If you live in Colorado or are planning to move there, you can get your own personal background check to provide to landlords, rental agents, and property management companies. This can save you money by avoiding the background check fee for each rental application.
By attaching your individual background check to rental applications, you can potentially save hundreds of dollars. Colorado recently passed HB23-1099 – Portable Screening Report for Residential Leases, which requires landlords to accept these reports from prospective tenants.
Here’s a summary of HB23-1099:
Except in certain circumstances, the law requires landlords to accept a portable tenant screening report (background check) from a prospective tenant. The report must be prepared by a consumer reporting agency within the previous 30 days, at the tenant’s request and expense, and made directly available to the landlord by the agency. The report must include verification of employment and income, rental and credit history, and criminal history. If a tenant provides a screening report, the landlord cannot charge an application fee or a fee to access or use the screening report.
Before collecting any tenant information that would generate an application fee, a landlord must inform the tenant that renter-provided background checks are accepted and that landlords are prohibited from charging a fee to tenants who provide a screening report.
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Key points to note:
The report must be no more than 30 days old.
The report must come directly from the agency.
The report must include verification of employment and income, rental and credit history, and criminal history.
Where to Get Your Personal Background Check for Renting in Colorado
Colorado Public Radio found that most agencies do not provide everything required by the law, for example employment history. However, you should be able to supplement this by providing a letter from your current employer (of course ask the prospective landlord if that will be acceptable).
Additionally, local criminal convictions are not usually included because it would be too costly to check county and city-level records. You can submit your background check and let the landlord specify if they want local criminal records.
Individual Background Check Services
ApplyConnect: Provides a complete credit report from Experian, and full rental and criminal history for $39.95. You can share the report with up to 3 landlords within 30 days of purchase.
Tenant Background Search: For $24.95, this includes a credit report, nationwide criminal records, past address history, and an “employment summary.”
RentPrep: The “TransUnion Full Credit Report (SmartMove)” costs $40.00 with a $10 add-on for income verification.
TenantAlert : Offers packages starting at $39.95 that include required background checks, excluding employment history and local criminal records.
Where to Get a Colorado Local Criminal Background Check
If your landlord requires a local criminal background check, you can get it from RTenant for $20.95.
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