There’s a ton of confusion even among professionals about what constitutes a background check. Phrases like background check, background screening, and public record’s checks are used interchangeably, yet mean vastly different things.

Just for grins, here’s a list of common terms with distinctions noted.  

Glossary:

Background Screening: As the name implies, a method of ‘screening out’ undesirable applicants, usually during the early stages of the hiring process which varies widely among companies and other groups. This can be as simple as a few questions on an application asking for criminal history and job experience.  Those that pass the initial screening, are usually moved along into the background check phase.

Background Check: A simpler animal with a two prong approach: Verifying identity and checking public records. More sensitive documents such as credit reports may or may not be included depending on job or volunteer responsibilities.

Background Investigation: A long and involved, complicated process of acquiring as much information as possible about another person. These are generally performed by private investigators contracted by major businesses but also by police departments, the FBI and other government agencies when hiring employees. Neighbors are interviewed, financial records are poured over, and privacy is generally invaded at every angle. Folks applying for these positions involving major corporate or government responsibility generally understand the nature of the beast beforehand. Politicians are generally investigated in this way and dread it like black plague. Be aware that many people claim to perform background investigations when they’re really doing something less invasive.

Biometrics: Biometrics is the emerging field of technology devoted to identification using biological traits such as retinal or iris scanning, fingerprints, or face recognition.

Primary sources of identification: Characteristics of an individual that are unique and cannot be changed such as DNA, fingerprints, and retinal patterns.

Secondary sources of identification: Documents and data linked to an individual that can be changed or manipulated such as social security numbers, birth certificates, and driver’s license numbers.

Public Records: Transcripts, documents, etc. filed by a government agency and available to the public.

For Landlords Only

Without going into too much detail, technically landlords first screen then check. Screening starts the minute the phone rings and progresses through the written application phase. Sometimes people screen themselves out. I’ve had people say, “I’m being evicted Monday–can I move in this weekend?”

Uh…that would be no. 

Those that clear the screening enter phase 2–the background check. During the background check you need to know:

• Is the applicant who he says he is?
• Is he telling the truth?
• Has he done something that disqualifies him from renting your house or apartment, whether civil (filing multiple bogus lawsuits) or criminal (knocking off his former landlord)?

An excellent resource for tenant screening is the forum over on www.mrlandlord.com. Some of those folks are a bit blunt, but they represent many collective years of experience. Try searching the archives first, then grow a thick skin and ask away

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Tags: background check, background checks, tenant screening

Sections 1-12 are now up.

Click the Tenant Screening tab at the top of the page… more to follow soon

For clarity, a few quick reminders:

This was written back when I ran background checks for fun and profit. My audience at the time were my clientele–small business owners and  nonprofit organizations such as softball leagues, soccer teams, churches, and volunteer fire departments.

Some of this material does *not* apply so much to tenant screening, but I’ve included it anyway on the off-chance that someone other than landlords might wander over and take a peek.

A few of these sections look rather simple… that’s because it *is* simple. Public records are just that— public. It’s knowing which records to check, where to look and what to look out for that’s tricky. Once you have the contact information for your state and county, you can whip these out in no time. There’s a learning curve, but its not that stinkin’ steep.

Tenant Screening/Background checking is something I do not outsource–ever.

Here’s why:

Let’s say someone named Joe Smith applies to rent your lovely little duplex. You go online, pay your $25 for a nationwide criminal records check and it comes back negative. You heave a sigh of relief and sign up your felon.

Do you have any idea which database your online service checked? How often the database is updated? Did someone type in Joe Smith, and scan the thousands of positives? Did they look for aliases? Verify by birthdate? Etc?

We are not the police. We are not the government. We do not have access to the same background and criminal record info plastered all over CSI. Huge databases are notoriously inaccurate– your chances of finding criminal history are much, much higher when you access what *is* available yourself.

A bunch of the material below is explanatory in nature. The forms actually walk you through the process. I haven’t figured out how to post the forms in a readily accessible format. Hopefully, that will happen very soon. If anyone has any ideas, please shoot me an email cmbrz@conniebrz.com or post a comment and I’ll get back to you.

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Tags: , background, background check, background checks, nonprofit, nonprofit organizations, screening, small business, tenant, tenant screening, tenants