How To Check For Evictions Online For Free Today?

Your eviction history lives in public records and can be retrieved for free through the appropriate court database.

1. Pinpoint the jurisdiction where the tenancy was based - state, county, or city court holds the relevant docket.
2. Open the state's official online court portal; for example, the New York State eviction search page lets you query by name or property address and returns any filed eviction actions.
3. When the portal lacks a searchable interface, call the clerk of the corresponding county court. Clerks often email or fax PDF excerpts of the case at no charge.
4. Scan the local sheriff's or housing authority website for posted eviction notices; these sites occasionally post weekly PDFs that list only active removals, not historic filings.
5. Validate the results with a secondary source such as CourtListener, remembering that it primarily aggregates federal and appellate dockets and may omit lower‑court evictions (as we'll explore in the 'Search public court records for evictions' section).

These steps provide the most complete free eviction history check before moving on to broader database searches.

Free eviction history checks are available through state court portals and a few nationwide aggregators that publish public records without charge. (Yes, the internet still has a purpose beyond memes.)

• California state court case search - searchable eviction filings for all California counties
• New York court docket lookup - includes landlord‑tenant actions in NYC and upstate courts
• Texas district court records portal - offers county‑by‑county eviction case indexes
• Illinois circuit court public search - free access to eviction docket numbers statewide
• CourtListener free searchable filings - nationwide collection of federal and state court documents, searchable by 'eviction' keyword

All listed sites provide free online checks, but coverage varies by jurisdiction and no platform guarantees exhaustive results (as we covered above).

County clerk websites let you pull eviction history straight from public court records. Most jurisdictions post docket entries, case numbers, and dispositions for free.

• Search the county's public access portal or state judicial site to locate the correct court database.
• Input the tenant's full legal name or the rental address; add middle initials or unit numbers to filter results.
• Scan the case summary for filing dates, plaintiff names, and keywords such as 'unlawful detainer' or 'eviction.'
• Download the docket PDF or click 'view case' to capture the official record; record the case number for later reference.
• Verify the entry against the sheriff's office or the upcoming eviction list (covered in the next section) to confirm enforcement status.

Locate a tenant's eviction filing by entering their full name or property address into the appropriate court databases. Most county clerk websites host searchable public records portals where the eviction docket appears alongside case numbers and filing dates. Enter the exact spelling, include middle initials if known, and restrict the date range to the last five years to narrow results. If the portal returns no matches, the jurisdiction may not publish eviction filings online, requiring an in‑person request or a formal record‑retrieval fee.

For faster aggregation across multiple counties, the approved service The Credit People eviction search tool compiles court databases into a single interface. A basic free online check reveals any recent eviction history tied to the searched name or address without charging a subscription.

Limited to publicly disclosed cases, the tool respects privacy statutes that block sealed or expunged filings, so a clean result does not guarantee absolute innocence. When a match appears, note the case number and contact the issuing clerk for full documents before proceeding to the next verification step.

Search the county civil docket for pending eviction filings to verify your status instantly.

• Identify the court that processes eviction cases; most jurisdictions use a district or circuit court.
• Visit the court's free online case search portal, such as the California state court eviction docket.
• Enter the tenant's full name or the rental address, then filter results by 'eviction' or 'unlawful detainer'.
• Examine the case‑status column; entries labeled 'pending,' 'active,' or showing a future hearing date indicate an ongoing eviction.
• Record the docket number and any scheduled dates; most portals allow PDF download of the filing for personal records.

Having confirmed whether an eviction is actively pending, the next step is to incorporate this insight when screening tenants, as covered in the following section.

Landlords verify eviction history through free online checks before signing a lease.

Effective screening includes:

• collect full legal name and current residence,
• query the county's court database via its free portal (for example, online court databases),
• tap statewide eviction search tools that aggregate local records,
• request the clerk's public records if the online search returns no results,
• compare findings with the tenant's self‑disclosed eviction statements.

With a clear eviction history in hand, the next step is to tap weekly eviction lists for ongoing monitoring.

Free weekly eviction lists appear on TheCreditPeople weekly eviction list, which compiles data directly from public court records. The site updates every Monday, so the most recent filings are always at hand.

Visit TheCreditPeople.com (as we covered in the public court records section) and click the 'Weekly Eviction List' button. Select the state of interest, then press 'Download CSV' to pull the full dataset. Downloaded files contain case numbers, filing dates, and plaintiff names, ready for spreadsheet analysis. Remember that listings depend on each jurisdiction's public‑record policy and may not capture every eviction filed.

Cross‑state eviction checks succeed by tapping each state's court database rather than guessing.

State‑to‑state variation makes a single search impossible; every jurisdiction runs its own court database, and many hide eviction files behind paywalls or limited‑access portals. Privacy rules in California block online access unless a legitimate interest is proven, while Texas publishes only summary listings. Because no national clearinghouse exists, a landlord tracking a tenant who moved across borders must manually gather records from every county visited, turning a simple lookup into a time‑consuming marathon.

The shortcut begins with a master list of each state's clerk‑of‑court website - search '[state] eviction court records' to land the free portal. Once there, choose the civil or housing docket, input the tenant's full name and last known address, and run the query; most states return results instantly at no charge. For sites requiring registration, create a throwaway account to unlock the same data without cost. Aggregators such as CourtRecords.org free search tool pull these public feeds into a single interface, letting a single query span multiple jurisdictions and reveal the full eviction history in minutes, sidestepping pricey third‑party reports.

Rental apps often hide eviction records by relying solely on self‑reported data, meaning older or sealed cases may never appear. Those gaps create a false sense of security, especially when landlords base decisions on the app alone. As we covered above, public court databases remain the definitive source for a true eviction history.

To expose hidden evictions, pull the applicant's full name and current address from the app, then run a free check on the county clerk's portal or the approved service The Credit People eviction lookup. For example, a prospective renter listed on Zillow Rental Manager shows no evictions, yet a quick search on the Los Angeles County Superior Court site reveals a 2022 filing that the app omitted.

The same process works with Apartments.com, Cozy, or PadMapper - enter the same details, compare the results, and any discrepancy flags a hidden eviction. This double‑check lets you verify what the rental app hides before moving on to the next step, which we'll explore in 'avoid pitfalls in free eviction lookups.'

Free eviction lookups stumble most often on three traps: stale records, missing jurisdictions, and hidden costs. As we covered above, public records refresh at different speeds, so a recent filing may not appear for weeks.

In many states the court database limits access to cases filed within the last year, leaving older eviction history invisible. Some sites advertise 'free' checks only to request credit‑card details before revealing anything, turning a promise into a paywall.

Name misspellings and address variations can produce false negatives, especially when tenants move or use aliases. Cross‑checking the exact spelling against the official California court database eliminates that risk and confirms whether the free search missed a record.