Eviction records are essentially just civil court cases filed by landlords against tenants to regain possession of a rental property because they violated the terms of a lease agreement.
In order to find out if such a case has ever been filed against someone, there are two options:
Option 1: If you know where the case would have been filed, you can search the public records found on the Clerk of the Court’s website for that jurisdiction (the county where the property is located).
Option 2: When you don’t know which jurisdiction to search or you want to cast a wide net to see what you can catch, services such as AmerUSA.com offer an instant statewide search for a minimal fee.
Important: Regardless of how you conduct your search, you need to make sure you are searching the correct first and last name. Minor discrepancies such as John or Jon can yield different results.
So when possible (especially before accepting a tenant), always ask to see the person’s government issued photo identification.