How to add registry screening to tenant applications
The check itself is one API call. Everything that determines whether it helps you — where it sits in the funnel, what you do with a partial name, and who decides — is workflow design.
Check whether your state lets you use registry data for housing
Start here, because in some places the answer is no. California prohibits using Megan’s Law information for housing or accommodations unless the use protects a person at risk or another law authorizes it (Penal Code § 290.46(j)). Nevada (NRS 179B.270) and New Jersey (N.J.S.A. 2C:7-16(c)) also restrict housing use. New York City’s fair-chance rules make a housing provider presumptively liable when it receives criminal history it may not consider (Admin. Code § 8-107(5)(o)(7)), so over-inclusive screening output is itself a risk.
Other jurisdictions expressly permit a registry inquiry even where they limit other criminal-history screening — DC, Montgomery County (MD), Colorado and Cook County among them. A platform serving many markets needs the rule per property, not one national setting.
- Store the governing jurisdiction on each property
- Disable applicant registry screening where the jurisdiction restricts it
- Have counsel sign off on the per-jurisdiction table
- Re-review the table when you enter a new market
The part people lose a week to
Turning screening on everywhere by default is the expensive mistake. Default to off, and enable it per jurisdiction once the rule is confirmed.
When to run the sex offender check in a rental application
Run it at application, not at enquiry. At application you have a legal name and a date of birth, which is the difference between a search that resolves to one person and a search that returns forty.
A date of birth is the single highest-value field in the request. Without it, a common surname produces a review queue rather than an answer.
Search applicants across every state they lived in, not just yours
Registry data is filed where a person registered, not where they are applying to live. An applicant moving across state lines will not appear in a search scoped to your state. Run US-wide by default, and scope only when you have a specific reason.
If the application collects prior addresses, a radius search around them is a reasonable second pass.
Nationwide, then a radius pass
POST /v1/search
{ "query": { "firstName": "Jane", "lastName": "Roe", "dob": "1991-02-03" } }
POST /v1/search
{ "query": { "latitude": 39.7392, "longitude": -104.9903, "radiusMiles": 10 } }Set the registry match threshold before you see a hit
Write down, in advance, which match basis triggers which action. Doing this after a hit lands is how inconsistent decisions get made, and inconsistency is the thing that becomes a fair-housing problem.
Decide too what a confirmed match means for the application. Registration status alone is a different fact from the offense, its date and the registrant’s tier or risk level, and where the law lets you consider registry information it may still expect an individual assessment. Put the policy in writing with counsel, then encode it.
- Exact date-of-birth match → hold the application for human review
- Birth-year match → human review, never automatic
- Name-only match → not actionable on its own
- Every outcome logged with the match basis that produced it
Keep a verification report in the tenant file
Attach a verification report to the file at the moment of the decision. It is timestamped, carries a source citation on every record, and is clearly labelled as your own search output rather than a government document.
Keep it with the application for as long as your retention policy keeps applicant files, together with the match basis, the reviewer’s name and the outcome. If an applicant disputes a decision, or a regulator asks how decisions are made, the file should answer without anyone re-running a search — a search run months later reflects the registry as it reads then, not on the day you decided.
Handle a registry match the same way every time
When a match clears your threshold, the application goes on hold and a trained person reviews it: compare the photo where the registry publishes one, line up the date of birth and prior addresses, and open the official record. A match that does not survive review is documented and released, and the applicant should never learn about a record that turned out to be someone else’s.
A confirmed match that will affect the decision runs through the FCRA workflow, which supplies the notices, the copy of the report and the dispute path the applicant is entitled to. Apply the same steps to every applicant, and log each one.
Use location search around the property as well
Applicant screening is the regulated, jurisdiction-dependent half of the problem. The other half is awareness around the building, and it does not depend on any applicant. An address or radius search shows registrations near a property, and a location monitor — $10 a month — alerts you when one appears, changes or leaves the radius.
Screening the staff and vendors who hold keys to occupied units is a third, separate use: an employment check, not a housing decision, run on the same API.
A location monitor around a property
POST /v1/monitors
{
"type": "location",
"location": { "latitude": 39.7392, "longitude": -104.9903, "radiusMiles": 1 },
"channels": { "email": "property-ops@example.com" }
}Tenant screening and the FCRA: the compliance line
Standard results are not a consumer report; FCRA-covered decisions run through FCRA Partner Access, our separately enabled regulated service. Housing decisions carry their own fair-housing obligations that vary by jurisdiction.
Design so the system supplies evidence and a person makes the decision, consistently, against a threshold you set in advance.
The part people lose a week to
A screening step applied inconsistently is a bigger liability than not screening at all. Write the threshold down, apply it to every applicant, and log the basis.
Tenant registry screening: common questions
Where in the leasing funnel should the check run?
At application, when you have a legal name and date of birth. Running it at enquiry produces ambiguous results because you do not yet have the fields that make a search resolve.
Should I search only my state?
No. Registry data is filed where a person registered, not where they are applying to live, so an applicant moving between states will not appear in a state-scoped search. Search US-wide by default.
Can I decline an applicant automatically on a match?
Keep a human on the decision. Standard results are not a consumer report — regulated tenant screening runs through FCRA Partner Access — and housing decisions carry fair-housing obligations that vary by jurisdiction.
Is it legal to screen tenants against the sex offender registry?
It depends on where the property is. California, Nevada and New Jersey restrict using registry information for housing; DC, Montgomery County, Colorado and Cook County expressly permit a registry inquiry. Where it is allowed, run the decision through an FCRA workflow.
Can I see registered offenders near my building?
Yes. An address or radius search shows nearby registrations, and a location monitor alerts you to changes. That is awareness, not an applicant decision.
Should co-applicants and other adult occupants be screened?
Apply the same policy to every adult applicant the jurisdiction lets you screen, with the same threshold and the same FCRA workflow. Screening some occupants and not others is the inconsistency to avoid.
Can I re-screen existing residents?
Re-screening current tenants is a separate decision with its own legal limits, so get counsel’s view first. A location monitor around the property is the lower-risk way to stay aware of changes nearby.