In Texas and other states, employers have the right to do criminal background checks themselves, but most employers hire a service to do that .
The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) requires an employer to get written authorization from an applicant to do a credit check if an outside agency will be used – in addition, if the applicant is turned down, the employer must tell the applicant why and let them know the name and address of the service that furnished the information.
The FCRA prohibits credit reports from including non-criminal violations, such as a conviction that only results in a fine. The FCRA applies nationwide.
Note that the restriction on reporting non-criminal convictions only applies to credit reports. If the employer does the research himself, he is entitled to any information that he obtains from public sources, and all convictions (of any type) are public information. The employer can also purchase a background check that could reveal the same information as long as it is not included in a credit check.
You can perform a free background check yourself to see what information is available.
Like many answers, it all depends on the details:
What information do you want?
How much work are you willing to do to get it?
How fast do you want it?
If you are willing to do some work yourself, you can perform a background check on someone for free.
Criminal Background Check:
Criminal records are kept by the Clerk of Courts in each courthouse. Every city, town, county, state, and the federal government have their own courthouses. We know there are 50 states, 3000 counties, and over 30,000 cities, towns, or townships in the USA. That is a lot of courthouses, and most of them do not share their information. However, it is all public information, and you are allowed to review it.
If you know where the subject person has lived and traveled, then you know which courthouse records to check.
Do-it-Yourself Free Background check issues:
a)One problem is finding out your subject-persons lifetime travel history. He could have committed a crime anywhere he has ever been.
b)2nd problem is the amount of work you must do to check every courthouse in those locations.
c)3rd problem is that you could miss important records if you miss any of the locations that your subject-person has been to.
d)4th problem is cost. If the courthouse has digitized their records and published them on a website, then you can often review them for free. But if you must travel to the courthouse, that requires your time and travel costs. Finally, if you get copy of the record, some courthouses charge $1 per page. Wow! That can be expensive.
e)So a do-it-yourself background check may cost you a significant amount of money if you want to perform a complete background check.
Other Records:
You will probably want to check out some other records on you subject-person.
Do your want to know about:
Marriages and Divorces
Bankruptcies
Tax liens
Civil law suits
Professional licenses
Corporate ownership
Property ownership.
All of that information is public, and you can review it. But, you have the same issues that you had with the Criminal Records. The information is not all in one place. You have to find out where it is, and you may have to travel to those locations.
Information Aggregators
On the internet, some companies specialize in collecting all of this public information, putting it in their database, and making it available for instant access. For example, Illinois Youth Soccer (http://www.iysa.org) has a Risk Management publication that refers to http://backgroundsearch.com
You can review some of this information for free and get the results immediately on the internet.
How to Perform a Do-It-Yourself Free Background Search & Check:
Step #1 – At an information aggregator, like BackgroundSearch.com , you can put in your subject-person’s name and find every city that he lived-in. That website provides this information for free. You can enter as many names as you like, as many times as you like. Now you know which courthouse records to review.
Step #2 – At the same website, you can find a list of the Criminal Record Offices of every city, county, and state in the USA, along with their website (as reported to the U.S. government.).
Step #3.- Go to the courthouse website, or to the courthouse (if they do not have a website), and review their public records.
Step #4 – Back at BackgroundSearch.com, you can find the Record Offices for Vital Records (Marriage, Divorce, Births, Deaths). Repeat step #3 for Vital Records and any other type of records that you need.
Purchasing a Background Check:
If you want to get a complete report, instantly, you can purchase a comprehensive background check from BackgroundSearch.com (or other information aggregators). Every company (without exception) will charge you something for a complete background check. The companies have to cover their costs to gather all of the public information, put it in a database, keep it up to date every day about everyone, and make it available to you on the internet for instant access.
Sex Offenders:
The U.S. government does keep a list of all convicted sex offenders in one place. You can find it here: http://www.nsopr.gov/
Source(s):
Good luck with your background check research.
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MV Moonsong
February 28, 2011 12:19 am
There are a number of local background and payroll check companies that you will find. Always go local.
As a property manager of two decades, I would also:
Do a name search on the internet.
Make sure you are really speaking with a valid landlord for a reference check. If the you feel like you might be speaking to a fake friend over the phone, ask to meet with that person at the location, then also ask the neighbors of that tenant. (We found a lifelong San Quentin Inmate that way, he was temporarily parolled and committed another murder. He had his sister pretend to be his landlord. The neighbors all confirmed that he had never lived there.)
Always check the county court listings around your area. Use the four nearest counties, then search by last name at all their websites.
By doing this, you will indeed find tenants with messed up lives. The good news is that these folks actually tend to be better at paying their rent on time than most. They never want to look for another place to live.
The bigger issue is that you are looking for the paralegals. Paralegals are great. Then there are the paralegals who know all the renting laws and know how to make your life miserable and destroy your property and finances all too well.
