The facts help you guide your business to success.

Let the facts protect you from disaster:

Employment:

• Small businesses are the most vulnerable to occupational fraud and abuse. The average scheme in a small business causes $127,500 in losses. The average scheme in the largest companies costs $97,000.
• MSN Money found that 9 out of 10 large employers are now investigating applicants.
• The number of background checks performed in the U.S. is increasing by 26% a year.
• 30% of all small business failure is caused by employee theft, according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
• The National Association of Professional Background Screeners reports that U.S. businesses lose $120 billion a year in employee theft.
• The U.S. Department of Justice estimates that nearly 2 million violent crimes occur in the workplace each year.
• The average award in a workplace violence lawsuit exceeds $1 million per case, according to the Workplace Violence Research Institute.
• The Wall Street Journal reports that on average, at least half of all new hires “don’t work out.”  WSJ also reports that 34 percent of all applications contain lies about education, experience, and/or the ability to perform essential job functions.

Tenants:

• Consumers have over $2 trillion in outstanding credit with over 1.3 million filing for bankruptcy. Recently, this amount has been increasing at a rate of over 4.4% annually.
• Over 30% of civil litigation involves contract disputes such as evictions
• It takes one to two months to formally evict a person, sometimes longer.  With rental rates averaging $500 to $1,500 per month for a standard two bedroom unit, that’s $1,000 to $3,000 in lost revenue.
• There are over 500,000 registered sex offenders nationwide.  It is essential to carefully screen potential tenants for the safety of the apartment complex residents and their children.
• Problem tenants often damage your property, particularly upon the filing of an eviction proceeding. They know that the damage can well exceed their deposit, and they will willingly sacrifice the deposit to spite a property owner.
• A responsible landlord needs to reduce skips and evictions, reduce risks and costs associated with collections, lost rent, vacancy and property misuse and damage, and reduce risk of fraudulent tenants and lawsuits due to negligence.
• To help identify a conscientious rental candidate, there are four main criteria all landlords should screen tenants for: 1. Credit History; 2. Criminal History; 3. Rental History; and 4. Sufficient Income.

The buck stops with you

As an employer or as a human resources professional, you have to make vital decisions about potential or current employees in a limited amount of time. You may also have to comply with a bewildering variety of state and federal regulations regarding safety and privacy. And you have a business to run!

Here’s one last fact—knowing the truth before an employee becomes a problem can save you from:

• Lost productivity
• Damaged reputation
• Material theft
• Criminal operations
• Liability costs
• Training losses

As a landlord, property owner or property manager, you have to make important decisions about potential tenants.  Landlords who fail to carefully screen tenants and maintain consistent policies regarding their screening process are only asking for trouble.

Our Defender Series™ computerized search packages are customized by industry and further refined to meet your needs. They are fast, accurate, discreet, and cost effective, with access to billions of records through hundreds of thousands of databases in 50 states and 200 countries. They can even be performed by you or your representative on our state-of-the-art web search interface, saving you time when you need the facts fast.

Call us now at 858-592-4191 or complete the Contact Us form for more information and a free needs assessment.