Maybe I'm a bit paranoid, but there have just been SO MANY instances that I've seen in our local newspapers, etc. about folks who hired handymen, workers, etc. to do repairs only to have those people come back to rob their homes. Twice in the past couple/years they've actually murdered the homeowners. SO, I've started doing criminal checks on anyone we hire (before we hire them) to work in our house. It is free public information and generally you can find information on any active or past court cases. Thought some of you may be interested in keeping your home safe as well. I simply googled "criminal records" and put in my state name. Several options pop up, I page down to find one that is actually state run, choose the county/city where the person lives and go from there. I don't mind traffic violations, but if I see robbery, assault (with or without a deadly weapon), murder or the like, I hire someone else. My next door neighbor lost one of her best friends just a few miles from here when she hired a house painter who came back in the dead of night, strangled and robbed her. Totally creepy.

 

I knew that their are websites where you pay for this information, but I didn't know that you get it online free. I mentioned to you about a neighbor that was robbed at gun point, so yes the crime rates are definately up. You are not paranoid, my wife is the same way, she doesn't like anyone in the house she doesn't know.

 

I like to think I'm not paranoid! Reading the crime reports in the paper and seeing how many people (they call them "elderly") our age are targets of "handymen" that have been trusted to do work around the house, really bother me. +1 and I decided that even if we had to pay, we'd look these people up before hiring them. I found that we don't have to pay to look up public information. In South Carolina there is a website maintained by the State and I have that one bookmarked. All I have to do is click on the county I want to search, use the person's last name and voila, it all turns up -- even traffic tickets. I read someplace that just about every state has a website since this is public information. I may not be able to weed out all the criminals, but I certainly don't want to hire a known rapist, killer or thief and grant them entry into my home.

 

Interesting, Val. A little caution is never a bad thing.

I've been fortunate to hire people recommended by others. I've dealt with the same painter and plumber for years, and my kitchen/bath guy was an old friend of Ricks.

I've hired the same guy to work on outside stuff for a long time.

Unfortunately, you can't always be sure of the workers they may bring with them. Help is hard to find and they may "settle" on the less desirable people.

 

Val, good advice. Before I hired the person I've been using the past five years I inspected two of the most recent jobs he had done and spoke with the owners. He was recommended to me by a personal friend, who was a part-time builder. Even so, I did not take that at face value. I checked his work, researched him on the internet and looked up his records at both county and state level.

 

Thanks for passing this information on. I've found the website for Kentucky and I have also bookmarked it.

 

One of the more challenging things about moving has been finding good/reliable people to fix things. We live in such a small little village that there are few businesses here that do such things. Angie's List is pretty much always a bust since few business down here are listed. Now when we find someone the first thing we do is criminal checks. Its kind of sad, but since we are so near a resort community that attracts grifters and scammers, its the only way we know to protect ourselves.

 

I mostly use referrals or deal with established reputable contractors who have a good business history and I check them out on the BBB. We have a local newsletter which recommends handyman type services and the gal who publishes it does a background check on anyone she recommends. Too many elderly in this area who put their trust in strangers and get burned. Very sad. This is a bad time of year with the holidays approaching and people out of work. Lots of break-ins so be cautious.

 

At Robson Ranch, where we live, we have a good message board that give some very frank reviews of the quality of work done by contractors. It is always our first stop when we need some special work done around the house. With over 1200 home owners posting you can find just about any type of contractor.

 

The latest crime wave here in Louisville is people getting their cars broken into. There have been several instances, especially at malls after dark, where people leave valuable's in plain sight.