New Bedford’s Public Safety Committee pushing to require landlords to criminally screen future tenants

The New Bedford City Council’s Committee on Public Safety and Neighborhoods researching the legality of requiring “all landlords to conduct criminal background checks on potential tenants prior to entering into rental/lease agreements with them.”

The following will be taken up this Thursday at the New Bedford City Council session:

REPORT, Committee on Public Safety and Neighborhoods, recommending that the City Council request that Legislative Counsel Attorney David Gerwatowski look into whether or not the City can require all landlords to conduct criminal background checks on potential tenants prior to entering into rental/lease agreements with them; and furthermore, if it is legal to do so, that he submit recommendations for amending the Problem Properties Ordinance accordingly.