Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Policies for guests on Property

[Douglas G. Larson (ddhle]

>>Another question - there is a groundswell within our group in favor of
background checks for future residents and renters. Given that, what are the
policies of your communities regarding checks on >>guests on your
properties? If there's something we're missing with checks on residents you
can address that too.

There are good points on both sides of this question. Here is our policy and
my opinion.

 1)  Our community does background checks on all people applying for
associate status and for prospective owners as well. We inform the person
beforehand that we will be doing the background check. In the state of
Washington (where we live) any citizen can obtain a background check on
anyone online. It costs $10. However, the information provided to ordinary
citizens requesting it is only about convictions of crimes in the state. It
doesn't show accusations, allegations nor any information about a trial that
resulted in an acquittal. Nor does it show anything that happened in another
state. Certain organizations in Washington (like schools, police) can
request all known information on an individual, not just convictions. 

 2)  Of the handful of background checks we have done nothing has ever come
up. I don't know what we would do if it did. 


>> I acknowledge people's need for safety.  Will background checks provide
that?

 3)  This is a good question. While I support our current policy for
background checks, I question whether or not it really provides any safety
to us.


 >> If you need a background check, you should discourage the person from
joining you

 4) Its unclear to me what this statement is saying. 
    Does it mean -    a) that anyone who needs or thinks they need a
background check on someone else shouldn't be inviting new members or guests
or anyone else into their community. 
    Or does it mean - b) If you somehow know you need a background check
before you actually do one, then the person being checked isn't safe to
invite into the community

    I have problems with both of these meanings. If the statement has some
other meaning I don't know what it is. 

 5) To address the original question, I don't see any need to do background
checks on guests for the following reasons
    a) Every guest has a resident host who invited them. We trust the host
to know enough about the guest to invite them.
    B) Since guests arrive in a very ad hoc way it isn't practical or in
most cases even possible to do background checks on them since you need
information from them to do one (full legal name, Date 
       of birth, drivers license number, etc.).
    c) We do get strangers that come unannounced and uninvited at times.
Most of these are postal workers, delivery people, maintenance workers that
have been hired (and thus invited). We don't do 
       background checks on these people, nor could we easily, nor would I
want to if we could. 


 6) Finally, what does a background check policy say about a community? To
me it says the community is serious about the safety of its residents. Does
it actually provide that safety? Maybe not, but 
    it does provide a way for the residents to make an attempt at due
diligence. 


Doug Larson,
Songaia Cohousing,
Bothell, Washington