Is is legal to reject a potential employee or rental applicant for having a criminal past?
First, check with a legal professional (preferably one that specializes in your type of business) to make sure that denying an applicant based on a criminal record is legal in your locality. Criminal History is not one of the classes of protected categories under federal law. Thousands of employers and apartment communities across the country currently use a prior criminal record history as the basis for rejecting an applicant. There are many ways that these communities incorporate criminal background checks into their screening process. If you intend to use the information provided through our services to make a decision that could negatively affect another person’s ability to secure employment, insurance, credit, or housing, then you must first inform them that you are obtaining a Consumer Report and obtain their written authorization. If used for these purposes, most interpretations of the the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) suggest that you can only consider the past seven years o
