Performing a Texas Background Check

How to Run a Texas Background Check

Running a Texas background check can be a important step in truly understanding someone, as they include a lot of information about their past. Whether you're an employer hiring new staff, a landlord screening potential tenants, or an individual checking on someone's background, understanding the process is important.

There are different types of background check that can be run, one being official and the other unofficial. In this guide, we will highlight the process of how to conduct a Texas background check. We'll cover the types of checks available, the legal requirements, and how to interpret the results.

The first step in running a check on someone is to determine what it will be used for. This is a very important step as there are legal requirements that need to be adhered to with official reports. Where, if you merely want to do some personal research on someone, which is totally fine, there are no requirements or permissions needed.

Understanding Background Checks

A background check is a process that involves researching and compiling criminal, commercial, and financial records of an individual. Some resources will show much more detailed information about a person's past. What information you receive will be determined by what resource you are using and for what reasons.

Official checks are often used by employers, landlords, and other entities to assess an individual's qualifications for employment, rental agreements, and more. These official reports need to be performed by a government agency, or an FCRA certified service. This official process involves verifying someone's identity through either a driver's license, social security number, birth certificate, or fingerprinting.

Unofficial checks can be run through any third party public records site that offers these reports. These sites are typically not FCRA certified and intended for people to use them as reference only. This means that the reports you obtain from these resources cannot be used for any official purposes such as hiring someone, or verifying their credit worthiness. The benefits of using these types of services is that your reports are fast and inexpensive, and you'll have instant access. They also cost quite a bit less than official reporting, and you do not need permission to access these.

What Does a Texas Criminal Background Check Include?

The most common type is a Texas criminal background check. This check reveals an individual's criminal history, including any arrests, criminal court cases, convictions, traffic violations, sentencings, incarcerations, and active arrest warrants. These are often referenced for employment hiring, tenant applications, security clearances, and travel documents such as passports. These can also be requested for personal reasons as well.

How Long Do Background Checks Take in Texas?

The time frame of receiving someone's background report can vary quite a bit depending on whether it is an official or unofficial check. The unofficial checks can be almost instant using third party public record sites. Where as official background reports can take several days to verify the information and that person's identity. If you need to only verify someone's criminal history, or other publicly available information then you can access these records online without having to wait. For example, a criminal history check from the TX Department of Public Safety typically takes a few days.

How Far Back Does a Texas Background Check Go?

These reports can go back indefinitely, depending on the criminal records that person has. A felony such as aggravated assault will stay on someone's record for life where smaller misdemeanors may drop off after a few years. It is also important to note that if someone has a record sealed or expunged, this will also not show up on their record. As a general rule of thumb, a non-felony criminal record will stay on for up to 7 years, which is a statute of limitations for smaller crimes.

How Much Do Background Checks Cost in Texas?

The cost for running an official check, or criminal history report, can cost anywhere from $25 to $100 depending on which service you are using. If you decide to run a criminal history report from the state, this will only cost around $25. However, if you need to run a comprehensive pre-employment TX background check that includes fingerprinting, this can cost quite a bit more. Privately run third-party databases do offer inexpensive solutions that can cost as little as $15 but these are only intended to view online for reference only and cannot be used in an official capacity.

Once you have verified the report belongs to the correct person, then you can scan the report for information. Most of these checks are broken down into categories such as; criminal records, court records, arrests, warrants, and jail and prison records. They might also have a section for judgments and liens, address history, known relatives, phone numbers and email addresses. Additionally they might include vital records such as it their birth record, marriage record, divorce records, and sometimes death records.

Do Pending Charges Show Up on a Texas Background Check?

It is possible that pending charges can show up on a someone's report. This may include an arrest record where they have not formally been convicted yet of that crime, or if there is an active arrest or bench warrant. While these may not be official criminal records until that person is convicted in court, they still might show up under that person's criminal history.

Interpreting The Results

Interpreting the results of any information you obtain online can be complicated at times. First, you want to verify your information matches the intended person you are researching. If you are using an official service this is not usually an issue since you typically need to use that person's SSN, driver's license, or fingerprint. Unofficial services will need a bit more due-diligence as sometimes people share the same first and last name. If this is the case, where you are using an unofficial service, the best way to confirm you have the correct person is by their date of birth, address, phone number, or know relatives.