It may not be a problem at this very moment, but there seems to be a strong political movement to keep Landlords from using older criminal records as a reason to reject prospective Tenants. In a recent settlement in the state of Washington, 273 rejected tenants received a cash settlement because they were rejected on criminal activity over 7 years old.
You may feel that older convictions remain relevant. There is, however, a growing trend to allow for prospective Tenants with older histories to get into apartments as they have ‘turned their lives around.’
Even if this is not currently the law in your area, you might be turning away good Tenants who have steady jobs, good credit and stable lives. Considering the risks taken by Landlords who fail to carefully check Employment, old convictions, like old evictions, have very little predictive ability for the future.
The best predictors of future Tenant success are a verified job, stable residence history and high levels of available credit. Older criminal history only matters if it continues to show up in the recent records.
You might be interested in this article on the settlement:
http://tmdwlaw.com/settlement-reached-in-suit-over-unlawful-tenant-background-checks/
Understanding debt collection and background screening best practices can save your business big money. Building up front applicant screening into your business processes costs you very little, but saves you so much in the end. If you haven’t already, partner with a full service debt collection and applicant screening company to guide your business to a place of security and prosperity.
ABOUT EXECUTIVE CREDIT MANAGEMENT, INC.
Executive Credit Management is a full-service Debt Collection and Applicant Screening agency with over 20 years experience located in Central New Jersey. We provide excellent service in the following areas: Employment Screening, Business Screening, and Tenant Screening. Executive Credit Management belongs to a number of Skip Tracing databases and offers services to help locate and confirm the current address of missing debtors. Other services provided are: litigation evaluation on all lawsuit decisions, improvement of the quality of the applicant data, Lawsuit Monitoring, Handling of Debtor Disputes. Executive Credit Management features the best Call Monitoring System in the Debt Collection industry.