Seattle

Seattle Bans Landlords from Conducting Criminal Background Checks

Seattle Bans Landlords from Conducting Criminal Background Checks

In a recent move that started with good intentions but with controversial effects, a new Seattle law has banned landlords from conducting criminal background checks. In the new city ordinance CB 119015, also known as the Fair Chance Housing Ordinance, prohibits landlords from excluding prospective tenants because of their criminal history, from requiring or conducting criminal background checks of those prospective tenants, or from charging them higher rents and security deposits.

Good Intentions

The intent was to lower barriers to housing for people with criminal histories, who now are often rejected by landlords. The new law passed with 8-0 votes in the city council.

“Regardless of my criminal history, I deserve housing,” Ballard resident Zachary Tutwiler, a vendor with the Real Change Homeless Empowerment Project, told the council during a public-comment period before the vote. “We all deserve housing.”

The Seattle Office of Civil Rights will develop rules for and enforce the ordinance and will launch an anti-bias training program for landlords. The office regularly conducts testing to check whether landlords are engaging in discrimination.

Rental applicants will be able to file complaints with the office, which will investigate. For a first-time violation, the maximum penalty will be $11,000; for a second violation in five years, $27,500; and for a third violation in seven years, $55,000.

Adverse Effects

However, not everyone is happy with this controversial law. Many landlords are saying that the new law prohibits them from making decisions that will make tenants and the community safer. Under this ordinance a landlord can take virtually no criminal offense into account when choosing whether to rent to someone, no matter how serious or how recent the violation is. The only exception is for registered sex offenders. This makes the business of renting out apartment units more risky, and landlords will respond to that risk by toughening the screening requirements they are still allowed to use.

The following are some other adverse effects the new Seattle law may have:

  • Increased rental requirements such as credit scores
  • Landlords and property owners planning to sell their properties due to the new risk involved
  • Fines for not attending mandated “re-education” & anti-bias training can lead to increased pricing on the consumers
  • Putting communities at risk of potentially increased crime rates

 

Seattle also currently has one of the highest priced rental markets in the country as well as a worsening homelessness problem. Many are saying that perhaps making the rental business more risky and therefore more expensive, will only add to the current problems.

 

Accredited Background Checks takes your background screening needs seriously. We ensure that each and every background check, whether for tenants, employees or for an individual, is guaranteed to meet the highest security standards within the industry. We provide the most accurate background checks nationwide. From federal criminal history searches to prior employment verification, each background check conducted has the most up-to-date information so that you, the employer or property orwner, can make the best decisions for your company and tenants.

Background-Check-Screening-Process

Employers Losing Job Candidates Due to Poor Background Check Experiences

Background checks are designed to validate candidate resume’s and protect employers from hiring risks. The process of finding the right candidate for the job position can be a daunting task. What’s worse is when time and resources are wasted due to candidates falling off because of a poor experience during the background screening process. According to a recent CareerBuilder survey, more than a third of employers (38%) have lost candidates because they had a negative background check experience. Also, less than half of HR managers who conduct employment background checks have tested their background check experience themselves. For the employers that do test their screening process, 1 in 6 employers have found their screening process to be less than ideal and rated their process as fair or poor.

Many employers are aware that background checks are an important tool in the business process but even fewer take the time to evaluate the candidate experience, ease of use, the simplicity and how it impacts the hiring process. The unfortunate truth is that the longer the background check process, the higher the risk of losing a quality candidate to another employer. This is why it’s important for employers to be testing their application and background check process and make sure that job candidates are having a positive experience.

How the Background Check Process Reflects on the Business

The truth is, the candidate hiring process isn’t just the company reviewing the candidate. The candidates themselves are also forming an opinion about the company. That’s why a negative screening process, whether it’s the application, interviews or background check process, can determine how the candidate feels about working at a company. If the opinion of the company is a negative one, then the chances of the potential employee seeking another employer are higher.

