Hamilton County Clerk of Courts will soon remove older evictions from online search

A new initiative by the Hamilton County Clerk of Courts aims to remove an obstacle standing in the way of some residents obtaining housing.

Beginning May 2, the Clerk’s Office online search will no longer show inactive evictions older than three years.

In a release, Hamilton County Clerk of Courts Pavan Parikh said evictions remain a stain on a tenant’s record that is nearly impossible to erase, even if a tenant made good on the obligations.

This new policy aims to prevent old eviction cases from hindering tenants who are attempting to find new housing.

The older eviction cases will not be viewable online, but they remain on file in the Clerk’s Office and are open to the public.

The hope is with older eviction case records removed from the online search, thousands of records, which could no longer reflect a tenant’s financial situation, will not easily pop up and influence landlords or other screeners.

This new policy still allows landlords to properly screen tenants, but aims to protect tenants from those landlords or screeners who are trying to take the easy way out, Parikh said.

Nick DiNardo, managing attorney of the housing practice group at Legal Aid Society of Greater Cincinnati, said the organization is pleased with the change.

“We think this new policy reaches a proper balance between a tenant’s opportunity to have their rental application judged fairly and a landlord’s right to screen prospective tenants,” DiNardo said.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Hamilton County Clerk of Courts to remove older evictions from search