. The notice warns that the hearing can be postponed without further notice, so the settlement website is the authority on the current date.If the court grants final approval, the administrator counts the valid claims and distributes equal shares after the deductions. Payments cannot go out before approval becomes effective, and no distribution date has been announced. We will update this page when the court rules.
Sources and Verification
• Official Settlement Website — NTN Postcard Settlement• Official Claim Portal — Submit a Claim (Unique ID and PIN required)
• Notice of Proposed Class Action Settlement, Clermont v. National Tenant Network, Inc. and LCIJ, Inc., No. 2:23-cv-03545-MCA-LDW (D.N.J.) — embedded below
• Frequently Asked Questions, official settlement website (class definition, class period, deadlines, fee and incentive-award requests, final approval hearing)
OpenClassActions.com is a consumer news site and is not the claims administrator or a law firm.
Questions
Can I file a National Tenant Network postcard claim without the Unique ID and PIN?
Not through the online portal. The claim site asks for the Unique ID and PIN printed on the postcard notice mailed to you, so a claimant who never received a notice or discarded it cannot simply log in and file. The settlement website also offers a downloadable paper Claim Form that can be mailed to the administrator. If you believe you are a class member but do not have your notice, use the contact page on the official settlement website to ask the administrator for help before the September 22, 2026 deadline.
Why would a postcard about an eviction filing violate the FCRA?
The complaint alleges the postcards were consumer reports because they disclosed information about a person's prior eviction filing, and that mailing them to landlords who had not requested them, on an open postcard, was a willful violation of the Fair Credit Reporting Act. The FCRA allows statutory damages of $100 to $1,000 per willful violation without proof of actual harm. National Tenant Network and LCIJ deny any wrongdoing and specifically deny that the postcards were consumer reports; no court has ruled that they violated the law.
Does everyone who files get the same amount?
Yes. Under the settlement terms, each class member who submits a valid and timely claim receives an equal share of the settlement fund after the court-approved deductions for administration costs, attorneys' fees and expenses, and any incentive award. There are no tiers and no documentation upload that increases an award, so the per-person figure depends only on how many valid claims come in.
Will filing a claim affect my tenant screening report or credit report?
The settlement resolves claims about the postcards themselves. It does not order National Tenant Network to delete, correct, or suppress any eviction record in a tenant screening file, and nothing in the notice conditions payment on the state of your rental history. If you believe information in a tenant screening report about you is inaccurate, the FCRA dispute process with the reporting agency is a separate remedy from this settlement.
What happens if I do nothing about the National Tenant Network settlement?
If you are in the class and do nothing, you get no payment but you are still bound by the settlement's release once the court grants final approval, meaning you give up the right to sue National Tenant Network or LCIJ over the postcards sent between June 30, 2018 and December 3, 2023. The only way to keep the right to sue individually is to mail a timely exclusion request by September 22, 2026.
