diff --git a/internal/praefect/config/config.go b/internal/praefect/config/config.go
index dd270edb5e581f616f8dfdaefa5f7eb30c70e2fe..6df903efbc8bd7edfa5b6b5a18a930b07eaaf380 100644
--- a/internal/praefect/config/config.go
+++ b/internal/praefect/config/config.go
@@ -92,7 +92,10 @@ type BackgroundVerification struct {
 
 // DefaultBackgroundVerificationConfig returns the default background verification configuration.
 func DefaultBackgroundVerificationConfig() BackgroundVerification {
-	return BackgroundVerification{VerificationInterval: duration.Duration(7 * 24 * time.Hour)}
+	return BackgroundVerification{
+		VerificationInterval: duration.Duration(7 * 24 * time.Hour),
+		DeleteInvalidRecords: true,
+	}
 }
 
 // Reconciliation contains reconciliation specific configuration options.
diff --git a/internal/praefect/config/config_test.go b/internal/praefect/config/config_test.go
index 68e24b6a8802f2549b1d04626d4e1df6c7b2993b..1ed5e0cd9194da1330abcced9ee8f419e340badd 100644
--- a/internal/praefect/config/config_test.go
+++ b/internal/praefect/config/config_test.go
@@ -345,7 +345,7 @@ func TestConfigParsing(t *testing.T) {
 				},
 				BackgroundVerification: BackgroundVerification{
 					VerificationInterval: duration.Duration(24 * time.Hour),
-					DeleteInvalidRecords: true,
+					DeleteInvalidRecords: false,
 				},
 				Yamux: Yamux{
 					MaximumStreamWindowSizeBytes: 1000,
diff --git a/internal/praefect/config/testdata/config.toml b/internal/praefect/config/testdata/config.toml
index a3112a9f2d8db1ab5cd0018d5bde7342ab32b7f8..9c109a92026eca54969274d907ca3f0cc0af48b5 100644
--- a/internal/praefect/config/testdata/config.toml
+++ b/internal/praefect/config/testdata/config.toml
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ graceful_stop_timeout = "30s"
 
 [background_verification]
 verification_interval = "24h"
-delete_invalid_records = true
+delete_invalid_records = false
 
 [replication]
 batch_size = 1