We Background Checked 250 Businesses. Here's What We Found.

We built Vett.us to answer a simple question: is this business going to scam me?

To test our system, we ran background checks on 250 businesses across 36 states — contractors, home warranty companies, property managers, movers, daycares, auto shops, mortgage lenders, and more. We checked each one against court records, consumer complaints, Google Reviews, news coverage, Reddit discussions, state licensing databases, and web presence.

Then we graded them A through F.

The results surprised us.

The Big Picture

Out of 250 businesses:

10% earned an A (clean records across the board)
47% earned a B (generally solid, minor concerns)
9% earned a C (mixed signals)
32% earned a D (significant red flags found)
1 earned an F
5 were permanently closed

Nearly 1 in 3 businesses we checked had significant concerns — active lawsuits, patterns of consumer complaints, poor review scores, or regulatory actions. These aren't fly-by-night operations. Many are national brands with thousands of employees.

The Industries That Scored Worst

Home Warranty Companies: 8 out of 10 Got a D

This was the most consistent pattern in our data. The companies that promise to protect your home investment are themselves riddled with red flags.

Common findings: court records showing consumer disputes, consistently negative review patterns, and complaints about denied claims and unresponsive service. If you're buying a home warranty, this data should give you pause.

Property Management: 19 out of 23 Got a D

The largest property management companies in America — the ones managing millions of rental units — scored terribly. Only 2 out of 23 earned a B. If you're signing a lease, you might want to check who actually manages the building.

Mortgage Lenders: Half Got D's

The pattern here was striking: the largest, most heavily advertised mortgage lenders scored worst. The mid-size lenders with less name recognition scored best. Brand awareness and advertising budgets apparently don't correlate with clean public records.

The Irony: Contractor Vetting Platforms Failed Their Own Background Check

This was the finding that stopped us in our tracks.

The three largest platforms that claim to screen contractors for homeowners all earned a D. These are household names — the companies you see advertised on every "how to hire a contractor" article online.

Between the three of them, we found:

Google ratings averaging 1.2 to 1.3 out of 5 stars
Dozens of federal court filings, many from 2025 alone
An FTC settlement for deceptive practices
Class-action lawsuits from both consumers and contractors
Consistent complaints about fake leads, billing disputes, and unresponsive service

Think about that for a moment. These are the companies homeowners trust to tell them which contractors are safe to hire. When someone tells you they "screen" contractors, maybe the first question should be: who's screening them?

Who Actually Scored Well?

The A-grade businesses had a few things in common:

They were mostly regional, not national. Local HVAC companies, plumbing shops, and roofing contractors dominated the A grades.
They had strong Google review scores — 4.5+ stars with hundreds of reviews.
They had clean court records — no lawsuits, no complaints.
They had active state licenses in good standing.

The takeaway: the businesses that scored best were the ones closest to their customers. Regional companies with real reputations to protect in their communities.

What Does This Mean For You?

If you're about to hire a contractor, sign a lease, choose a daycare, or hand money to any business you don't know personally — a Google search and a star rating isn't enough.

Star ratings don't show you lawsuits. They don't show you consumer complaints filed with federal agencies. They don't show you whether a business's license is active or expired. They don't show you patterns that only emerge when you look at all the data together.

We built Vett.us because we believe everyone deserves to know what they're getting into before they write the check. A background check costs $24.99. A bad contractor costs $1,700 on average — and sometimes much more.

Methodology

We selected 250 businesses across 36 states and multiple industries: home services (roofing, HVAC, plumbing, remodeling), property management, home warranties, moving companies, auto services, childcare/daycare, security, mortgage lending, and food service. Businesses were selected to include both national brands and well-known regional companies.

Each business was checked against multiple public data sources:

Court Records — Federal court databases for lawsuits, bankruptcies, liens, and judgments
Consumer Complaints — CFPB (Consumer Financial Protection Bureau) formal complaint database
Google Reviews — Customer ratings and review analysis
Google News — Recent news coverage for lawsuits, investigations, regulatory actions
Reddit — Community discussions, warnings, and mentions
State Licenses — Active/expired/revoked status in state licensing databases
Web Presence — Website status, domain age, social media, and trust signals

Grades are generated by AI analysis that weighs findings across all sources. An A means clean records across the board. A D means significant concerns were found in multiple sources. Reports were generated in March 2026.

Court record availability varies by jurisdiction. The absence of court records does not guarantee no cases exist. This analysis reflects publicly available data at the time of generation.