New Hampshire Eviction Record Sealing — How to Clear It (2026)

✓ Law Verified August 2026

A New Hampshire eviction record can block apartment applications for years — often regardless of how the case actually ended. This guide answers the question directly for New Hampshire: whether a sealing law exists here, exactly how to use it if it does, and the real alternatives if it does not. Verified against official New Hampshire sources as of August 2026.

No New Hampshire Eviction Record Sealing Law Yet — What You Can Still Do

A New Hampshire tenant cannot seal a landlord-tenant case, but several practical routes exist.

1) Motion to Strike Default: if you lost by default because you missed the return day or hearing, the Notice of Default gives you at least 5 business days before the Notice of Judgment and Writ of Possession issues, and you may file a Motion to Strike Default in the same Circuit Court District Division explaining why you defaulted and why the court should remove it, which can prevent a

judgment from ever entering against you.

2) Appeal: under RSA 540:20 any party must file a notice of intent to appeal in the district court within 7 days of the date of the notice of judgment, then perfect the appeal in the New Hampshire Supreme Court within 30 days of the notice of judgment, and you may ask for a stay with a rent bond while it is pending.

3) Negotiate a stipulated dismissal before judgment: many New Hampshire evictions settle at the Circuit Court landlord-tenant mediation session, and you may be able to ask that the agreement be written so the case is dismissed rather than entered as a judgment for possession, that any writ be conditional, and that the landlord give a neutral reference and not report the case to screening bureaus.

A dismissal on the docket is far easier to dispute off a screening report than a judgment.

4) Use the HB 60 screening protection: under HB 60, signed August 1, 2025 and effective July 1, 2026, a no-fault termination of tenancy under RSA 540:2, II(i) is not considered an eviction for purposes of rental applications and tenant screening reports, and the court must note in the court documentation that the termination was at no fault of the tenant.

Get a copy of that docket notation and send it with any FCRA dispute.

5) Ask about a Circuit Court motion to seal specific documents: under NH Circuit Court e-filing Rule 13 a party may move to seal a case record or portion of it, but the motion must state a statute, administrative order, court rule, or privacy interest that authorizes confidentiality, and there is no New Hampshire authority that treats an ordinary eviction case as confidential, so these motions are rarely granted for

eviction records. Check with your court before relying on this.

6) File FCRA disputes as described above, which is the single most effective step for most New Hampshire tenants. 7) Get help: New Hampshire Legal Assistance and the 603 Legal Aid Housing Justice Line at 603-224-3333 screen tenants for free representation, and the NH Circuit Court Self-Help Centers assist self-represented tenants.

Why A New Hampshire Eviction Record Follows You — and For How Long

An eviction case becomes a public court record the day it is filed — even if you won, even if it was dismissed, even if you moved out voluntarily before the hearing. Tenant screening companies copy these records in bulk and resell them to landlords, which is how a New Hampshire eviction record from years ago can quietly sink a rental application today.

Under federal reporting rules these records generally stop appearing on screening reports after seven years, but the public court file itself can remain searchable far longer unless it is sealed.

That is why the filing itself, not just the outcome, is what matters — and why sealing laws are spreading state by state. Most landlords never read the court file; they read the one-line summary a screening company sells them. Getting the New Hampshire eviction record sealed, corrected, or accurately described is what changes that one line.

Check Your New Hampshire Eviction Record First

Before filing anything, find out what your New Hampshire eviction record really looks like to a landlord. Search the online case index for the court where the eviction was filed, and request your file from the major tenant screening companies — you are entitled to it.

Tenants are often surprised in both directions: some discover the case they worry about was never reported, others find a case they had forgotten, or one that is not even theirs.

Knowing exactly what appears, and how it is described, tells you whether to pursue sealing, a dispute, or both.

Screening reports are also where errors live. A dismissed case reported as an eviction, an old address matched to the wrong person, or a paid judgment still shown as owing are all fixable — and fixing the report is sometimes faster than any court process in New Hampshire.

Your Federal Rights Against Tenant Screening Companies

Tenant screening reports are consumer reports under the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act, so a New Hampshire tenant may be able to force a wrong or outdated eviction entry off the report.

