More and more landlords – an estimated nine out of 10 – are relying on the tenant screening industry to produce accurate reports for potential tenants, but that’s not always the case. Automated background checks can be created within a few seconds, using searches based on partial names or incomplete dates of birth, and typically are delivered to landlords without a human ever glancing at the results. Hundreds of federal lawsuits against screening companies have been filed over the past 10 years due to information that falsely labels individuals as criminals or sex offenders. The problem could lie in the lax rules. Tenant screeners don’t have to register with any government agency and none of the restrictions that apply to other screening, such as with the credit bureaus, apply to tenant screening.