56% of candidates think less of a company if they have a poor experience during the hiring process. 8% of those who have accepted a job offer but then withdrew their application did so because a background check took too long or they had a negative experience with a background check or drug screen. Accredited Background Checks, Inc. goes to great lengths to ensure the background check process is conducted quickly, confidentially and professionally to ensure employers are maintaining a positive experience for their candidates and employees.

How to optimize the Background Check Process for Candidates

A poorly conducted background check is one of the most common reasons employers have lost candidates who have accepted job offers. 21% of employers who lost candidates said it was because the background check process took too long and 21% said it was because the candidate had a poor experience. Fortunately, here at Accredited Background Checks, we have several suggestions employers could use to optimize their background check process.

1. Choose your Background Check providers carefully

Before choosing a background check provider, employers need to make sure that the provider keeps up with compliance standards. We recommend checking to see if the background check provider is accredited through the National Association of Professional Background Screeners (NAPBS). You can also make sure that your provider gives timely communication and support relating to all of your background screening needs. Accredited Background Checks, Inc. is proudly NAPBS certified and always has client specialists ready to provide the best customer support.

2. Test the background check process turnaround times

As we mentioned before, the longer the wait times for a background check to be completed, the higher the risk of losing a candidate to another employer. We recommend that employers pay careful attention to how long it takes for their background check provider to produce a report. Typically, and depending on the type of background check requested, reports should generally take no more than five business days. However, many background checks on average take 24-72 hours to complete.

If you have questions regarding the length of time it takes for a particular background check request, you can give us a call or view background search descriptions to get a general idea of background report turnaround times.

3. Test candidate experiences

Employers can test the background check process themselves to get a good idea of how easy and straightforward their process is. We also recommend that companies conduct a brief survey or simply asking candidates for their opinion about the hiring process. Companies can utilize the insights received and implement changes where they can.

4. Have Accurate Candidate Information for reports

One of the best ways for employers to have a positive screening process is to simply have the most accurate candidate information as possible. Employers need to make sure to fully read the requirements for each background check report so that they can request that information from the candidate before a request is made. Having all the necessary information before submitting a request to Accredited Background Checks will allow the background screening to be performed immediately without any delays.

 

Positive Background Check ExperienceHow Accredited Background Checks, Inc. can help

At Accredited Background Checks, we pride ourselves in providing easy-to-use, safe, secure and confidential background screening solutions whether you’re a small trucking company in rural America or a large global enterprise. Accredited Background Checks helps solve background screening problems and helps your organization to work smarter. We provide a background check process that will ensure a smooth and efficient screening process for all of your potential candidates and employees.

Our focus is to make sure every company makes better hiring decisions to prevent potential liabilities and risk. Our express accounts allow employers to quickly enter candidate information and request common background checks in order to provide the best candidate experience possible. At Accredited Background Checks, every client receives the best customer support in the industry.

Client Resources

We understand that there are many laws on the Federal level and State level in regards to background checks. As an NAPBS Accredited employment background check provider, Accredited Background Checks remains FCRA Compliant so that clients can rely on quality, safe and secure background screenings. We also like to make sure every client has as many resources as possible to maintain compliance with the Fair Credit Reporting Act, Federal and State law. Some of the resources that we provide are also to make sure clients have the necessary information for any type of background report request. As we mentioned before, having the right information from the candidate for the report being requested can help expedite turnaround times.

The resources that Accredited Background Checks provides such as candidate questionnaires, disclosure & authorization forms, or motor vehicle records release forms can be found on our Background Check Resources page.

If you’re an employer seeking employment background checks, or to provide a better screening process experience for employees and candidates, please give Accredited Background Checks, Inc. a call at (800)-441-2728 or simply send us a message online. One of our client support specialists will be happy to answer your background check needs.

You can also get started today by signing up for our Premier Employer Account or for faster ordering, setup an Express Account today.

 

mobile background checks

Rhode Island to Introduce Mobile Background Checks

 

The state of Rhode Island is getting serious about background checks. The attorney’s office has decided to bring back state and national criminal background check services. They will start to offer the screenings at different locations across the state in August.

The mobile background check services will be offered to anyone required by statute to have a national background check conducted through the attorney general’s office and for those required to have a state background check for employment or volunteering.

