Classic form
Rental application form
A rental application form template collects the property and offer, the applicant's identity, their current and previous address, employment and income, references and signed consent to screening. This one is a residential application, one per adult, that takes about ten minutes with identification and payslips to hand. It covers occupants and pets, agent contacts, an employment table, a proof of income upload, two non family references, and a signed consent to a tenancy database and credit check.
The form itself
A static copy of the finished form, exactly as it renders. Nothing here can be filled in or submitted, so read it as a reference and build your own from the button above.
Every field, and what it collects
The complete field list, in the order respondents meet it.
- Property address you are applying forShort textRequired
- Preferred move-in dateDateRequired
- Lease termDropdownRequired
- Options: 6 months · 12 months · 18 months · 24 months
- Weekly rent you are offeringNumber
- Full legal nameNameRequired
- Date of birthDateRequired
- Driver licence or passport numberShort textRequired
- Email addressShort textRequired
- Mobile numberShort textRequired
- Adults who will live hereNumber
- Children who will live hereNumber
- PetsLong text
- Current addressAddress
- How long have you lived there?Short text
- Current weekly rentNumber
- Current agent or landlordShort text
- Their contact numberShort text
- Why are you leaving?Short text
- Previous addressAddress
- We ask for the last three years of addresses.
- Employment, most recent firstTable
- Columns: Employer · Position · Started · Gross income per year
- Manager or payroll contactShort text
- Employment typeSingle choice
- Options: Full time · Part time · Casual · Self employed · Retired or not employed
- Any other incomeLong text
- Proof of incomeFile upload
- Two recent payslips, a letter of employment, or your last tax return. PDF or images.
- Two references who are not familyTable
- Columns: Name · How they know you · Phone
- ConsentMultiple choiceRequired
- Options: I consent to a tenancy database and credit check being carried out · I have read and understood the privacy notice
- Signed by the applicantSignatureRequired
The property
About you
Where you live now
Work and income
References
Consent and signature
Question banks built on this form
What each section of this rental application collects
The form opens with the property, because an agent handling several listings needs to know which one the application is for before anything else. The move in date and lease term are required, since they decide whether the applicant fits the vacancy at all, and the weekly rent offered is optional. About you takes the legal name, date of birth, a licence or passport number, email and mobile, then how many adults and children will live there and any pets. Where you live now and the previous address give the agent two tenancies to check. Work and income pairs a two row employment table with a payroll contact, employment type and a proof of income upload. References is a two row table, and the last section is the declaration, two consent ticks and a signature.
Why most fields are optional
Only ten of the twenty seven fields are required: the property, move in date, lease term, legal name, date of birth, ID number, email, mobile, the consent ticks and the signature. A first time renter, a student or someone arriving from overseas cannot always fill in a previous agent or a payslip, and a required field would stop them applying at all. An agent reading the response sees the gaps and asks about them, which is fairer than a form that decides for them. The fields that are required are the ones the agent cannot assess or contact anybody without.
How to adapt this form
For a share house room, change the lease term options to periodic and fixed, drop the children field and add a question about who the applicant already knows in the house. For a commercial property, the rental history section becomes trading history and the employment table becomes business financials. Where the state limits what can be asked, remove fields rather than making them optional, because a question on the form reads as a request whether or not it is required.
What makes this form work
Rental history covers two tenancies
The Where you live now section asks for the current address, how long you have lived there, the current weekly rent, the agent or landlord and their number, and why you are leaving. A Previous address field follows for the home before that. One verified prior tenancy is what separates an application an agent can check from one they cannot, and the welcome screen tells applicants to have both addresses ready.
Income is evidence, not a number
The employment table records employer, position, start date and gross annual income, with a payroll contact and employment type alongside. Directly beneath is a Proof of income upload that asks for two recent payslips, a letter of employment or a tax return, as PDF or images. The figure and the evidence arrive together, so nobody has to email for the payslips later.
Screening consent is explicit and signed
The final section prints the declaration in full as a paragraph: the information is true, the agent may contact employers, referees and previous agents, and may obtain a tenancy database and credit check. Two named consent ticks follow, one for the check and one for the privacy notice, and then a required signature.
Questions people ask
What information can a landlord ask for on a rental application?
Identity and contact details, rental history with previous agent contacts, employment and income, references, and consent to screening. Rules on what you may ask and store vary by state and country, so check your local tenancy law before you publish.
Do I need written consent to run a tenant check?
Yes. A tenancy database search or a credit check needs the applicant's written permission, and the privacy notice has to say what will be checked and who will see the result. This form prints the full declaration as a paragraph above the consent ticks, so the applicant reads what they are agreeing to, then ticks two named boxes and signs.
Should each adult fill in their own application?
Yes. Income, rental history and consent are personal, and a joint application makes all three impossible to verify, because one set of payslips and one signature cannot stand for two people. The intro says one application per adult. Couples and share houses send one link to each adult, and the agent reads the responses together using the property address as the match.
Why does the form ask for the weekly rent you are offering?
The property section has an optional Weekly rent you are offering number field next to the preferred move-in date and a lease term dropdown of 6 to 24 months. Some Australian states restrict inviting offers above the advertised rent, so check the rules where you let before keeping this field.
Should a rental application ask why the applicant is leaving?
Yes, and this form asks it directly after the current agent details. The answer is usually mundane, a job move or a lease ending, and that is the point. It gives the agent something to verify with the current landlord, and an evasive answer is a prompt to ask rather than a reason to decline.
How should pets be handled on the application?
Ask, and ask specifically. This form has a pets field beside the adults and children who will live there. Vague answers create disputes after the lease is signed, and in several states a landlord must have a reason to refuse, so the detail matters more than the yes or no.
What if the applicant has no rental history to give?
Leave the Where you live now fields for them to fill in as best they can, since every field in that section is optional. A first time renter moving out of a family home can name the home owner as the contact, and the references table and proof of income carry more weight. Ask for a guarantor by phone rather than adding a field most applicants do not need.
How long can an agent keep a rejected applicant's documents?
Only as long as there is a reason to. Payslips, licence numbers and dates of birth are personal information, and privacy law expects them to be destroyed or de identified once the tenancy decision is made and any dispute window has passed. Delete unsuccessful responses on a set schedule rather than keeping every application indefinitely in the response table.
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