RentPrep background service

[Javier Perez]

Hi Everyone,

Had a question, has anyone ever used RentPrep before?

I have a tenant that I am currently evicting. My attorney tells me " Did you not do a background check on this guy? He has 3 evictions in his past over the last 3 years."

I was sort of shocked because I had used RentPrep service and it states "no evictions". 

Im confused. Has anyone had this issues before?

[Timmi Ryerson]

@javierperez
Eviction histories have traditionally not been available except of you do a search at your closest court house.  This is because many of the evictions are either not recorded or they are not made public by the courts, which is often the case in small communities.  About 6 years ago a private group started a clearinghouse to collect eviction records because the saw the need that landlords have to be able to get access to this kind of data.  In the past 2 years Experian and Transunion have added eviction histories as a part of their tenant screening offering. But it is a separate report in both cases.  The other issue is that much of the data that is needed by these clearinghouses on evictions is still not being made available in many towns and juridictions.  One other thing that happens more often is that eviction papers are served on a tenant and it never goes to court.  So there is no record of a judgement. Eviction history data is still in its infancy as far as automated information.  But if you have questions about eviction history you can still go to the court house in the area where your applicant lived before and check for evictions.