In an effort to align with best practices under the Fair Housing Act and other federal law, certain results are excluded from the background search report. Zillow places limits on what’s produced as part of the criminal search.
Criminal background reports are conducted by CIC, a third-party provider. Results are normally delivered instantly.
The criminal background report only includes convictions, and any arrests and non-convictions will not appear.
Background checks include public records searches of:
- Evictions
- National Background Search (30 million records)
- All homicide, sexual abuse, terrorism, or treason offenses
- All violent felonies
- All other felonies committed in the past 7 years
- All misdemeanors committed in the past 5 years (traffic, vehicle, and statutory misdemeanors excluded from search)
- National and State Sex Offender Database
- SSN trace
- Global Watchlist
The criminal background report only includes convictions, and any arrests and non-convictions will not appear. In some cases, background reports are modified to reflect state and local legal requirements.
Background checks do not Include:
- Traffic and vehicle misdemeanors (such as speeding tickets and parking offenses)
- Statutory misdemeanors (such as fish and game licensing and zoning offenses)
- County and state records searches
- Non-violent felonies older than 7 years (such as financial crimes or burglary)
- Non-violent misdemeanors older than 5 years (such as shoplifting or vandalism)
- Arrests that do not result in convictions
In some cases, application components, such as background checks or credit reports, are modified to reflect state and local legal requirements. If you have questions about the background check or the applications product in general, please contact rentalapplications@zillow.com.