Check references. It is always the tenant that you failed to check that destroys your world. Good luck.
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Bill C
March 1, 2011 4:04 pm
Can a background check company store a violation on a dmv record for more than 10 years in south carolina?
I was told by my dmv that there are only 5 year and 10 year dmv record checks that they give out. If a background check company found a dmv record older than 10 years can they store it and still give out the information or are they only allowed to give out what’s on the offical dmv record from the past 5 to 10 years?
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Psmile2u
March 1, 2011 8:09 pm
What is the best background check company I can use in order to check tenant’s background?
A friend of mine is planning to rent her house and we are trying to find out what company online are best to use in order to run background checks to the people interested in renting the house(tenants) Does anybody know, please only answer if you have a very helpful answer, no jokes. thanks
It looks through all the free listings at the likes of Google and Whitepages to bring back such free information as their phone number and name.
If it can’t find any free information, it shows you the best resource to use otherwise.
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Michael M
March 4, 2011 1:51 pm
some do a credit check
some will check with the Clark County Sheriff for criminal activity, it goes to any place you lived, but uses this place for your residency. You can get one in person, under $20 and takes 10 minutes to produce.
some will actually call your listed references.
some will ask every question and never even check your listings
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oneman2dogs
March 4, 2011 4:14 pm
Regardless of the state, most states hold records for 5 years for petty and misdemeanor offenses UNLESS there was injury or death to another or drugs and/or alcohol are related to the incident. Felony offense can stay on ones record indefinately unless pardoned or expunged.
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Custodial_Engineer
March 4, 2011 6:25 pm
What is the most used background check company used by employers?
I would like to do a background check on myself before going on a job search but I want to use a service that would probably be used by potential employers.
Both excellent answers. Thank you.
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carquoteplease
March 4, 2011 8:07 pm
Can a background check company in Texas reveal a non criminal conviction (from another state) to an employer?
I know in some states it is illegal for a background check company to reveal a non criminal conviction (violation) to an employer. Is this the case for employment background checks done for employment in Texas, and if so where in the law does it state this? Does it matter if the background check company is physically located in Texas or is there a loop hole for this?
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smartasterisks
March 4, 2011 11:27 pm
What is the best online background check company for reverse cell phone lookup and criminal background check?
I just joined Reverse Phone Detective, but that membership only gives you reverse phone lookup and you have to pay more for a background check. I need something that I can look up the number and also the criminal background on the same site all included in the membership price instead of paying extra for background checks.
February 11, 2011
12:57 pm
In Texas and other states, employers have the right to do criminal background checks themselves, but most employers hire a service to do that .
The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) requires an employer to get written authorization from an applicant to do a credit check if an outside agency will be used – in addition, if the applicant is turned down, the employer must tell the applicant why and let them know the name and address of the service that furnished the information.
The FCRA prohibits credit reports from including non-criminal violations, such as a conviction that only results in a fine. The FCRA applies nationwide.
Note that the restriction on reporting non-criminal convictions only applies to credit reports. If the employer does the research himself, he is entitled to any information that he obtains from public sources, and all convictions (of any type) are public information. The employer can also purchase a background check that could reveal the same information as long as it is not included in a credit check.
You can perform a free background check yourself to see what information is available.
Like many answers, it all depends on the details:
What information do you want?
How much work are you willing to do to get it?
How fast do you want it?
If you are willing to do some work yourself, you can perform a background check on someone for free.
Criminal Background Check:
Criminal records are kept by the Clerk of Courts in each courthouse. Every city, town, county, state, and the federal government have their own courthouses. We know there are 50 states, 3000 counties, and over 30,000 cities, towns, or townships in the USA. That is a lot of courthouses, and most of them do not share their information. However, it is all public information, and you are allowed to review it.
If you know where the subject person has lived and traveled, then you know which courthouse records to check.
Do-it-Yourself Free Background check issues:
a)One problem is finding out your subject-persons lifetime travel history. He could have committed a crime anywhere he has ever been.
b)2nd problem is the amount of work you must do to check every courthouse in those locations.
c)3rd problem is that you could miss important records if you miss any of the locations that your subject-person has been to.
d)4th problem is cost. If the courthouse has digitized their records and published them on a website, then you can often review them for free. But if you must travel to the courthouse, that requires your time and travel costs. Finally, if you get copy of the record, some courthouses charge $1 per page. Wow! That can be expensive.
e)So a do-it-yourself background check may cost you a significant amount of money if you want to perform a complete background check.
Other Records:
You will probably want to check out some other records on you subject-person.
Do your want to know about:
Marriages and Divorces
Bankruptcies
Tax liens
Civil law suits
Professional licenses
Corporate ownership
Property ownership.
All of that information is public, and you can review it. But, you have the same issues that you had with the Criminal Records. The information is not all in one place. You have to find out where it is, and you may have to travel to those locations.
