Tag: tenant verification services

Free Background Checks

If you search the internet, there are many companies that offer what seems to be “free background checks” for you to get information on just about anyone, a boyfriend, your sister’s best friend, tenants, employees and more! It all looks great, who doesn’t want something for free?

You have to ask yourself what you get, though, because we all know the age-old saying: “there’s no such thing as a free lunch!” and that hold true for background checks as well.  These websites make you go through the motions, have you put in  information, shows you a bar as it is “searching” for your information, and even asks you questions about the person while doing it to make sure their search is more “accurate”.free-background-check.png

THEN – your report is ready and they ask for a credit card. Great, you’ve just spent 20 minutes waiting, so many of you just pay the fee to see the report.

The types of companies that will keep you on a line so long and then ask for money have some other concerns that employers and landlords may want to consider:

  • Is the information that you will receive accurate?
  • Am I allowed to have and use this information for employment or tenant screening purposes?

Those are just 2 of the basic questions of concern.  Accuracy of the reports are doubtful, because these companies use aggregate information from various sources without confirming the identity of the person in question and there is often problems with inaccurate information or mistaken identity, for instance a father with the same name as a son and the one’s criminal record may appear when the other has no criminal record.

This can cause a lot of problems for someone seeking employment or to rent property.

Legitimate background check companies use a variety of identifiers to make sure that the identity of the the person in question is verified.  Background check companies require the applicant to provide consent for the background check to be run along with an address history (that can be confirmed), a social security number, employment history, etc.

It is important to use background check companies that are FCRA (Fair Credit Reporting Act) compliant to help ensure that only reports that are allowed to be used will be pulled for employment and tenant screening purposes.  This helps protect the employer and landlord from discrimination possible law suits based outdated or incorrect information.

Unfortunately FCRA compliant background check companies cannot run a check on your boyfriend or your sister’s best friend.  Reports can only be used for legitimate business purposes.

SO, there are no “free background checks” that can provide you with guaranteed accurate information.  Background check companies have to pay for the reports that they run and they therefor have to charge customers for those reports.

Tenant Background check – What Property Managers need to know

Property managers and landlords may be concerned with their tenant applicant’s past behavior as a tenant, including any eviction record proceedings that were filed against them, but also their criminal record and credit history. Running complete tenant background check reports can provide landlords with insight into the applicant’s character and sense of responsibility before signing lease contracts.

According to a consumer credit bureau survey, only half of landlords routinely conduct a rental background check before handing over the keys to a new tenant. Failing to run a complete tenant background check can result future eviction proceedings, failure to pay rent or time and even damage to the property.

Tenant Background Check Reports:

Credit Reports – these reports will include the applicant’s credit score and history of payments and balance over the past 7 years. Tenants that have history of delinquency on bills are likely to be late on rent or even fail to pay.

Criminal Records – reports include the past 7 years in criminal convictions and will also include a sex offender registry search.  While small misdemeanor convictions may not pose a threat to the property or landlord, there are other crimes including felonies that landlords may need to make their rental decisions.

Eviction Records – these are civil court record proceedings filed against tenants to evict them for various reasons.  In the past these reports were part of credit checks, but they are no longer offered, making it necessary to run them separately. Statistically, people that have been evicted in the past are more likely to be evicted again.

Landlord Reference Checks – calling and talking to previous landlords can help landlords and property managers determine what type of tenant the applicant has been in the past and give insight into their character.

Employment Verification – calling current and previous employers can confirm employment to make sure that the applicant is still employed and verify that the information and timelines on their application is accurate.

In conclusion, running a comprehensive tenant background check on each applicant that will occupy a property can provide landlords and property managers with an informative review of the person’s character, credit history and raise possible red flags that the landlord would want to avoid.  AAA Credit Screening’s tenant verification services can provide landlords with these reports and can customize packages to fit client needs.