Knowing more about the neighbors will make you feel safer when moving into a new community. What’s their job? Do they have criminal or traffic records? Is it safe for your children to be around them? Follow this guide to conduct an in-depth background check on your neighbors. It could help you answer all these questions and give you better insights into the people living next door.

Can you run a background check on your neighbor?

Yes. It’s 100% legal and reasonable. Whether out of curiosity or to protect your family from potential dangers, you can examine your neighbors’ background and check if they have a criminal history. 

In addition to evaluating the safety of your neighborhood, background checks are useful in many situations. It can help you reconnect with long-lost friends and check out prospective dates or anyone you’re dealing with online and offline. You can also run a self-check to see what public records that others may find about you.

How to run a background check on neighbor

Here are 3 effective methods to background check your neighbors confidentially. The person you’re looking for won’t be notified that they’re being searched unless stated otherwise.

Method 1 – Request public records

Public records including criminal and traffic records, arrest, and court records are available to everyone. To request this data, you could visit the local courthouse in person or access the state’s digitized databases online. If you don’t know exactly where to look, simply do a Google search on your state + criminal records.

If you don’t know the neighbor’s name, look through the county assessor’s office (or website) to learn who owns the property. But if the house is rented, you may not be able to find information about renters this way. Instead, you should reverse lookup the address to check both property owners and residents.

Scrapping through public sources is time-consuming and requires cumbersome requests. To save the hassle, you can try a dedicated background check tool.

Method 2 – Use a background check service

Simply by searching with your neighbor’s name or address, you could discover their phone, email address, job and education history, criminal and traffic records, associated social media profiles, and more, if available. Even if you don’t their exact names, you can start by searching your name to discover who’s living around you.

Option 1 – BeenVerified

BeenVerified is a powerful and convenient search tool that integrates several reverse lookup solutions in one place. You can search for an individual by name, phone number, email or address, and dig deeper.

1. Go to the BeenVerified homepage. 

2. Enter your name and click Search.

3. Unlock what BeenVerified finds about you. Scroll to the Neighbors section and you’ll see a list of names who’re likely to be your neighbors. Click View person report and you may obtain a wealth of information for you to know better about your neighbors.

Alternatively, you can run a reverse address lookup with BeenVerified. Simply enter the address and click Search.

The report will show the possible property owner, current & past residents, neighbors, and nearby sex offenders. Click the View Person Report button, and you could navigate to more details such as his/her name, age, criminal record, sex offender status, etc.

Option 2 – TruthFinder

TruthFinder® is one of the most reputable websites for comprehensive background checks. It trawls federal, state, and county records as well as the deepest corners of the web to offer you available public information on an individual. It’s quite intuitive to use:

1. Get your neighbor’s full name and go to the TruthFinder homepage.

2. Input the name and click Search.

Alternatively, you could search your name to see who’s living next to you. TruthFinder background reports can also display an interactive map of the sex offenders near your address.

3. The search takes around 5 minutes. When completed, you can select a report from the search results to view available information neatly in different sections. After paying for a membership plan, you can check out the available details.

Option 3 – Instant Checkmate

Instant Checkmate® is another great people search engine akin to TruthFinder. You can search to associated public records of any U.S. individuals with a name. Beyond basic information like phone number or email addresses, it can provide available data like criminal, traffic, arrest, incarceration, and sex offender records.

1. Go to the Instant Checkmate website. Feed in a name to get started.

2. Access an Instant Checkmate background report after you purchase a membership subscription.

Method 3 – Check National Sex Offender Registry

Location data of nationwide sex offenders is publicly disclosed by the U.S. Department of Justice. If you suspect your neighbor is a registered sex criminal or worry there are any sex offenders living in your neighborhood, use this safety resource to check.

1. Go to the National Sex Offender Public Website.

2. Search by name or location.

3. Within seconds, it will identify the matched sex offender and put together the person’s mugshots, age, aliases, and address.

Wrapping up

It makes sense to background check your neighbors especially if they’re acting suspiciously. If the check indicates that a neighbor may have a history of violence, theft, or other criminal activities, stay vigilant. Or you may take precautions like upgrading the home security system or tracking children with a parental control app. You can never be too careful when it comes to home safety.

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