If you’ve ever approved a tenant based on a gut feeling and a quick phone call with their last landlord, you’re not alone. We talk to owners all the time who’ve done exactly that. And a surprising number of them end up in our office six months later trying to figure out how to start an eviction. Getting the tenant screening process right before you hand over a set of keys is one of the highest-leverage things you can do as a rental property owner.
This post is for landlords who are either running screenings themselves or considering a management company and want to understand what a real background check actually involves. We’ll cover what to pull, what to look for, where landlords get tripped up legally, and what a bad placement actually costs you in the Salt Lake City market.
In This Guide
- What “Background Check” Actually Means
- Know What You’re Legally Allowed to Use
- Set Your Screening Criteria Before You Read a Single Application
- The Criminal History Question Is More Complicated Than You Think
- Income and Employment Verification Deserve More Attention
- Why Eviction History Is Its Own Separate Check
- The Real Cost of Rushing a Placement
- What Professional Screening Actually Looks Like
- If Self-Screening, Here’s a Checklist in Plain English
What “Background Check” Actually Means
Most landlords say “background check” when they really mean they ran a credit report. Those are not the same thing.
A complete background check for a rental applicant typically covers credit history, nationwide criminal records, eviction history, and identity verification. Credit alone doesn’t tell you whether someone has been evicted twice in the past three years. And in Utah, eviction filings are publicly searchable through CORIS, the state’s online court records system. We’ve seen owners skip that step entirely because they didn’t know the resource existed. That oversight has cost some of them $3,500 to $5,000 in legal fees when the tenant’s pattern repeated itself.
So when someone asks how to run a background check, the honest answer is: you need all four components, not just one.
Know What You’re Legally Allowed to Use
Before you pull a single report, understand the rules that govern what you can do with it.
The Fair Credit Reporting Act applies to every landlord, everywhere. If you use a consumer reporting agency to screen an applicant and you deny them based on something in that report, you’re required to send a written adverse action notice within 72 hours. That notice needs to include the name of the reporting agency, the applicant’s right to dispute the report, and a statement that the agency didn’t make the decision.
One owner we worked with ran a basic credit check through a free consumer service before coming to us. When the tenant they denied later disputed the decision in writing, the owner had no defensible paper trail and was facing a potential fair housing inquiry. The problem wasn’t the decision to deny. The problem was using a tool that wasn’t FCRA-compliant for tenant screening in the first place.
Get a compliant tool. Document everything. Keep it on file.
Set Your Screening Criteria Before You Read a Single Application
This is the step most self-managing landlords skip, and it creates real legal exposure.
You need written, consistent criteria in place before any application comes in. Income-to-rent ratio, minimum credit score, eviction history, criminal history assessment. All of it. In writing. Before you read application one.
Here’s why this matters in Utah specifically. Salt Lake City has no local rent control or just-cause eviction ordinance, which gives landlords more flexibility in setting criteria. But inconsistent application of those criteria is the number one source of fair housing complaints in the state. If you approve one applicant at 2.5x the monthly rent in income and require 3x from the next applicant, that’s a textbook fair housing problem, even if the intent wasn’t discriminatory. A first-offense HUD complaint can start at $16,000 per violation and require you to cover the complainant’s legal fees on top of that.
The 3x gross monthly income threshold is standard around here. On a unit renting at $1,800 a month, that means requiring $5,400 a month in verifiable income. Standard. Documented. Applied to every applicant.
The Criminal History Question Is More Complicated Than You Think
A lot of owners come to us thinking a clean “no felonies ever” policy is the safest approach. It’s actually a liability.
HUD guidance explicitly warns that blanket criminal history exclusions with no individualized assessment can constitute disparate impact discrimination under the Fair Housing Act. A smarter policy looks at the nature of the offense, how long ago it occurred, and whether it’s relevant to tenancy. Under the FCRA, most criminal records can go back seven years on a standard report, but arrests without convictions may not be reportable at all.
Document your reasoning for every application you deny. Write it down. The goal isn’t to approve everyone. The goal is to apply a consistent, documented standard that you can defend if it’s ever challenged.
Income and Employment Verification Deserve More Attention
Credit score gets all the attention. Income verification is where the real due diligence happens.
Our leasing agent Andres Fernandez caught a fraudulent pay stub during the verification step on a Salt Lake City application. He noticed it looked slightly off, cross-referenced the employer contact information directly, and confirmed the document had been altered. The unit sat empty four extra days while a qualified applicant was approved instead. Four days of vacancy versus a near-certain eviction situation. That math is pretty obvious.
Verify employment directly, not just through documents the applicant provides. Call the employer. Cross-check against the income stated on the application. Pay stubs are easy to alter and increasingly common as tools for application fraud in tight rental markets.
