RELIABLE BACKGROUND SCREENING INDUSTRY NEWS AND ARTICLES
Industry news, helpful tips, and valuable insight from the Reliable Background Screening Team.
CFPB Reports on Tenant Background Checks – A Wake-Up Call for the Multi-Housing Industry
On November 15th, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) issued two separate reports on tenant background checks and their wide-spread use by the rental housing industry. In addition to questioning to what extent these reports actually aid landlords to mitigate risk, the CFPB found other areas that need amelioration, including with the manner in which the multi-family industry operates today. As someone who has been involved with the apartment industry for three decades, it is not surprising. The multi-housing industry has too often been predisposed to wanting fast, low-cost tenant screening reports, or in the politically correct vernacular of this industry, resident [...]
Unintended Consequences – California Governor Newsom Fails to Sign SB-1262
Regardless of your politics, most people want their personal privacy protected. California Governor Newsom cited, “an individual’s constitutional right to privacy,” in his letter to the California State Senate, when he returned California Senate Bill 1262 (SB-1262), without his signature, effectively allowing the bill to die. SB-1262 would have returned Dates of Birth (DOB’s) to publicly accessible court criminal index terminals. This Bill would have had the effect of overturning a 2021 California Appeals Court decision which had the detrimental consequences of removing DOB’s from these indexes. The negative impact of no DOB is because criminal records typically have no social security [...]
Franchise Industry – Take Note – NLRB Proposes New Joint Employer Rules
If it feels like deja vu, it is. In just over two years since it last ruled on this issue in April of 2020, earlier this month on September 6th, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) issued another proposed rule change for establishing joint employer status (as regulated under the National Labor Relations Act). This new rule proposal, if enacted, will annul and change the NLRB’s joint employer rule that was promulgated in April 2020. If this new rule is finalized as now written by the NLRB, it will have a deleterious impact upon the franchise industry in particular, as well as [...]
Seven Billion Reasons for Best-Practices Background Checks
A few weeks ago, a court in Dallas awarded $7 Billion in Damages against Charter Communications, Inc., which operates Spectrum, a cable television media company. This award went to the family of a Spectrum customer, who sadly was robbed, stabbed and murdered by an installer of Spectrum. Although this case involved much more than whether a background check was performed on the employee, it is a sad reminder that companies can be found liable for actions of their employees, even if they are not working, i.e., “on-the-clock,” at the time of a crime. In this case, the convicted murderer went back to [...]
