Starter pack
R99 once-off
R9.90 per check
For a landlord or agent checking two or three applicants.
- 10 checks
- Valid for 90 days
- Full report + PDF export
- Email support
Verify a tenant’s bank statement before you sign the lease
A rental application usually rests on a few months of bank statements and a payslip, sent as PDFs. Check those files for signs of editing the eye cannot see, before you hand over the keys.
Rental applications in South Africa run on PDFs
Most applicants send their documents by email or WhatsApp, straight from their banking app or their employer’s payroll system. You read the salary line, compare it with the rent and decide. The trouble is that an edited PDF looks exactly like the real one on a phone screen, and a credit check does not tell you whether the income on the statement is true.
Fraud prevention bodies see this at scale. SAFPS, whose members share confirmed fraud records, counts forged bank statements and payslips among the fraudulent documents it lists most often. One bad tenancy can mean months of missed rent and a long road to recover the property, so the few minutes spent on the documents before signing are worth it.
One application, two ways
Reading the documents
An applicant sends three statements and a payslip for a two-bedroom flat. The salary covers the rent three times over, the layout looks right and the bank name is familiar. The agent signs the lease on Friday. In the second month the debit order bounces, and the salary on the statement turns out never to have been paid.
Checking the files first
The agent uploads each PDF before confirming the viewing. The statements come back with no signs of editing found; the payslip shows signs of editing. The agent asks for a payslip sent directly from the employer’s payroll, and saves the reports with the application. The decision rests on documents that were checked, not only read.
What you get for each document
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A plain-language verdict
Each file gets a clear result on screen within seconds: signs of editing found, no signs of editing found, or a note that the file could not be assessed.
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An integrity score where one applies
Text-based PDFs, such as statements downloaded from a banking app, get a score. A scanned or photographed document is checked as an image and gets a report without a score.
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A PDF report for the application file
Export the report and keep it with the lease paperwork, so you can show later what was checked and when.
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An honest ceiling
For an unsigned file, the best result is “no signs of editing found”. It does not confirm that the bank issued the statement, so keep your usual credit and reference checks.
Letting agents, FICA and tenant data
Estate agents, including those who let property and collect rent, are accountable institutions under the Financial Intelligence Centre Act, as the FIC confirmed in Public Compliance Communication 56. Their FICA duties attach to their clients, and the Act does not on its own require an agent to verify a tenant’s bank statements. A document check is simply a careful step in your own vetting.
A tenant’s statements and payslips are personal information under POPIA. Collect only what the application needs, keep it secure and do not keep it longer than necessary. When you upload a file to Atomara, you remain the responsible party and we act as your operator. Files are processed outside South Africa and deleted automatically within 30 days; see our privacy policy.
This is a plain summary, not legal advice.
Recommended plan for landlords and agents
Most private landlords and small letting agencies check a handful of applications a month. The Starter pack gives you 10 checks, valid for 90 days: enough for two or three applicants. Try one document first with the free checks.
Statements from these banks
Also relevant
Further reading
Questions landlords ask
Do I need the tenant’s banking login to check a statement?
No. You check the PDF the applicant already sent you, and nothing is fetched from the bank. Tools that fetch statements directly from the bank solve a different problem; a file check works with the documents you already have.
The applicant sent a screenshot on WhatsApp. Can I check it?
Not as a screenshot. Only PDF files up to 10 MB can be uploaded. Ask for the statement as a PDF, downloaded from the banking app or online banking.
The statement is password-protected. What now?
Banks often send statements as password-protected PDFs, and a file that needs a password to open cannot be checked. Ask the applicant for a fresh copy downloaded directly from the banking app or online banking that opens without a password. If you must read a protected copy, ask for the password in a separate message, never alongside the file.
Does a clean result mean the tenant can afford the rent?
No. The check tells you whether the file shows signs of editing. Affordability, credit history and references are still your call. Where the bank offers its own check, such as FNB’s Verify Statement service or the SkyQR code on Capitec documents, use it as well.
How long do you keep the tenant’s documents?
Uploaded files are deleted automatically within 30 days. The report is shown on screen as soon as the check finishes, and you can export it as a PDF for your own records.
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