Written by Tenant Screening Services, LLC

One primary concern for candidates that are about to undergo some form of background checks is mistakes from the past. For a lot of people, one mistake in their past should not affect their employability in the present. Fortunately there are limits to what information is available about someone after a certain period of time.

The first limit is from the The federal Fair Credit Reporting Act, which sets national standards for background checks. These background checks are called a consumer report and have the same disclosure standards set for credit checks. Here are the limits for the following:

Bankruptcies after 10 years.
Civil suits, civil judgments, and records of arrest, from date of entry, after seven years.
Paid tax liens after seven years.
Accounts placed for collection after seven years.
Any other negative information (except criminal convictions) after seven years.

One important thing to note is that these limits, and those set for background checks apply to outside organizations. These are the companies that conduct the background checks for clients. These limits do not apply to a company doing in-house pre employment checks.

With the exception of criminal convictions, which are available indefinitely, the above information will only be available for the stated period.

Tenant Screening Services, LLC provides variety of background checks and services for landlords and employer. Get an criminal background check for employment before your next hire.