How to Run a Background Check: Consent, Records, and Adverse Action

To run a background check on someone, you need a legally recognized reason to pull the report, the subject’s identifying information, and — for employment, housing, or credit purposes — the subject’s signed written consent before you order anything. From there, you submit the request to a state criminal records agency, the FBI, or a private screening company, review the results against what federal law allows to appear, and follow the Fair Credit Reporting Act’s adverse-action steps if you plan to make a negative decision based on what you find.

Confirm You Have a Permissible Purpose

Federal law does not let just anyone pull a consumer report. Under the FCRA, a consumer reporting agency can release a report only when the requester has a permissible purpose: evaluating someone for credit, employment, insurance underwriting, tenancy, a government benefit that requires a financial-responsibility review, or reviewing an existing account.¹

Curiosity about a neighbor, an ex, or a stranger is not a permissible purpose. Pulling a report without one exposes you to statutory damages of up to $1,000 per violation, plus punitive damages and attorney’s fees.²

Gather the Identifiers You Need

A useful background check starts with accurate identifiers. Collect:

The subject’s full legal name, including middle names, suffixes, and any former names.
Date of birth, which separates the subject from other people with the same name.
Social Security number, the strongest single identifier for linking financial, criminal, and employment records to one person.
Residential history for the past seven to ten years, since criminal records are organized by jurisdiction and you need to know which counties and states to search.

Verify these against a government-issued photo ID before submitting your request. Mismatches slow searches down and can return results for the wrong person entirely.

Give Written Disclosure and Get Signed Consent

For employment background checks, the FCRA requires a specific paperwork sequence before you order the report.

First, give the applicant a written disclosure stating that a consumer report may be obtained. This disclosure has to sit in a standalone document that contains nothing else. You cannot bury it in a job application, an offer letter, or an employee handbook.¹

Second, get the applicant’s written authorization. That authorization can appear on the same standalone disclosure document, but you need the signature in hand before you request the report.¹

Willful violations carry statutory damages between $100 and $1,000 per violation, plus punitive damages and attorney’s fees.² Even negligent noncompliance creates liability for actual damages and attorney’s fees.³

Employers also need to certify to the reporting agency that they made the required disclosure and will follow adverse-action procedures if the report leads to a negative decision.¹

Choose Where to Pull the Records

The right source depends on how deep you need to go. Most requesters use one or more of the following.

State Criminal Record Repositories

Every state runs a centralized criminal history database, usually through a state bureau of investigation or department of justice. These agencies compile arrest and conviction data from local law enforcement.⁴ Most accept online requests. Name-based search fees generally run about $10 to $25, though the amount varies by state.

FBI Identity History Summary Checks

For a federal-level view, the FBI offers Identity History Summary Checks, commonly called rap sheets, drawing from federal arrest records and data submitted by participating state agencies. These are fingerprint-based. You submit prints electronically at a participating U.S. Post Office location or mail a completed fingerprint card. The fee is $18.⁵

Private Consumer Reporting Agencies

Private screening companies search multiple databases in one pass: criminal records, credit reports, employment history, education verification, and more. They are regulated under the FCRA and have to give subjects a way to dispute inaccuracies.⁶ Per-report pricing typically falls between $30 and $100 depending on the scope of the search package.

Sex Offender Registries

The Dru Sjodin National Sex Offender Public Website at nsopw.gov searches state, D.C., territorial, and tribal registries in real time, for free.⁷ Many screening companies include this automatically, but anyone can run it directly.

Submit the Request

Private screening companies and many government agencies accept requests through online portals where you upload the signed authorization and enter the subject’s identifiers. Electronic submissions typically return results within one to three business days.

Some checks require fingerprints, including FBI Identity History Summary Checks, state licensing screenings, and certain government employment checks. Live scan converts your prints into a digital file for immediate transmission. Live-scan fees commonly run about $50 to $125, usually covering both the provider’s service fee and state or federal processing charges.

