A criminal background check can contain information about past convictions, violent crimes, drug-related crimes, sex offenses and more. Landlords need to uncover any criminal behavior in order to protect their property and surrounding neighborhood.
Why Run Criminal Background Checks?
If a tenant engages in criminal activity, it’s likely to lead to an eviction or an unwanted vacancy (in the case of a prison sentence or criminal on the run). Neither situation is ideal as evictions generally cost the property owner between $3,500 and $10,000, while a vacancy will cost an average of $2,000 per month in lost rental revenue.
While the statistics vary by criminal activity type, a prior conviction significantly increases the likelihood of a future conviction for the same offense by the following percentages:
Drug sales: 736 percent
Aggravated assault: 200 percent
Burglary: 148 percent
Robbery: 294 percent
In other words, someone convicted of selling drugs is 736% more likely than average to be convicted again of that crime—a solid reason for a landlord to know about this behavior and bar them from occupying their rental units.
What’s Included in a Criminal Background Check?
A criminal background check will usually contain:
- Felony convictions
- Misdemeanor convictions
- Court orders, decrees, and judgments
- Arrests (sometimes)
- Jail time
Juvenile records are handled differently based on the state. In some states, these records are expunged upon turning 18, while other states require waiting until 26 or older. Of course, the gravity of the offense can play a role in records being expunged.
Many tenant screening services offer to show state or national convictions, for a higher price. When choosing which service to use, be sure to check that you’re getting the right service. The best practice is to pull nationwide records.
Arrests are a unique case because they cannot actually be used as a determining factor for denying a rental application. Many tenant screening services will not provide arrests on the final report they send to the landlord. A landlord can find arrest records if they check court records themselves, however, they will need to exercise discretion in not using that information.
How to Run a Criminal Background Check in 8 Steps
All landlords should gather criminal background information for their most qualified applicants. Here’s how the process works:
- Ask on the Application
- Get Consent
- Get Their Personal Information
- Use a Professional Tenant Screening Service
- (Optional) Manually Run a Criminal Background Check for Free
- Ask Clarifying Questions to the Applicant
- Talk With The Previous Landlord(s)
- Make the Best Choice Possible
1. Ask on the Application
First and foremost, start by asking the applicant about their criminal background on the application itself. These questions can look like:
- “We run a criminal background check on anyone we’re considering for the property. Will we find anything?”
- “If so, what will we find? Are there any extenuating circumstances you would like to include in your application?”
This accomplishes a few things. First, it’s the quickest way to begin gathering criminal background information.
You can then use that information to weed out anyone who will not be a good candidate. As a landlord, you should keep a document where you list your minimum standards, and reject anyone who doesn’t meet those without any further consideration.
A landlord may decide that anyone with any sexual offense in their history is automatically rejected. Or, anyone with more than three misdemeanors in the past 12 months will not be considered.
Now that you have this information from the applicant, you will later be able to compare the information you gather from your tenant screening process against what they put in. Anyone who didn’t tell the truth on their application should be automatically rejected.
2. Get Consent
It’s required by law to have the consent of the applicant to pull criminal reports.
The release itself should mention all the ways that you may gather information, even if you don’t utilize all of them each time. For example:
- Using a tenant screening service
- Pulling reports manually through the courthouse
- Speaking with previous landlords (“Did the tenant perform any illegal behavior on your property?”)
Of course, landlords should have an attorney look over the consent form before having applicants sign it.
3. Get Their Personal Information
In the past, social security numbers were virtually always required to run tenant screening reports. That’s not the general rule anymore.
Be sure to gather name and date of birth, at minimum. You can ask for a social security number, but some more hesitant applicants may wish to withhold. This won’t affect your ability to pull criminal background information.
4. Use a Professional Tenant Screening Service
At this point, landlords will often use a tenant screening service to pull criminal background information. Most landlords will choose a service that will also pull credit reports, eviction history, and more.
It’s a good idea to also have removed all but the most qualified applicants from consideration by this point. This is because it costs money to pull reports, not to mention the landlord’s time to submit and then review everything.
In most cases, applicants will submit an application fee which is generally used to cover the cost of the reports. However, not all locations allow the landlords to charge enough to cover the costs. A good rule of thumb (in a perfect scenario), would be to pay for reports for 2-4 applicants.
5. (Optional) Manually Run a Criminal Background Check for Free
Landlords can also choose to pull criminal records themselves if they decide not to pay for a tenant screening service. Each state has its own regulations about how much information a landlord can gather by themselves.
Here are three ways to gather criminal background information for free:
- Online Court Case Search – Each city, county, and state has its own court website where landlords can go to gather publicly available information. However, there is sometimes a fee.
- In-Person Case Search – Landlords can visit local courthouses and search manually through records as well. This isn’t always free and will be limited in the scope of cases they have on file.
- Google Search – Type in “[NAME] criminal history records” and ignore the background check services that pop up in the search results. See if you can find anything for your prospective tenant.
Of course, this strategy is time-intensive and less complete than ordering from a tenant screening service. The cost of using a service is generally well worth it to ensure you have a comprehensive report.
