How to screen tenants: a landlord’s guide to choosing well (2026)

Blog, Landlords, Preparing to go to market

There’s a stack of applications in your inbox and one property to fill. Pick well and you might not hear a peep for years — rent on time, place looked after, easy renewals. Pick badly and you’re looking at arrears, damage, stress and possibly a tribunal hearing. When you manage your own rental, there’s no property manager doing this part for you. The good news: choosing a good tenant isn’t guesswork, and it isn’t luck. It’s a repeatable process — part careful checking, part knowing what the law lets you do — and both halves are on you.

This guide walks through the whole job: how to screen tenants properly, what actually makes a good one, and how to do it without tripping over anti-discrimination or privacy law (which changed in 2026). It’s written for landlords doing it themselves.

Quick note: this is general information, not legal advice. Anti-discrimination and tenancy rules vary by state and change over time. Where it matters, we’ve linked the regulators so you can confirm the detail for your situation.

What actually makes a good tenant?

Strip away the gut feel and a good tenant is someone who can comfortably afford the rent, has a track record of paying it on time, looks after the property, and communicates when something comes up. That’s it. Everything you check is just evidence for those four things — and, importantly, none of them has anything to do with what someone looks like, where they’re from, whether they have kids, or how they earn their income.

Keep that list in front of you. It’s also your best legal protection: if every decision you make traces back to affordability, history and property care, you’re screening on legitimate grounds, not on a hunch that could land you a discrimination complaint.

How to screen a tenant, step by step

Here’s the process to run on every application — the same way, every time. Consistency is what makes it both fair and defensible.

Verify identity. Collect government photo ID (licence or passport) and check the name and date of birth match the application and the person who inspected. Store it securely and delete it once you no longer need it (more on that under privacy below).
Confirm income. For employees, ask for the last two payslips (or a contract plus one payslip if they’ve just started). For self-employed applicants, a recent tax return, an accountant’s letter, or BAS/bank statements. Sense-check that the numbers line up.
Check rental history. Ask for the rental ledger from their current or most recent tenancy. You’re looking for on-time payments, a returned bond, and clean exit notes.
Run tenancy database checks (with consent). A check against the National Tenancy Database (NTD) and TICA can flag arrears or tribunal orders from past tenancies. Always get the applicant’s consent first.
Call references — and check they’re genuine. Ask the previous landlord or agent the specifics: was rent paid on time, was the place looked after, why are they leaving? Ask an employer to confirm role and income. And verify the referee is who they claim — look the agency up yourself and call its public office number, rather than trusting a phone number or email supplied on the application. Fake references are one of the most common tricks going.
Assess affordability. A common guide is rent at or below 30% of gross household income — so a household on $2,000 a week could comfortably manage about $600. Treat it as a guide, not a wall: strong savings or stable dual incomes can change the picture.
Compare applicants on the same criteria. Score them on the things that matter — affordability, rental history, references, database results — and use objective tie-breakers (move-in date, lease term) only when two applicants are otherwise even.

What our team sees “The most common mistakes are not running tenancy database checks, and not checking references thoroughly. A lot of applicants list friends or owners as a referee and slip through. Verifying real estate agents’ email addresses is crucial: some applicants put in their own or a bogus email, then submit a written reference with five stars and glowing feedback that’s completely fake.” — Chenelle Moothedom, Senior Agent, PropertyNow

If you’d rather not chase payslips and references yourself, an online rental application system collects and organises most of this for you — but the judgement at the end stays yours.

The legal side every landlord has to get right

This is the part most “how to pick a tenant” guides skip — and it’s the part that can cost you. As a DIY landlord you’ve quietly taken on two legal duties an agent would normally manage: not discriminating, and handling personal information properly. Get them wrong and a knock-back can turn into a complaint, regardless of how good your reasons were.

What you can and can’t ask a rental applicant

A clean way to stay on the right side of the line:

Lawful to ask / assess:

Proof of identity
Income and ability to pay the rent
Rental history and references
Whether they can care for and maintain the property
The number of people who’ll live there (for occupancy limits) and whether they have pets

Unlawful to ask or base a decision on (protected attributes):

Race, ethnicity or nationality
Sex, gender identity or sexual orientation
Age
Disability, illness or health condition
Marital or relationship status, pregnancy, or whether they have or plan to have children
Religious or political belief
In Tasmania, the NT and the ACT specifically: an irrelevant or spent criminal record

The principle: assess the application, not the person. You can absolutely decline someone for a poor rental history, unpaid arrears or a failed affordability check. You can’t decline them — or even ask questions — based on the protected attributes above.

Discrimination differs by state — know your local rules

The protected attributes above are the reliable core (they come from a mix of federal acts and every state’s anti-discrimination law). But the exact list varies: some states add grounds like physical features, lawful sexual activity or profession. The clearest example for screening is criminal records — in Tasmania, the Northern Territory and the ACT, it’s unlawful to refuse someone over an irrelevant criminal record, while other states don’t treat it as a protected attribute. Because the lists differ, check your own state or territory’s anti-discrimination commission (for example, the Queensland Human Rights Commission) before relying on any single ground.

Someone on Centrelink? That’s stable income, not a red flag

Here’s one our team feels strongly about. Source of income isn’t a protected attribute, so it’s not unlawful to factor it in — but reflexively knocking back anyone on Centrelink is a mistake. Government payments are stable, guaranteed income that lands like clockwork, which is often more reliable than a casual wage. The smart move is to assess actual ability to pay — does the income, whatever its source, comfortably cover the rent? — rather than discounting good applicants out of habit. You’ll see tenants others overlook, and they tend to stay.

