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:
- Nationwide housing court records (35+ million records)
- National criminal record search (1.4+ billion records
- Sex offender registry
Background checks do not include:
- Traffic and vehicle infractions (such as speeding tickets and parking offenses)
- In-court county and state records searches
- Federal court searches
- Arrests that do not result in convictions
In some cases, background reports are modified to reflect state and local legal requirements. For more information on these requirements, see CIC's and Zillow's website. If you have questions about the background check or the applications product in general, please contact rentalapplications@zillow.com.