If a landlord denies you, raises your deposit, or requires a co-signer based on a screening report, the landlord must give you an adverse action notice naming the screening company, and you may request a free copy of that report from the company within 60 days of the adverse action, on top of the 1 free report you can request every 12 months.

Send a written dispute directly to the screening company (mail it certified, keep a copy) attaching proof such as the court docket sheet, the notice of dismissal, a satisfaction of judgment, or the stipulation you signed.

The company then has 30 days to reinvestigate, extended to 45 days if you send extra documents during the first 30 days, and it must forward your dispute to the landlord or court-data furnisher within 5 business days.

Anything the company cannot verify must be deleted or corrected, and it must send you the written results within 5 business days of finishing. Under FCRA 15 U.S.C. 1681c, a civil judgment for eviction can generally be reported for only 7 years from the filing date, and many screening companies purge it sooner, so a New Hampshire eviction judgment older than 7 years should be disputed as obsolete.

Also dispute mixed files, cases filed against a different tenant with a similar name, cases the landlord dropped, and any case reported as a judgment when the docket shows dismissal. If the company reinserts the item, it must notify you in writing within 5 business days, and you may add a 100-word consumer statement to the file.

Persistent violations can be reported to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and to the NH Department of Justice Consumer Protection Bureau at 603-271-3641.

Timing matters more than tenants expect. If you are apartment-hunting right now, start the screening-report disputes today — they run on federal deadlines and cost nothing — while any New Hampshire court process moves in parallel. If the move is months away, that is enough time for most sealing petitions, vacated judgments, or corrected reports to finish before a landlord ever pulls your New Hampshire eviction record.

Worth watching in New Hampshire: As of August 20, 2026 no New Hampshire bill creating eviction-record sealing, expungement, or masking has been introduced or enacted, and New Hampshire is not among the 19 jurisdictions with sealing or expungement laws identified in the 2026 NLIHC Advocates’ Guide (Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Idaho, Indiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, North Dakota, Oregon, Rhode Island, Utah, Virginia, Wisconsin).

New Hampshire has no county pilot sealing program.

The related 2026 session activity is HB 1336 on security deposits and tenant screening disclosure and re-screening requirements, HB 1499 adding termination grounds tied to immigration status, certain criminal convictions, and registered sex offender status, and HB 1598 on eviction notices; none of these seal records.

The only New Hampshire record-related tenant protection is the HB 60 provision effective July 1, 2026 requiring that a no-fault lease-expiration termination not be treated as an eviction on rental applications and tenant screening reports and be noted as no-fault in the court documentation.

Official New Hampshire Sources & Resources

• New Hampshire Courts Self-Help: courts.nh.gov/our-courts/circuit-court/district-division/lan…
• New Hampshire Statute: gc.nh.gov/rsa/html/lv/540/540-mrg.htm
• U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development: hud.gov
• Cornell Legal Information Institute: law.cornell.edu/wex

Taking Control of Your New Hampshire Eviction Record

A New Hampshire eviction record is not a life sentence — it is a document, and documents can be sealed, corrected, or accurately explained. The tenants who struggle longest are usually the ones who never look at what their New Hampshire eviction record actually says, so start by pulling the court file and your screening reports.

Whether New Hampshire offers sealing or only the federal dispute route, acting on the New Hampshire eviction record beats hoping landlords will not check — they almost always do. A short, honest cover letter to a prospective landlord explaining the circumstances can also do real work while the record process runs.

This New Hampshire eviction record guide was last verified against official sources in August 2026. Sealing laws are changing fast — new states pass them every year, so re-check before relying on this page.

More New Hampshire Tenant Rights Guides

• New Hampshire Tenant Rights
• New Hampshire Eviction Process
• New Hampshire Security Deposit Law
• New Hampshire Rent Increase Laws
• New Hampshire Repairs & Habitability
• Breaking a Lease in New Hampshire
• Eviction Timeline Calculator
• All 50 States

Disclaimer: This guide is informational only and is not legal advice. Landlord-tenant laws change and vary by city and county within a state. Verify current rules with your state, your local court, or a free legal-aid office before acting. If you are facing eviction, contact a local tenant attorney or legal-aid organization right away.