Mailed paper submissions remain an option for agencies that require original signatures. Expect several weeks for turnaround. The FBI returns results by first-class mail for paper submissions, or electronically for online requests.⁵

Read the Report Knowing What Can Legally Appear

The FCRA limits how long most negative information can stay on a consumer report:

Bankruptcies: no more than 10 years after the order for relief.
Civil suits, civil judgments, and arrest records: no more than seven years from the date of entry, or until the governing statute of limitations expires, whichever is longer.
Collection accounts and charge-offs: no more than seven years from the date placed for collection.
Paid tax liens: no more than seven years after the date of payment.
Other adverse information: no more than seven years. Criminal convictions are the exception and can be reported indefinitely.⁸

These time limits do not apply when the report is being used for a credit transaction of $150,000 or more, a life-insurance policy of $150,000 or more, or employment at an annual salary of $75,000 or more.⁸ Some states go further than federal law, capping criminal-conviction reporting at seven years or restricting the use of arrest records that did not lead to a conviction. Check your state’s rules.

Follow Adverse-Action Steps Before Acting on Bad Results

If the report makes you want to reject an applicant, deny a tenant, or otherwise take a negative step, you cannot just do it. The FCRA imposes a two-step process.

Pre-Adverse-Action Notice

Before you make a final decision, give the subject a copy of the report and a document titled “A Summary of Your Rights Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act.”⁹ That gives the person time to flag errors. The FCRA does not fix an exact waiting period; five business days is common practice.

Final Adverse-Action Notice

If you proceed with the negative decision, send a final adverse-action notice that includes:

The name, address, and phone number of the reporting agency that provided the report.
A statement that the reporting agency did not make the decision and cannot explain the reasons for it.
Notice that the person can dispute the accuracy or completeness of any information in the report.
Notice that the person can request a free copy of the report from the agency within 60 days.¹⁰

Skipping either step exposes you to the same statutory damages, punitive damages for willful violations, and attorney’s fees that apply to other FCRA violations.²

If You Are the Subject: Disputing Errors

People who find mistakes in a report run on them can dispute inaccurate or incomplete information directly with the consumer reporting agency. The agency must conduct a free reinvestigation within 30 days of receiving the dispute.¹¹ That deadline can extend by 15 more days if the consumer submits new information during the initial 30-day window.

If the agency cannot verify the disputed item, it must promptly delete or correct the information and notify the company that furnished it. The agency then sends written notice of the results within five business days of finishing the reinvestigation.¹¹

Watch for Fair-Chance Timing Rules

Many jurisdictions restrict when you can ask about criminal history at all. The federal Fair Chance to Compete Act prohibits federal agencies and federal contractors from asking about criminal history before making a conditional offer of employment, with exceptions for positions requiring security clearances, sensitive national-security roles, and law enforcement.¹²

Beyond federal hiring, roughly 37 states and more than 150 cities and counties have adopted some form of fair-chance policy. About 15 of those states extend the restriction to private employers, requiring them to delay criminal-history questions until after an initial interview or conditional offer. If you hire across multiple locations, check each jurisdiction, because the timing of when you can run a criminal background check varies significantly.

Keep the Paperwork

The FCRA sets no specific retention period for background check documents, but the statute of limitations for FCRA claims is five years. Keeping signed disclosure forms, authorization forms, and copies of reports for at least that long is a practical safeguard against later disputes. Federal contractors typically face a two-year minimum retention requirement for hiring-related documents under equal-employment regulations. Most other employers must retain selection records for at least one year after the hiring decision.

Store consent forms, reports, and adverse-action notices in a secure file separate from general personnel records, with access limited to authorized personnel.

1
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 U.S. Code 1681b – Permissible Purposes of Consumer Reports
2
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 U.S. Code 1681n – Civil Liability for Willful Noncompliance
3
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 U.S. Code 1681o – Civil Liability for Negligent Noncompliance
4
Federal Bureau of Investigation. State Identification Bureau Listing
5
Federal Bureau of Investigation. Identity History Summary Checks Frequently Asked Questions
6
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 U.S.C. 1681 – Congressional Findings and Statement of Purpose
7
Dru Sjodin National Sex Offender Public Website. FAQs
8
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 U.S. Code 1681c – Requirements Relating to Information Contained in Consumer Reports
9
Federal Trade Commission. Using Consumer Reports: What Employers Need to Know
10
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 U.S. Code 1681m – Requirements on Users of Consumer Reports
11
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 U.S. Code 1681i – Procedure in Case of Disputed Accuracy
12
U.S. Department of the Treasury. The Fair Chance to Compete Act