Tenant screening is an often-underrated method of ensuring that landlords get the right renters into their properties. An important part of the tenant screening process is running background checks on your potential renters. Often, past bad behavior is a good indicator of future bad behavior, and if your applicant’s background check comes back with some red flags, you may want to consider whether this person is the right fit for you. There are generally two aspects of a background check: eviction and criminal records. Below, we will outline what you should know about the criminal records you will receive and how to interpret the information you see on them.

Why Run a Criminal Report?

When you run a background check on an applicant, you most likely want to know whether this person has shown any evidence of behavior that would make them unfit to rent one of your properties. Some examples could include bad credit, a history of evictions, or a long criminal history. You will need to run and interpret a criminal report to see someone’s run-in with the law.

Although it is important for a landlord to know whether their renter has a negative reputation with the law, you must keep in mind that discrimination of any kind against a potential tenant is illegal.  You should establish a set of guidelines for yourself before looking at any applicants and only reject those who go against those pre-established rules.

Also remember that tenant screening and running criminal reports is in an effort to significantly reduce the risk of bad tenants. There is no way to completely eliminate risk when renting to those you don’t know, so do not go into this process expecting perfect records.

Sources for Criminal Reports

There are three potential sources of info for criminal records, and they have varying levels of specificity. In order of most specific to most broad, there are county databases, then state, then national.

National Records

National records pull information instantly from the 46 states that allow electronic databases (excluding Wyoming, South Dakota, Massachusetts, and Delaware). These records contain the broadest amount of information and can match an applicant to over 30 million records from agencies across the country. Many national checks bundle information from the terrorist watch list, sex offender search, and some other important data sets.

However, state and county participation  . Also, national records are pretty far behind county and state records, sometimes by a few months or years. To ensure you acquire the most complete report when using national databases, you should follow up with county searches whenever you get a hit.

State Records

A big pro of state records is that this information can be accessed instantly (with the exception of the four states mentioned above). They pull from crimes prosecuted at the state level and can pull information from up to 70 years ago. It is important to note though that the information you receive varies by state, since some states require county participation and will provide full county-level coverage and others do not. This means that, occasionally, you will receive records that are incomplete and somewhat spotty.

County Records

County records are the most accurate and up-to-date level. Although you are limited to only seeing crimes that occur within that county, any and all felonies or misdemeanors committed by the applicant within the last 7 years will be reported.

Keep in mind that these files can be slow to receive since they must be obtained from local courthouses individually. If you’re lucky you can get them in a day, but other times you may be waiting a few weeks. Also, in the case that the city you’re inquiring about spans multiple counties, you will have to go through this process multiple times. That process is costly and time-consuming.

Interpreting Criminal Reports

If something does come back in your search, do not automatically reject the tenant. Doing so is illegal, and it is much better for you to seriously consider how these incidents impact your ability to house this tenant. Consider the frequency, relevance, and severity of any reported criminal activity. Also, make sure that whatever service you use to get your information pulls from all 50 states, including the sex offender public registry and the most wanted databases.

There could also be some inconsistencies if courts used incomplete data or have not yet filed their reports electronically. Make sure you always check with your applicant’s references to make sure the information you get is accurate.

Conclusion

Tenant screening is not a foolproof method- occasionally, your renter looks perfect on paper but ends up not being a good fit in the end. However, the more information you have on a tenant, the better chance you have of accurately judging their character. Criminal reports are an important part of the tenant screening process and provide a lot of good information, but in order to remain within the law, make sure you have a solid policy for what you do and do not accept  before rejecting someone based on their criminal past, while staying compliant with your local laws.

Criminal background actually isn’t included in the Fair Housing Act, nor is there a cornerstone federal law about criminal history discrimination. Some states have their own laws, though. I would just say it may be illegal to discriminate against potential tenants due to some aspects of their criminal records.

If you want to be more specific, the HUD guidelines are to avoid blanket policies, assess applicants and their criminal histories on a case-by-case basis, and only deny an applicant when they demonstrate risk to the safety of other residents or the property.