One of the most common questions landlords ask before listing a furnished property is a simple one: how do I know the person moving in is who they say they are, and can they actually afford the rent? It is a fair question. Handing over a fully furnished home to someone you have never met requires confidence that the process behind the booking is thorough, not just convenient.

At EzyFlats, verification is not an optional step at the end of the application. It is built into the front of the process. No renter can apply for a property, let alone be approved, without clearing every verification gate first. Here is exactly how it works.

The Three Verification Requirements Every Renter Must Pass

Every applicant — regardless of the property, the city, or the length of stay — must complete three verification steps before an application can proceed: identity, income, and references. All three are required. None can be skipped.

1. Identity Verification

Identity is verified through Stripe Identity, a government-grade biometric verification service. The applicant submits a government-issued photo ID and completes a biometric face match to confirm the document belongs to them. This happens before they can apply for any property on the platform.

This step is fully automated. It means that by the time a renter's application reaches a landlord, the person behind it is a verified, identifiable individual — not an anonymous enquiry. If the identity check fails, the applicant is asked to retry. Repeated failures are escalated and reviewed before any further progress is allowed.

2. Income Verification

Once identity is confirmed, the renter must demonstrate they can afford the weekly rent. EzyFlats applies the industry-standard 30 percent affordability rule: gross weekly income must be at least 3.3 times the weekly rent.

To support this, applicants are required to provide their three most recent payslips, covering the last six to eight weeks. Where income is borderline or the employment situation is less straightforward, a month of recent bank statements may also be requested. An employment letter on company letterhead confirming the applicant's role, start date, and salary can be provided as additional support.

Every payslip is checked to confirm that the name matches the verified identity from Stripe, the dates are consecutive and recent, the employer is a real registered Australian business, and the income figures meet the affordability threshold. The documents are also reviewed for formatting integrity to ensure they are genuinely issued rather than manually altered.

For corporate-paid placements — where an employer is sponsoring the accommodation — an employer verification letter is accepted in place of personal income documentation. This reflects the reality that many corporate relocations and insurance placements involve a third-party payer rather than the individual tenant's personal finances.

3. Reference Verification

Every applicant must also demonstrate a track record of being a reliable tenant. There are two ways to do this, and EzyFlats accepts either or both.

The first is documentary references: written references from previous landlords or property managers, confirming the applicant paid rent on time, cared for the property, and met their obligations. To be accepted, a reference must be specific to the applicant, dated within the last twelve months or covering a recent tenancy, and include verifiable contact details for the person who provided it. Vague or generic character letters are not sufficient.

The second path is a structured reference survey sent directly to the applicant's listed previous landlord or property manager. The survey covers seven questions on rental history, payment reliability, property condition, and whether the referee would rent to the applicant again. Where documentary references are already provided and verified, no survey is needed — the documents are sufficient on their own.

Landlord Verification is part of the process too

Verification at EzyFlats does not stop with the renter. Landlords are also verified before they can receive payments through the platform or have their property fully activated.

As part of onboarding, the landlord creates a Stripe Connect account so rent can be paid to them through Stripe. That account also plays an important verification role, because it forms part of Stripe’s KYC checks during setup. In addition, landlords must submit proof of address to EzyFlats before their account is fully verified.

This matters because it helps confirm that the person listing the property and receiving rent is properly identified from the start. In a furnished rental market where trust and transparency matter on both sides, landlord verification is just as important as renter verification.

Every property on EzyFlats is pre-screened before it goes live. Listings are not self-serve. Each one is reviewed to confirm the property is real, the photographs show the actual home, and the listing accurately represents what a renter would find on move-in. Stock photography and AI-generated images are not permitted.

A digital condition report is completed at the start of every tenancy, item by item, with photographs. Each report is dual-rated for both condition and cleanliness and is SHA-256 hashed on submission, creating a tamper-evident record that protects both parties for the duration of the tenancy and beyond.

Why This Matters

The verification framework exists because a furnished property is a different kind of rental asset. It is not a bare apartment that a renter furnishes over time. It is a home that is ready to live in from day one, and the person moving into it — as well as the person listing it — should be equally verified.

For landlords, every application that reaches them through EzyFlats has already cleared identity checks, income, and reference checks are submitted after a booking request is made. The decision of whether to accept a particular applicant still remains with the landlord, but it is made from a much stronger base than an anonymous enquiry with no documentation behind it.

For renters, the process creates confidence on the other side as well. They know they are dealing with a verified listing, a verified landlord payment setup, a clear written agreement, and a payment structure that protects their first week’s rent until they have confirmed the property is as described.

That is what verification looks like in practice at EzyFlats. Not a checkbox added at the end, but a structured process built into the beginning of the booking.

EzyFlats is a licensed South Australian real estate agency (RLA 346573) operating a furnished medium-term rental platform across Australia. For more information on how the platform works, visit ezyflats.com.au.

This article is general information only and is not legal advice. Regulatory frameworks differ by state and may be subject to change. Always verify the current position for your property with the relevant authority.