Check your potential tenants criminal record
Make sure you check out your potential tenant’s criminal history before you offer them the apartment or your home. An instant criminal database search is a fast way to protect yourself and other tenants by finding out your renter’s criminal history. You can go further and conduct hand pulled criminal record searches in the county courthouses where your renter has lived, but these searches can take two or three business days depending on the courthouse. Some counties take even longer.
When screening your tenants make sure “the investigation does not exceed the limits set by state and federal law.” The Los Angeles Times recently listed some instruction for California landlords.
Since a background check is considered to be a “consumer credit report,” it is governed by California Civil Code Section 1785.13. This statute prohibits screening agencies from using arrest records, indictments or misdemeanor complaints that did not result in convictions. This statute also prohibits the use of convictions that occurred more than seven years before the check.
Under the state and federal fair housing laws, the use of criminal screening, like any other type of screening, must be applied evenly, across-the-board rather than selectively based on certain profiles or stereotypes.
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