Real estate agents: tenant screening and the Privacy Act

Real estate agents and property managers frequently run background checks on prospective tenants — credit checks, tenancy tribunal searches, and identity verification. Each of these involves collecting personal information from third-party sources, triggering IPP3A obligations.

The screening process

A typical tenant screening might include:

• Credit check through Centrix or Equifax
• Tenancy Tribunal search
• Identity verification
• Previous landlord references

The first three involve third-party data collection.

Common compliance failures

No notification at all. Some agents run checks without telling applicants which specific data sources they are accessing.

Checking all applicants, selecting one. Agents often screen multiple applicants and then only proceed with one. The unsuccessful applicants have still had their personal information collected from third parties — and IPP3A applies to all of them, not just the successful applicant.

Retaining results too long. Screening results for unsuccessful applicants should be disposed of once the tenancy decision is made, unless there is a lawful reason to retain them.

Best practice

• Before screening, give each applicant a clear written statement of which data sources you will access.

• Record the consent or notification pathway for each applicant and each data source.

• Dispose of screening results for unsuccessful applicants promptly.

• Use DEIS to automate the capture of compliance evidence for every check.