Keeping Sex Offenders out of your Rental Unit

Is a sex offender living in one of your units? How do you know? You may be checking your tenants credit score and possible eviction history, but you should consider conducting criminal background checks as well.   By ordering even an Instant Nationwide Criminal Database search you can verify whether your prospective tenant is a registered sex offender.    In addition, criminal databases from around the country we also include access to 50 states sex offender registries.  

You can pass the cost of the criminal background check to the tenant, as part of the application process, including the credit report.

What happens if you do hire a sex offender or a criminal and something bad happens in your building or area?  According to an article in Habitat Magazine, if a landlord or Co-Op could have forseen that something bad happening by implementing a background screening system for all tenants, then they might be seen as negligent.  “The failure to check — in certain instances — may be negligent.”