{"id":42255,"date":"2022-08-16T10:35:59","date_gmt":"2022-08-16T14:35:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mrisoftware.com\/ca\/?p=42255"},"modified":"2023-01-24T08:50:20","modified_gmt":"2023-01-24T12:50:20","slug":"instant-resident-screening-services-multifamily-property-managers-risk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mrisoftware.com\/ca\/blog\/instant-resident-screening-services-multifamily-property-managers-risk\/","title":{"rendered":"The downsides of instant tenant background checks"},"content":{"rendered":"

This article was written by Aaron Durkee, Director of Product Management for MRI Resident Screening and Robyn Kunz, Senior Director, Screening. <\/em><\/p>\n

A recent advisory opinion from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau<\/a> affirmed that background screening companies who carelessly assign a false identity to housing applicants are breaking the law. The organization specifically calls out name-only matching procedures, which don’t ensure maximum accuracy.<\/p>\n

What do the repercussions of incorrect screening reports look like for apartment applicants? And how can property managers trust that their screening service is doing more than just matching names?<\/p>\n

In an article entitled \u201cHow Automated Background Checks Freeze Out Renters<\/a>,\u201d\u00a0we see real-life examples of how inaccurate screening reports harm prospective residents, and in some cases result in being wrongfully denied.<\/p>\n

Such reports are known as \u201cinstant\u201d background checks, and they rely on algorithms and computer-based \u201cmatching logic\u201d to determine which criminal, eviction, and sex offender records are reported to a landlord during the tenant screening<\/a> process.\u00a0These algorithms are far from perfect, and often report records that belong to a different person with a name similar to the applicant.<\/p>\n

When the data doesn\u2019t add up<\/h3>\n

One example cited in the article was that of William Hall Jr., whose housing application was turned down after a background screening company labeled him a sexual abuser. The William Hall who actually committed that crime was 30 years older than Mr. Hall Jr. It would only take a minute or two for a human to determine that the record should have been excluded from the resident screening report. However, a representative from a company that provides instant background checks is quoted in the NYT article as saying that verifying the information on its reports \u201cwould be an overwhelming task.\u201d<\/p>\n

Risks for multifamily apartment landlords<\/h3>\n

An incorrect screening report not only creates disruption for the applicant, but it also puts the apartment landlord at risk. Wrongfully denied applicants can quickly turn into plaintiffs in lawsuits against landlords and background screening companies.\u00a0Many of these cases are settled for undisclosed sums, so it\u2019s difficult to calculate the true cost to landlords and background screeners.\u00a0But even cases that are settled quickly often result in tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees alone.\u00a0And those numbers can multiply when the lawsuit turns into a\u00a0class action<\/a>, which is exactly what happened when William Hall Jr. sued over his inaccurate background check.<\/p>\n

Compliance violations<\/h3>\n

Additionally, inaccurate screening practices pose a compliance risk for multifamily property managers. Fair Housing laws apply to screening services, and if your property is wrongfully denying a prospective renter based on false information, then you could be in violation of the Fair Housing Act. Understanding how your screening service aligns with fair housing laws<\/a> can prevent legal issues for your multifamily property.<\/p>\n

Competitive edge<\/h3>\n

Today, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the rental market is more competitive. Prices for new 12-month leases decreased by 2% from March to April 2020, according to the MRI Software Market Insights report<\/a>. With increased reliance on technology and digital services to avoid face-to-face interaction, it’s important to ensure that those technologies deliver the right results. Landlords have an opportunity to leverage screening practices that prioritize accuracy over speed to select the right tenants for their community.<\/p>\n

Human touch<\/h3>\n

Multifamily professionals are not experts in background screening, and they should rely on a provider that incorporates human oversight into the screening process. So how can multifamily property managers reduce risk and more accurately screen tenants?<\/p>\n

MRI Resident Screening<\/a> allows multifamily properties to run comprehensive credit and background checks with the appropriate efficiency and risk management. With drill-down reporting capabilities, a team of in-house investigators, and proprietary credit check technology, MRI\u2019s resident screening service offers a configurable approach to reduce risk for property managers and their communities.<\/p>\n

Accurate background screening is not an overwhelming task<\/h3>\n

As a society, we often think instant is better. Instant purchases, instant service, instant results from the web are all logical markers of advancement and improvement in technology and commerce. But when instant also equates to inaccurate, it\u2019s time to take a step back. Is it really better to continue damaging the lives of renters and causing landlords to miss out on good tenants? Immediate results aren\u2019t always the right results.<\/p>\n

Learn more about resident screening best practices in this on-demand webinar: What your Resident Screening Solution isn’t Telling You<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We\u2019ve all heard the horror stories\u2026 or fallen victim to them already.
\nTime and time again, property managers have found themselves in hot water; discovering that a background screening company has carelessly assigned an incorrect identity to our hous…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":137,"featured_media":42256,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[144],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42255","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mrisoftware.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42255","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mrisoftware.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mrisoftware.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mrisoftware.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/137"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mrisoftware.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42255"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.mrisoftware.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42255\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mrisoftware.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42256"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mrisoftware.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42255"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mrisoftware.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42255"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mrisoftware.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}