How do you conduct a thorough screening in the real estate market?
For companies active in the real estate market, it is important to verify the identity of a potential tenant or landlord. It is also vital to determine the trustworthiness of a renter or lessor, based on their financial position. Confirming identities and gauging reliability gives you and your company more control over who you do business with. But how do you verify someone’s identity? And what are the obstacles for real estate companies?
Privacy law applies to the real estate market
Since the GDPR regulation was updated, businesses in the real estate market are now faced with checking, processing, and (temporarily) storing sensitive personal information on a daily basis. If you don’t comply with the GDPR legislation, you run the risk of leaking information, resulting in serious fines. (The Dutch Data Protection Agency recently updated its penalty guidelines.)
Screening remains tricky in the real estate market
Identifying reliable business partners is not an easy task. Even if you feel that your company is doing a great job at screening, it remains tricky to prove so.
Erik Verwey is the President of VGM NL, a professional association for real estate managers in the Netherlands. He recently stated: “Once we have rented to someone and anything happens to go wrong down the line, we are no longer able to prove that we ever conducted a screening, since we are obliged to destroy that personal information as soon as the rental agreement is signed.”
According to the VGM president, there is still a discrepancy between the GDPR law and its practical application for the real estate market.
A great screening in the real estate market
Many companies are in search of the right combination between the GDPR regulations and its practicality in the real estate market. A solid screening is a solution to help you comply with the privacy law.
One solution for a great screening is the combination test. This solution measures a client’s trustworthiness while also complying with the GDPR.
Through this test, the financial position of the tested person can be determined in combination with an ID Check. A Consumer Check screens a person’s payment behaviour and whether they have ever claimed bankruptcy. And the ID Check verifies the authenticity of their identity documents. Of course, each solution can also be performed separately. Based on this information, you can then determine whether the tenant or landlord is reliable enough to do business with.
Curious how this combination test would work for your company? Contact one of our specialists!