Note The library cannot tell you what the law means for your situation.
Under the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), arrest records cannot be reported after seven years. Criminal convictions, however, can be reported indefinitely under this law.
Texas and several other states have laws to limit how long a criminal conviction can be reported. However, many of these laws are preempted because they contradict with the federal law.
Arrests and convictions on your record will often make the job hunt more difficult since most employers conduct background checks on their potential employees.
Texas law provides some protections to job applicants by prohibiting reports conducted by consumer reporting agencies to include criminal history information older than 7 years in their reports.
The federal Fair Credit Reporting Act provides similar protection, but there are some exceptions to this "7-year" rule.
When someone applies to rent a home, landlords will often run a background check on the applicant. Landlords can buy these background check reports from a consumer reporting company. You might also hear them called "tenant screening reports."
These reports will have information on the applicant's rental history (including evictions), credit history, and their criminal history. These reports will often include a computer-generated score or a recommendation to accept or reject an applicant.
These background checks are considered a type of consumer report and as such are regulated by the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA).
Landlords generally make their own decisions about renting to people with a criminal history. Some federally-assisted housing programs have restrictions from renting to people with a criminal history.
Landlords often provide an applicant with notice of their "tenant selection criteria" at the same time as the rental application. This notice will give a list of reasons why an applicant may be rejected by the landlord. This notice will likely state the landlord's policy on criminal history. It may also list what type of prior activity they've decided may cause an application to get rejected.
If the landlord rejects an applicant without providing the tenant selection criteria notice, they must return the application fee and any application deposit.
Most federal housing providers prohibit landlords from renting to tenants with criminal histories. This includes lifetime registered sex offenders as well as those with certain drug or violent crime convictions.
They are allowed to set their own time period for how far back they will look into someone's criminal history. However, federal regulations state it must be limited to a reasonable time before the screening process.
If an applicant is denied housing based on information found in a background check, the FRCA requires the landlord to provide them with a notice.
This notice may be referred to as an "Adverse Action Notice." The notice may be given in writing, orally, or electronically. The notice must contain the contact information for the company who provided the report so the applicant can request a copy.
Besides looking at court records discussed on the Texas Court Records and Federal Court Records pages, you can also find information about a person's criminal history in specialized databases. They often include entries from publicly available court records and arrests.
This section lists several criminal history records databases, with a focus on Texas records. The Criminal History Records FAQs from the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) answers many questions about criminal history checks.
Many private companies offer online background check services for a fee. They may include information about a person's criminal history, education, employment, traffic violations, and more.
Note The library cannot tell you what the law means for your situation.