How To Trace Properly Tenant's Eviction History

Many landlords don't care too much about running a background check on a potential tenant just because they think that good lease contract forms prepared for them by professional attorney can save them from unpleasant surprises since they have included and have covered practically any situation you might fancy. Really, with 'crime-free' clause included, and proof of good credit score produced by applicant, what else can be of much importance?

Well, it depends... Another manager of rental property once told the story about how he wanted to terminate the lease agreement with his tenant after it was discovered that in spite of signing contract that contained provision mandating the tenant to leave immediately, should it appear that the written statement of the latter telling he had no record of criminal history, turns out false. It did. But the tenant, probably well versed in the legal matters of the tenancy, then made an absolutely unexpected move - he filed for bankruptcy in effort to stay in the apartment he liked.

The man had no problems paying rent in time and didn't fail to delay payment even single time. Moreover, he drove a good car, his business was operating smoothly, and everything was O.K. Except for the fact that the said tenant turned out to have served a term in prison for aggravated assault. If the landlord only took the pain of ordering a criminal background check before signing the apartment lease contract instead of staying happy with the written statement, then he would have discovered in no time that he was dealing with a felon. Luckily to the property manager the court ruling found no reason to rule out bankruptcy and the unwanted tenant was ultimately forced to move. But negligent renting cost the manager much headache along with the unneeded stress, mess, and loss of time.

Of course, there's no warranty against getting involved with a tenant with criminal background even if you make it the rule of thumb to never rent to anyone without prior screening him or her against public records databases for their past criminal background, considering there's no truly nationwide centralized repository of all criminal and police records. Anyway, one remedy does exist, though in spite of its obviousness, the vast majority of landlords still overlook it. And it has to do with eviction records that can be found at county level court records databases.

You may be surprised: how it comes? I checked his credit reports from all three of them - Experian, Equifax and TransUnion - very carefully, and none of them told anything about him being previously evicted! Should I now file a lawsuit against all those 3 credit bureaus or what?

Do not hurry, for with the credit reporting bureaus it's O.K., they act in strict compliance with the law, prohibiting them to show any evictions after 7 years. While in court records the record of eviction will remain forever. That's why it is important never to omit court records background check from your potential tenant pre-screening procedure.