How long does an eviction from a rental property affect your credit and how?

The actual eviction is not entered on a the person's credit report unless there is a lawsuit involved and the plaintiff wins a judgment for rent owed and damages. The judgment award will be entered into the public records portion of the CR, and remain for seven years (or longer if it is renewable). There are companies such as Rent Check that compile rental records for screening of clients, those records do include evictions, the amount of time that the notice remains on the screening report is generally five years, but is sometimes subject to FCRA guidelines.