A state background check involves a State Criminal Search which provides access to public criminal records from the applicable state. Search results may include felony, a misdemeanor, and/or traffic-case information. And a National Background Check could involve a Federal Criminal Search; which reports the records of crimes committed against Federal Criminal Laws. This report is especially relevant for screening management positions.

The checks will be available as follows:

  • August 3rd: Bristol
  • August 7th: North Kingstown
  • August 10th: Cranston
  • August 15th: Charlestown
  • August 16th: Lincoln

The screenings will be offered in the police departments of the towns from 2 pm- 6 pm and will be very affordable.

The Attorney General’s office is committed to making Rhode Island take background checking more seriously and they hope by making it accessible to all people, everyone will be encouraged to feel safe in who they are hiring. Over 80% of employers do background checks in their potential hires to screen out any candidates who could be dishonest, this has proved especially important in the banking world when new hires are going to have access to large amounts of money.

Accredited Background Checks does easy Background Checks through our website and often times you will have the results emailed to you in 24-48 hours. If you are an employer you can create an express account here. The process is fast and easy!

 

voluntary background checks

Voluntary Background Checks Law in Gun Industry Producing Few Results

A new state law in Virginia expanded voluntary background checks on private sales of fire arms at a Virginia gun show doesn’t seem to be yielding the results supports thought.

The program was put into place last year and in the first year, only 54 background checks were requested by private sellers across 77 gun shows in the entire state. And only one gun buyer was actually denied the purchase of a gun.

Well, What’s the Difference?

Federally licensed gun vendors are required to do mandatory background checks on customers hoping to purchase and their results from last year were drastically different. 39,738 checks were performed by the federal vendors and that resulted in 325 denials of purchases.

Why are the Numbers so Drastic?

It appears the private dealers themselves are the ones not requesting the background checks on their own customers. If a check isn’t done in the first place, then there is no way to check if your customer has been charged with a crime or has any kind of violent past. Unfortunately, the police keep no record of the number of firearms sold at gun shows by private sellers but on average, about 15 to 20 sales happen over a typical weekend at these shows.

“Back when this law was passed, the Virginia Citizens Defense League believed that it would rarely be used because gun owners really did not want what it offered,” Van Cleave said. “VCDL went along with the law because it was voluntary and it was part of a package that ultimately expanded recognition of Virginia’s concealed handgun permit by more states.”

Supporters of the law are now rallying to push for mandatory background checks on private purchases, but with no way to track this in public records, the accuracy may never be correct.

What do you think of this law? Should private dealers subject their customers to background checks such as federal vendors do? Tell us below!

 

air bnb sex offenders

AirBnB Uses Background Checks to Remove Sex Offenders

If you haven’t heard of AirBnB, you might be living under a rock. The fast growing traveling service is currently worth $30 billion with thousands of hotels copying its’ laid back approach to where people stay when they are visiting a brand new place. The concept started when the founders decided to list their couch on online for people to stay at, and the “couch surfing” site blew up from there.

Things have happened before…

But this concept of having travelers stay in your home has drawn some crazy circumstances that the service is currently trying to regulate. For example, when hosts have rented their entire apartments or houses to guests and have to stay elsewhere, they have some back to theft and wild messes left over from parties. AirBnB is trying to have the situation better for both the hosts and the guests by providing background check services to all those registered on their website. Hosts have routinely gone through the standard background check when renting out their homes, including checking databases of public, state, and county criminal records. They also do local background checks for registered sex offenders.

What else do they check?

Airbnb also checks the OFAC list. The OFAC list, or Office of Foreign Assets Control of the U.S. Department of the Treasury, administers and enforces economic and trade sanctions based on U.S. foreign policy and national security goals against targeted foreign countries and regimes, terrorists, international narcotics traffickers, those engaged in activities.

But the background checks do have limitations Airbnb warns users about on its website. The site does not guarantee a background check on all hosts or guest. Also, guests who are going to be with the person booking the stay are not checked. And the check is only run once when the user is first registering for the website, so later arrests will not be checked.