Collect less, not more: the 2026 privacy rules

The other duty is privacy, and the rules got sharper in 2026. After a landmark determination, the Privacy Commissioner made clear that landlords and agents may only collect personal information that’s reasonably necessary to assess an application — not whatever might be “useful.” A rental-technology platform was ordered to stop collecting things like applicants’ gender, student status, citizenship and visa status, and full previous-address history. What that means for you:

Ask only for what you genuinely need: ID, income evidence, rental history, references.
Don’t keep what you don’t need. Once the property’s filled, securely delete unsuccessful applicants’ documents.
When you copy ID, redact government identifiers where you can.
Get consent before collecting sensitive information or running database checks.

You can read the OAIC’s guidance on tenancy and privacy for the detail. Collecting less isn’t just compliant — it’s less data for you to store and protect.

Should you run a police check?

You can run a police check with the applicant’s consent, and it’s worth knowing what one does. In most states a National Police Check discloses recorded convictions and pending charges before the court — so it can surface serious matters the other checks won’t. One of our customers learned that the hard way: their tenant was jailed for a violent matter barely two weeks into the tenancy, leaving them chasing lost rent and clearing out belongings the tenant couldn’t return to collect — and they now run a check on every applicant. Two caveats: you need the applicant’s consent, and in Tasmania, the NT and the ACT it’s unlawful to refuse someone over an irrelevant criminal record. For most landlords a police check is a reasonable optional extra — the everyday risks are still best predicted by the core checks above, backed by good landlord insurance for the rare curveball.

Genuine red flags (the ones you can act on)

These are about behaviour and documents, never protected attributes:

ID details that don’t match, or documents that look altered
A referee you can only reach on a phone number or email the applicant supplied — verify the agency independently
Unexplained gaps between tenancies, or a reference who can’t be reached
A rental ledger showing repeated late payments
Reluctance to consent to a tenancy database check
Income that doesn’t add up against the application

If something doesn’t stack up, ask for clarification — politely, and the same way you would of any applicant.

Run a consistent, defensible process

The single best habit is consistency. Ask every applicant the same questions, assess them against the same written criteria, and keep brief notes on what you checked and why you chose who you chose. When you decline someone, tie it to your criteria — “we chose an applicant with a stronger rental history and an earlier move-in date” — not to anything personal. That record does double duty: it helps you pick the genuinely best tenant, and if a knock-back is ever questioned, it shows your decision was based on legitimate grounds, not a protected attribute.

Prefer to have it handled?

If you’d rather not run all this yourself, PropertyNow’s rental advertising and application tools are built to keep DIY landlords compliant in every state, with a built-in applicant checklist and affordability summary, and we can arrange background checks across both major tenancy databases for you. The legwork gets done; the final call stays yours.

The bottom line

Choosing a good tenant comes down to checking the right things — identity, income, rental history, references, affordability — consistently, and doing it within the law. Screen on the four things that actually predict a good tenancy, collect only the information you need, never decide on a protected attribute, and write down your reasons. Do that and you’ll not only avoid the nightmare tenant — you’ll choose fairly, stay compliant, and have the paperwork to prove it.

Frequently asked questions

What can a landlord legally ask a tenant in Australia? You can ask for proof of identity, income and ability to pay, rental history and references, and whether the applicant can maintain the property. You can’t ask about — or base a decision on — protected attributes like race, sex, age, disability, relationship or family status, religion, or (in Tasmania, the NT and ACT) an irrelevant criminal record.

How do I check a tenant’s rental history? Ask for the rental ledger from their current or most recent tenancy, call the previous landlord or agent to confirm payment and property care, and run a tenancy database check (with consent) against NTD and TICA to flag any past arrears or tribunal orders.

Can I refuse a tenant who’s on Centrelink? Source of income isn’t a protected attribute, so it’s not unlawful to consider it — but it’s usually a poor decision. Government payments are stable, guaranteed income. Assess whether the rent is genuinely affordable on their income rather than ruling out benefit recipients automatically.

Can I do a police or criminal background check on a tenant? Only with the applicant’s consent, and with care: in Tasmania, the NT and the ACT, refusing a tenant over an irrelevant criminal record is unlawful. For most landlords, tenancy database checks, a consented credit/court-judgment check and reference calls are more relevant and lower-risk than a police check.

What information am I allowed to collect from applicants? Only what’s reasonably necessary to assess the application — identity, income evidence, rental history and references. Following 2026 privacy rulings, collecting extras like visa status, gender or full address history is not acceptable. Delete unsuccessful applicants’ documents once the property is filled.

How do I avoid a discrimination complaint when choosing between applicants? Apply the same criteria to everyone, base every decision on affordability, rental history and references, keep brief notes on why you chose who you did, and give declined applicants factual, criteria-based reasons rather than personal ones.

How long do tenancy database listings last? A person can only be listed after a tenancy ends, for a breach where the money owed exceeds the bond or where a tribunal terminated the agreement, and only after written notice. Listings are removed after three years, and tenants can request a copy of their listing.

Find a great tenant, the easy way

Advertise your rental, collect compliant applications and run tenancy-database checks — all in one place — so you can screen with confidence. Manage your own rental with PropertyNow.

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