There are numerous and very obvious areas where background screening is an important tool. Pre-employment screening may be first on the list of obvious choices. A significant number of businesses and organizations do background screening, at least minimally, as background checks have proven to provide critical and important information that greatly assists hiring managers. But there are numerous other areas where background screening may prove useful.
Adam Almeida, President and CEO of CriminalBackgroundRecords.com states: “Ultimately a background check, whether it is for employment related services or in other areas, is about mitigating risk.”
Mitigating risk falls into a couple different categories.
- Protection of person –
- Protection of property –
When one thinks about the protection of person the best example may be tenant screening. A landlord or property manager’s primary responsibility is to protect tenants and protection comes in many forms. Locking gates, secure entry and exit, well maintained landscapes and tenant screening.
Protection of property may be illustrated in pre-employment screening. It would be simple to think of pre-employment background checks as a tool used only to protect current employees from potential threat from new employees but this aspect is just a part of the story. Pre-employment background checks protect property as well, specifically considering theft or damage of property. Through the collection and dissemination of critical information gathered from public records and verifications a hiring manager will have a heightened ability to make an informed decision about hiring a given individual.
But one area background screening may not seem readily present is with the rental of self-storage units.
From insideselfstorage.com (no date given):
In fact, the easiest way to get around your security is to become a tenant. This may be shocking, but if you think about it, it’s quite brilliant. A thief who’s a tenant has easy access to units and can literally walk right past you without causing a doubt in your mind. You might have a break-in every month, increase security accordingly, and never know the burglar was right under your nose the whole time.
What’s even worse is these crimes won’t just cost you time and money; they’ll cost you customers and your company’s reputation as well. (1)
Almeida states: “It is important to understand that background checks, regardless of who or why, must always remain compliant with the Fair Credit Reporting Act. A third-party background screening or tenant screening company would be a best practice for Self-Storage facilities.”
From insideselfstorage.com:
The best thing you can do is initiate strict tenant-screening practices that include background, credit and rental-history checks. (2)
Tenant screening is a relatively simple process that draws information from public records as well as verifications collected through phone conversations. Certainly not all reports would apply.
Sample reports might include:
- Consumer Credit Report – Validate financial wherewithal.
- Eviction Record – This report shows traditional evictions from rental properties but could expose a pattern of behavior that could be of concern to the self-storage landlord.
- Personal References – Verification.
- Criminal History
Almeida states: “The use of criminal history in many instances has come into question and further illustrates the need for self-storage landlords to work with third-party tenant screening companies.”
When it comes to mitigating risk the use of a background check is an important and, often, critical tool utilized by a wide variety of companies and organizations. Managers of self-storage units may want to use a tenant-check to further protect existing and new clients.
TenantScreeningUSA.com is a third-party background screening company that provides tenant background checks to landlords and property managers for all sizes and types of rental complexes, including self-storage. From the single-unit to the large community, TenantScreeningUSA.com has the ability to customize a tenant screening package specific to a managers unique requirements.
Notes:
- insideselfstorage.com/articles/2016/06/screening-your-selfstorage-tenants-preventing-internal-threats-to-your-business.aspx
- insideselfstorage.com/articles/2016/06/screening-your-selfstorage-tenants-preventing-internal-threats-to-your-business.aspx