“A first-offense HUD complaint can start at $16,000 per violatio”
Why Eviction History Is Its Own Separate Check
A 680 credit score and two prior evictions are not mutually exclusive. This surprises a lot of owners the first time they hear it.
Credit scores don’t capture eviction records. Those live in court filings, not credit bureaus. In Utah, eviction filings are publicly searchable through CORIS. Nationally, you need a screening service that pulls multi-state eviction records, because a tenant with prior evictions in Nevada won’t show up in a Utah-only court search.
We worked with a townhome owner in the area who self-screened and approved a tenant with two prior evictions that appeared in out-of-state records. Those records never would have surfaced without a multi-state search. By the time Envy took over management of the property, the tenant was already 60 days into the lease. There were limited options at that point.
We run screening through AppFolio, which pulls from TransUnion and integrates criminal, eviction, and credit history into a single report. The full turnaround typically runs three to five business days. Applicants pay the screening fee directly, which in Salt Lake City generally runs $30 to $50, and that’s completely legal in Utah as long as actual costs are documented.
The Real Cost of Rushing a Placement
Let’s talk numbers, because this is where the logic becomes undeniable.
Utah’s unlawful detainer process runs roughly 30 to 60 days from notice to writ of execution. Add $3,500 to $5,000 in legal fees. Add the back rent you’re not collecting during that window. One owner came to us after approving a tenant based on a verbal reference from the applicant’s previous landlord. No written report, no eviction check. The tenant stopped paying at month three. By the time the process wrapped up, the owner had lost $4,200 in unpaid rent and spent $1,100 on court filing and attorney fees.
A fast approval is often a warning sign, not a win. The pressure to fill quickly is real in Salt Lake City, where rental market vacancy has hovered in the 5 to 7 percent range in recent years. But that pressure is exactly when screening shortcuts happen. Envy’s current vacancy rate sits at 8.66%, and that number reflects a deliberate approach: a few extra days of vacancy to screen correctly costs far less than one bad placement.
What Professional Screening Actually Looks Like
Nick Jensen and his wife started managing their own rental portfolio first, before ever taking on clients. The whole company is built around managing other people’s properties the same way they’d want their own handled. That shows up most clearly in how seriously the screening process is taken.
One client put it simply: “These folks know what they are doing and are very kind and efficient in every way. I have dealt with other property managers and there is no comparison.”
The 25% leasing fee covers the full placement process, including screening. Owners who try to handle this themselves and place the wrong tenant end up paying far more on the back end. The math just doesn’t favor the DIY approach when eviction costs are factored in.
If Self-Screening, Here’s a Checklist in Plain English
Run a FCRA-compliant credit and background report through a landlord-specific service. Pull eviction history through a multi-state database and verify with CORIS for Utah filings. Verify income directly with the employer, not just through applicant-provided documents. Set your criteria in writing before you read any application and apply them identically to everyone. Issue a written adverse action notice within 72 hours of any denial based on a report.
That’s the baseline. Every step skipped is a gap that costs money or creates legal exposure, sometimes both.
If running a thorough screening process feels harder than it should, we’re happy to talk through how we handle it.
FAQ
How much does a background check cost for a rental applicant in Utah?
In Salt Lake City, applicant-paid screening fees typically run between $30 and $50. Utah law allows landlords to charge applicants directly for screening costs as long as the actual costs are documented and disclosed upfront.
Can a landlord in Utah deny an applicant based on a criminal record?
Yes, but not through a blanket policy. HUD guidance warns that automatic exclusions based on criminal history with no individualized assessment can trigger fair housing liability. A stronger approach looks at the nature of the offense, how long ago it occurred, and its relevance to tenancy, then documents that reasoning in writing for every denial.
Do I have to tell an applicant why I denied them in Utah?
If the denial is based on information from a consumer report, yes. Federal FCRA guidelines require a written adverse action notice within 72 hours of the denial. The notice must name the reporting agency used and inform the applicant of their right to dispute the information.
What is the CORIS system and should I use it?
CORIS is Utah’s online court records system and it’s publicly accessible. It lets landlords search Salt Lake County eviction filings directly. It’s a useful verification step, but it only surfaces Utah filings. A multi-state eviction database is still necessary to catch out-of-state records.
Is a high credit score enough to approve a rental applicant?
No. Credit scores don’t include eviction records, which live in court filings rather than credit bureaus. An applicant can have a solid credit score and a history of prior evictions. Treating credit as a stand-in for full tenancy history is one of the more expensive screening shortcuts we see among self-managing owners.
What happens if I apply different screening criteria to different applicants in Utah?
Inconsistent criteria are the primary source of fair housing complaints in Utah. Even without discriminatory intent, applying a 2.5x income requirement to one applicant and 3x to the next can constitute a violation. First-offense HUD complaints can start at $16,000 per violation, plus the complainant’s legal fees.