Tenant Check is a guide to rental applications in Victoria, Queensland, Western Australia and South Australia, written and published by Dotto. In Victoria and Queensland an application now goes on a form the law prescribes, and nothing may be asked beyond it; South Australia lists what a form may and may not ask; and in all four, a landlord chooses the tenant but discrimination law limits the grounds for that choice.
General informationAbout the law on rental applications, not legal advice about any application or tenancy. Each state’s official pages are linked on every guide: Consumer Affairs Victoria, the Queensland Residential Tenancies Authority, SA.GOV.AU and Consumer Protection WA, with the state anti-discrimination commissions and the Australian Human Rights Commission.
How to read these pages
Every page opens on a drawn application sheet. An open field is something a landlord or agent may ask for. A black bar is something the law keeps off the form, or takes off a document before it is handed over, as a bank statement loses its transactions. Lists through the guides use the same two marks.
- An open field: may be asked
- A black bar: may not be asked, or removed
Four states at a glance
| State | The form | Documents | An unsuccessful application is destroyed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Victoria | The prescribed form, compulsory from 31 March 2026 | Up to two to show the rent can be paid, and up to two for identity | Within 30 days after the agreement is entered into, or permanently de-identified |
| Queensland | An approved form complying with Form 22 or R22 | Two at most in each of three categories | Within three months of the successful tenant’s agreement starting |
| South Australia | No form from Consumer and Business Services; a list of what a form may and may not ask | No more than two in each of three categories | Reasonable steps to destroy it as soon as practicable after 30 days from the agreement being entered into |
| Western Australia | An application form, with every applicant treated equally and fairly | The Consumer Protection WA page sets no limit | The Consumer Protection WA page sets no timeframe |
The five guides
- What a rental application may askThe prescribed forms, the questions each state rules out, and the price on the advert.
- Rental application documents, two of eachThe two-document limits, the bank statement with its transactions removed, ID and references.
- Discrimination law and rental applicationsWho each state protects, the questions that follow from it, and the four Commonwealth Acts.
- Exceptions, agents and complaintsWhen the law allows a choice, when an agent shares the blame, and where a complaint goes.
- How long rental application information is keptVictoria’s, Queensland’s and South Australia’s clocks for destroying an applicant’s information, and the exceptions.
What is outside this guide
Tenant Check stays with the application: the form, the documents, the law on discrimination and what happens to the paperwork. New South Wales is outside it, and so are tenancy databases, bonds, repairs and the rest of a tenancy once it begins. A renter’s rights after moving in, and a landlord’s duties, are set out by each state’s tenancy regulator, linked above.