Background Screening

This month’s RSI Newsletter features some updates about data purging, the difference between a hard and soft credit inquiry, changes to the “Rush Fee” used by some of our clients and a legal update and report completion times.
Data Purging Recent changes in the legal climate have made data security more important than ever. To limit application information from possible exposure, RSI has begun to purge old data from the RSI website. Reports that are older than five years will be removed from the system and will not show up in the system. If you are involved in any type of legal action with an applicant RSI can put a specific report on a litigation hold. This will preserve the report if the five-year mark is approaching. 
RSI Rush Fee Rental Services, Inc. has offered a “Rush Fee” for several years. This service was established to help clients who found themselves in a situation that required an application to be processed immediately. When this program was started back in the 90’s we c…

Rental Services, Inc. is proud to announce that we’ve entered into a strategic partnership with a leading property management software company. This partnership allows RSI to offer cloud-based property management software to each of our clients.

RSI Property Management Software provides solutions to various aspects of property management.
When using the RSI Property Management Software, all monthly charges and late fees are automatically billed to the tenant. There is no need for Manager involvement or potential for human error on recurring charges. RSI Property Management Software ensures that your tenants are being billed accurately. Tenants are automatically billed based on your customized rules ensuring late fees are applied.
Post vacancies to popular website like Apartments.com, Apartment Finders, Apartment Living, Rent Jungle and Oodle.
Track work orders and maintenance requests online from the web-based control panel.
Let Tenants pay rent online using their smart phones or c…

Recently, I was asked how Rental Services, Inc. spots fake pay stubs during the verification process? That’s an easy question to answer. At RSI we don’t use a pay stub to verify an applicant’s income.



 Todays technology makes the reproduction of a document far too easy. A devious applicant doesn’t need special computer skills to create a document that looks like the real thing. The pay stub pictured above was created in about five minutes using basic tools found on most computers.
 How can this trickery be perpetrated? Here is your lesson in document forgery.
Using Google, I searched for a free pay stub template and selected Images at the top of the result page. Several images of paystubs were available, and I selected one that had the best image quality. Saving the photo on my computer I used the program Paint. This program comes standard with Microsoft Windows. Using the add text option in Paint I filled in random wage information. Yes, it’s that easy to create a fake document. I …

If you do not currently conduct background checks on prospective employees, it’s not too late to start.
 Outsourcing background checks gives you the ability to make better use of time and resources. This is especially true for smaller companies with limited staff and resources. Getting new hires on board quickly and in a timely manner is important. Using a professional background screening company makes it possible for you to focus on operating your company. Spend more time marketing, making sales and completing more projects.
 Professional background screening is affordable. Basic screening packages start at $35 and include a social security trace, county of residence criminal record, nationwide criminal search and multi-state sexual offender search.
 RSI provides custom packages to fit every companies need.

Back in March of 2015 Equifax, Experian and TransUnion launched a website, http://NationalConsumerAssistancePlan.com. This website was setup to inform consumers about the implementation of the National Consumer Assistance Plan. This mission of the NCAP was to make credit reports more accurate and easier for consumers to correct mistakes found on their credit report. This sounds great, but it has had a negative impact on property owners conducting background checks.
 On July 1, 2017, Equifax, Experian and TransUnion began to exclude most public tax lien and all civil judgment information that didn’t meet the new NCAP standards. The new standard requires each credit bureau to remove records that did not include a person’s name, address and either a Social Security number or date of birth. It also requires Equifax, Experian and TransUnion to verify public record information by visiting court houses every 90 days. When you remove tax lien and civil judgment information from a consumer c…

Did you know that 30% of the population in the United States have a criminal record? That translates to 92 million people with criminal records that are in the workforce. Is one working for you right now?
 Have you tried to stay current with state and federal regulations that pertain to the use of background checks and understand the adverse action and record dispute processes? Failure to comply with state and federal regulations could put you at odds with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).
 Does your company pride itself on being customer-responsive? This “customer first” mentality is great for business but if you’re not being customer-responsible and screening employees, you could greatly increase your liability for a negligent hiring lawsuit. The average negligent hiring lawsuit can cost a company nearly $1 million with the highest settlement on record of $26.5 million.
 Today it’s imperative that businesses of any size run pre-employment background checks. This …