How to Do a Background Check on The Person You're Dating

In today's day and age, finding a trustworthy person to enter a relationship with is difficult. You never know if that person has a record or does drugs. It is a good thing to do a background check on a person, before entwining your lives together. You can hire a company to do a background check, or you can do one yourself. If you do a background check yourself, you will not be able to access all the information that an investigator or a background check company has access to.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

1. Go to the website for your local police and sheriff. Search by the person's name or any other names he or she may use. Go to the state's department of corrections website and complete the same search. Check the National Child Molester database.

2. Check for listings of the person at the property appraiser's web site and the tax collector's websites. If these places have not put their records online, you will need to go to the recording office and the tax office to search for property listings and tax listings.

3. Check for business listings at the Secretary of State's office. There are many searches, including but not limited to UCC filings and business ownership filings that can be done, usually online, at the Secretary of State's office.

4. Check the name at the Clerk of Court. Many clerks are now online. You will need to check the different branches of the clerk-circuit court, criminal court, probate court and so on. If the court records are not online (the docket is usually sufficient), you will have to go to the clerk's office and request a search on the person's name.

5. Check the same records in other states, if you know this person moved to your state within the past ten years.

Tips & Warnings

• Do complete searches using variations of the spelling of the person's name.
• If it is imperative that you "get this right," you need to call an investigator or a company that specializes in doing background checks. You will not be able to get all the records you need by doing your own search. Often, criminal records online only go back for a few years. Sometimes they are not online at all.