If You Use A Po Box, Will It Show Up If Somebody Runs A Background Check On You?

When screening tenants for a rental information technology'due south common practice to collect address history on the rental awarding and and so compare that to the previous addresses on the background check.

It'southward difficult to say if an applicant will be a good renter based purely on this data…

… but you can certainly spot red flags that back-trail problematic tenants.

A table of contents for background check accost history:

What is address history on a tenant background cheque?
Where does previous address history data come from?
What does rental history indicate?
Ruby-red flags and side by side steps
A sample of a rental history report
FAQs

What is address history on a tenant groundwork check?

Just put, the address history is a timeline of all the locations your applicant has lived at in their recent history. This information is not simply limited to the places where they have rented. It will include any location they have received mail at such as their parents, college, and even a friend's burrow that they live on for a few months. As long as they received post at the location there'southward a good chance they'll accept a history at that accost.

Where does previous address history data come from?

Regardless of what package you guild from RentPrep, at that place will be previous address history information included in the report.

It'southward a skillful thought to ask for the 3 most recent addresses on your rental application.

When you run a background cheque yous'll become a history of the near recent addresses the applicant has lived at.

This information typically comes from services reselling their data. For example, allow's say your applicant has had a Verizon cellphone for 10 years.

Verizon knows their residence history since they need to know where to send an overdue bill to. Verizon volition sell that information to databases that resell that data.

In the case of RentPrep, we buy that information in lodge to add it to your tenant applicant's background check.

A SmartMove report is a credit report which comes from Transunion (also a production we sell). The information may come from bills or even the known addresses where the applicant has filed their taxes from.

What does rental history indicate?

When you're looking at previous rental history y'all're looking for signs of inconsistency.

To start, you'll be looking at their rental application before you run a background bank check.

Yous can remember of it in the same style that an employer looks at employment history on a resume.

What does the current state of affairs wait like?
What does the previous history look similar?
Does anything look suspicious?
What does the groundwork cheque say?

Ideally, a landlord is looking for some sort of rental history.

It's more of a risk to rent to someone who has never rented but this is common with renting to college students.

You lot don't want to completely judge a tenant based on their rental history but you desire to identify potential red flags…

Red flags and next steps

Step one: Inspect the rental application

If a tenant applicant has a history that includes iii calendar month and seven month stays this could be a red flag.

The majority of leases will start with a one yr lease, so annihilation less than 12 months will raise an eyebrow.

This is why information technology's always a good thought (early in the tenant screening procedure) to ask the applicant why they're interested in moving in the offset identify.

Is it because they're moving closer to their work or is it because they're having issues with their current landlord?

Asking practiced questions will assist answer a lot of questions you may have.

Pace 2: Make verification calls

Before you run a background check many landlords will make verification calls.

There are three main calls y'all'll want to make.

Call the current employer
Call the current landlord
Telephone call the previous landlord

The main purpose of these calls is to verify the information on the rental application and enquire good questions.

Practice the dates friction match, is the salary accurate and would the previous landlord rent to them once more, etc.

Here you can notice more information on how to brand tenant verification calls.

Step 3: Run a background check and compare data

One time you run the background cheque you'll want to compare the address history provided on the rental application vs. the data you come across on the report.

There are unlike data available to yous depending on the type of report you order…

A sample of a rental history report

Here'due south a sample screenshot of what the address history looks like on our Basic, Pro, and Platinum reports.

previous address history background check

Nosotros've highlighted the three dates listed above:

Search Date is just when this search was done
Is reporting the about recent known accost
Reports the 2nd most recent known address

If this was your bidder yous'll want to cantankerous-reference #2 and #3 with the rental history section of your rental application.

Are the dates the aforementioned? Are the addresses the same?

At first glance, this report would create a reddish flag because the bidder is showing ii consecutive two-calendar month residencies. Perchance in that location is a good reason for such a short stay just it's worth a chat with the applicant.

In our Platinum reports, we volition brand verification calls for yous to ostend the data provided by your tenant applicant.

SmartMove Rental History Report

We too offer SmartMove credit reports because many landlords want to see the full credit score.

There are drawbacks with these reports that we will discuss beneath this sample screenshot.

The private accost histories are difficult to see on this full-size image.

For reference, here is a blurred out address history from a recent report.
SmartMove Address History Sample
The just major drawback with the address history is that it shows the "Reported on" date every bit opposed to a date range provided in the previous sample report.

SmartMove is a credit report and the "Reported on" date is letting you lot know when that address was reported to the credit bureau. Many times this is updated when the bidder pays their taxes.

The unfortunate part is that it'due south not a range so if your applicant lived at an address for a longer period of time… the reported on appointment could fall in the start, middle, or terminate of that time menstruum.

This isn't ideal but nonetheless gives you an idea of when they lived there.

In Conclusion…

Rental history is an often disregarded but very telling attribute of a background report. Y'all'll want to make sure your applicant has a proficient rental history or at to the lowest degree skilful reason why at that place might be some red flags.

FAQs Rental History Report

Here are a few common questions nosotros receive nigh rental histories on groundwork checks:

Dates Overlapping on a Tenant's Background Check?

Basically, the information on an bidder'southward background cheque comes from lots of different databases. Info gets gathered from courts, companies, cities, counties, states and more. Still, more data originates with employers and previous landlords. Some of the official information will be quite accurate. However, those that depend on human recollection may be generalized, estimated or not recalled correctly.

This combination of records tin can pb to dates overlapping on a tenant'southward background cheque.

Here'southward a screenshot of landlords discussing this question in our private Facebook grouping for Landlords. I tapped our CEO Stephen White to answer this question.

dates overlapping on a tenant's background check

You can run across even more comments on that mail service by checking information technology out in the group.

What does electric current address from date mean?

This is asked on some rental applications and on many job applications. The "current accost from date" simply means the date you started living in your current address.