Information Aggregators
On the internet, some companies specialize in collecting all of this public information, putting it in their database, and making it available for instant access. For example, Illinois Youth Soccer (http://www.iysa.org) has a Risk Management publication that refers to
http://backgroundsearch.com
You can review some of this information for free and get the results immediately on the internet.
How to Perform a Do-It-Yourself Free Background Search & Check:
Step #1 – At an information aggregator, like BackgroundSearch.com , you can put in your subject-person’s name and find every city that he lived-in. That website provides this information for free. You can enter as many names as you like, as many times as you like. Now you know which courthouse records to review.
Step #2 – At the same website, you can find a list of the Criminal Record Offices of every city, county, and state in the USA, along with their website (as reported to the U.S. government.).
Step #3.- Go to the courthouse website, or to the courthouse (if they do not have a website), and review their public records.
Step #4 – Back at BackgroundSearch.com, you can find the Record Offices for Vital Records (Marriage, Divorce, Births, Deaths). Repeat step #3 for Vital Records and any other type of records that you need.
Purchasing a Background Check:
If you want to get a complete report, instantly, you can purchase a comprehensive background check from BackgroundSearch.com (or other information aggregators). Every company (without exception) will charge you something for a complete background check. The companies have to cover their costs to gather all of the public information, put it in a database, keep it up to date every day about everyone, and make it available to you on the internet for instant access.
Sex Offenders:
The U.S. government does keep a list of all convicted sex offenders in one place. You can find it here: http://www.nsopr.gov/
Source(s):
Good luck with your background check research.
February 28, 2011
12:19 am
There are a number of local background and payroll check companies that you will find. Always go local.
As a property manager of two decades, I would also:
Do a name search on the internet.
Make sure you are really speaking with a valid landlord for a reference check. If the you feel like you might be speaking to a fake friend over the phone, ask to meet with that person at the location, then also ask the neighbors of that tenant. (We found a lifelong San Quentin Inmate that way, he was temporarily parolled and committed another murder. He had his sister pretend to be his landlord. The neighbors all confirmed that he had never lived there.)
Always check the county court listings around your area. Use the four nearest counties, then search by last name at all their websites.
By doing this, you will indeed find tenants with messed up lives. The good news is that these folks actually tend to be better at paying their rent on time than most. They never want to look for another place to live.
The bigger issue is that you are looking for the paralegals. Paralegals are great. Then there are the paralegals who know all the renting laws and know how to make your life miserable and destroy your property and finances all too well.
Check references. It is always the tenant that you failed to check that destroys your world. Good luck.
March 1, 2011
4:04 pm
Can a background check company store a violation on a dmv record for more than 10 years in south carolina?
I was told by my dmv that there are only 5 year and 10 year dmv record checks that they give out. If a background check company found a dmv record older than 10 years can they store it and still give out the information or are they only allowed to give out what’s on the offical dmv record from the past 5 to 10 years?
March 1, 2011
8:09 pm
What is the best background check company I can use in order to check tenant’s background?
A friend of mine is planning to rent her house and we are trying to find out what company online are best to use in order to run background checks to the people interested in renting the house(tenants) Does anybody know, please only answer if you have a very helpful answer, no jokes. thanks
March 4, 2011
8:08 am
I’ve used a free tool at http://www.unitedsleuths.com/reverse-phone.html before today.
It looks through all the free listings at the likes of Google and Whitepages to bring back such free information as their phone number and name.
If it can’t find any free information, it shows you the best resource to use otherwise.
March 4, 2011
1:51 pm
some do a credit check
some will check with the Clark County Sheriff for criminal activity, it goes to any place you lived, but uses this place for your residency. You can get one in person, under $20 and takes 10 minutes to produce.
some will actually call your listed references.
some will ask every question and never even check your listings
March 4, 2011
4:14 pm
Regardless of the state, most states hold records for 5 years for petty and misdemeanor offenses UNLESS there was injury or death to another or drugs and/or alcohol are related to the incident. Felony offense can stay on ones record indefinately unless pardoned or expunged.
March 4, 2011
6:25 pm
What is the most used background check company used by employers?
I would like to do a background check on myself before going on a job search but I want to use a service that would probably be used by potential employers.
Both excellent answers. Thank you.
March 4, 2011
8:07 pm
Can a background check company in Texas reveal a non criminal conviction (from another state) to an employer?
I know in some states it is illegal for a background check company to reveal a non criminal conviction (violation) to an employer. Is this the case for employment background checks done for employment in Texas, and if so where in the law does it state this? Does it matter if the background check company is physically located in Texas or is there a loop hole for this?
March 4, 2011
11:27 pm
What is the best online background check company for reverse cell phone lookup and criminal background check?
I just joined Reverse Phone Detective, but that membership only gives you reverse phone lookup and you have to pay more for a background check. I need something that I can look up the number and also the criminal background on the same site all included in the membership price instead of paying extra for background checks.