There has been a lot of concern among property owners and manager that the use of criminal background checks during screening will soon become problematic with the renewed emphasis on disparate impact claims.
Barron’s has an article that discusses a case involving the use of background checks in employment.
A federal judge cast doubt on government efforts to restrict employers’ use of criminal-background checks in hiring as he dismissed a lawsuit by regulators against a Dallas event-marketing company.
This is such a difficult area. You don’t want to rent to those who will harm others in the building, the neighbors or cause damage, but you also do not want to run afoul of Fair Housing in the process or deny housing to those who would be good tenants.
We have seen public access to court records, such as Wisconsin’s CCAP, come under seemingly constant attack. Perhaps this case will in part answer that question.