6. Ask Clarifying Questions to the Applicant
If there’s an item you’re not sure about on their criminal background, go ahead and ask them.
Here’s an example:
Let’s say that you have an incredibly qualified applicant. They make enough money, have a great career, and nothing showed up on any of their reports—except they have a robbery conviction from 6 years ago.
You decide to talk to the applicant, and they adequately explain how they were roped into it by accident and they no longer associate with that group of people. If you feel satisfied with their response, you may have found a great applicant.
Of course, there are some situations where no context can make you feel comfortable, such as with a violent or sexual crime. In those cases, don’t bother with context and move on to the next applicant.
7. Talk With The Previous Landlord(s)
Talking with a previous landlord can help you to make some judgments about your applicants. They may discuss information that won’t be visible on a background check or other screening service.
Let’s say a tenant looks great on paper – they have a good job, decent credit, and no eviction history. However, when talking to a previous landlord you discover that 6 months ago they broke the lease rules and completed a cash for keys agreement to avoid eviction.
It’s unlikely the tenant has significantly changed their ways in the last 6 months and by denying their application you have avoided tenant drama and an additional vacancy.
As long as you have received written permission from the applicant and keep the conversation about the previous landlord’s experience with the tenant, you should be free from legal recourse. Stick to asking questions like:
- Can you confirm that [applicant] rented from you?
- What dates did the applicant rent from you?
- Did the applicant] pay their rent on time and in full each month?
- Did the applicant take reasonable care of the property?
- What was the condition of the property when the applicant vacated it?
- Did the applicant follow your lease agreement?
- Was the applicant disruptive to the neighborhood?
- Did the applicant give you proper notice before vacating?
Be sure to avoid any conversations that could be construed as discrimination against a protected class such as “Do they have kids?” or about information their landlord learned during their screening process to stay under the guidelines of the FCRA and The Fair Housing Act.
8. Make the Best Choice Possible
Depending on the area you rent in, it may not always be possible to choose a perfect tenant. Landlords may have to decide if it is better to fill a unit with a not-so-great tenant or leave it vacant in hopes of finding a better applicant with a change in price or marketing strategy.
If you are choosing between a few less-than-perfect tenants, here are a few things to consider:
- Was the tenant honest?
- Did they have a reasonable explanation for a negative mark on the background check?
- How serious was the convicted crime?
- Would neighbors, other tenants, or your property be at risk?
- How long has it been since their last infraction?
- Were you able to confirm their ability to pay the rent?
- What did their employer, personal reference, and previous landlord say about them?
- Can they offer a co-signer if necessary?
Avoid Discrimination When Rejecting Applicants For Criminal Behavior
Throughout the whole process, landlords should be systematically weeding out applicants until there are only a few left. Then, they’ll make their final determination based on all the information gathered.
While rejecting applicants, landlords must be sure to avoid breaking any discrimination laws set forth by the Fair Housing Act (FHA). Here are a few best practices:
- Don’t deny applicants based on race or country of origin – Some landlords will unfortunately use the color of someone’s skin to decide if they’re more likely to commit a crime. For example, a landlord prone to discriminating might reject someone who is “tough looking” because they’re worried about violence.
- Keep the same requirements for everyone – If there are two applicants who both have vandalism charges, the landlord should not accept one applicant and tell the other they were rejected for having a vandalism charge. This would be an easy discrimination case to bring against the landlord.
- Send rejection notices – Tell everyone why they were rejected, and have a legitimate reason for rejecting them. This helps to avoid discrimination. If someone from a different country was rejected and they don’t know why, they may claim discrimination. However, if you send them a letter stating their income wasn’t high enough, then there’s less likely to be a discrimination lawsuit (and even less likely the applicant could win one).
- Do not reject applicants for arrests – Again, arrests do not imply guilt, only potentially suspicious behavior. Only a conviction can be used as a criminal reason to deny an applicant.
- Understand state and local laws – Some places have laws governing the use of criminal behavior in rejecting applications. For example, Oakland has banned criminal background checks for landlords to use in tenant screening. Be sure to find out if your area has any laws more restrictive than the federal ones.
How Long Does a Background Check Take?
Most background checks are available within minutes. However, some take up to 24 hours if certain information needs to be verified by the screening company.
How Much Does a Background Check Cost?
Background checks typically cost between $10 – $20. Nationwide reports lean toward the higher price range while most state or local reports are cheaper.
Be sure to read the fine print of what the background check includes as some may only include one type of crime such as felonies.
Here are a few services that offer criminal background checks:
- AAOA – Add on to their Red service. $19.99 for multi-state, $9.99 for state-specific, and $14.99 for county criminal check
- Rtenant Enhanced Landlord Rental Eviction History – $20.95 a la carte
- LeaseRunner – $16 a la carte
Who Pays for a Tenant Background Check?
Most landlords charge an application fee which includes the cost of all screening services used. The average application fee across the US is $30. However, states have varying laws about how much a landlord or property management company can charge.
In Virginia, the maximum application fee is $50 unless the housing is subject to regulation by the U.S. Dept of Housing and Urban Development then it’s $32. On the other hand, in Texas, there is no statute meaning a landlord could potentially charge as much as they want.
