How to Find a Good Tenant in Germany: Screening That Works (2026)

Finding a tenant is easy; finding a reliable one is the decision that quietly determines the next few years. A good tenant pays on time, looks after the flat, and you barely hear from them. The wrong one can mean months of lost rent and a slow, expensive eviction. This guide is about doing the choosing on the basis of documents rather than gut feeling.

Where to advertise for the right applicants

A precise listing draws the right people and filters out the wrong ones before they ever message you. State the cold rent, the service charges and the deposit, the size and number of rooms, the floor, the features, and the earliest move-in date. The more exact the detail, the fewer unsuitable enquiries you sort through. Put the same listing on more than one platform, since you only write it once: ImmoScout24 for reach, Kleinanzeigen for a free classifieds audience, WG-Gesucht if the flat suits a shared setup, and Domily if you want the listing and the applicant screening handled in one place. You can list your apartment and screen applicants together rather than juggling listing sites and an inbox.

The documents that actually predict a good tenancy

Three documents do most of the work. The self-disclosure form (Selbstauskunft) is the applicant's own statement of who they are, their job, income, household size, pets, and whether an eviction or insolvency exists. The proof of income, usually the last three payslips or, for the self-employed, a tax assessment or an accountant's statement, tells you whether the rent is affordable. And the SCHUFA or credit report shows their payment history and any hard negative entries.

What matters is not collecting the most paper but cross-checking it. The figures in the self-disclosure have to line up with the payslips and the SCHUFA; a net income the documents do not confirm, or an undisclosed ongoing eviction, is the signal to pause. For how to read a credit report properly, see the guide to checking a tenant's creditworthiness, and for the income side specifically, proof of income landlords accept.

The affordability rule of thumb

The widely used benchmark is that the cold rent should be at most a third of net household income, which means income of about three times the cold rent. It is a guide, not a rule: substantial savings, a permanent employment contract, or a solvent guarantor (Bürge) can reasonably offset income that sits a little under the line. Weigh the whole picture rather than a single ratio.

What you may not ask

German law draws a firm line. Questions with a genuine link to the tenancy are fine: income, employment, how many people will move in, whether you smoke, whether there are pets. Questions about pregnancy or family planning, religion, ethnic origin, political views, or sexual orientation are not, and an applicant is legally entitled to answer them untruthfully without consequence. You also cannot reject an applicant on any of those grounds; your criteria have to rest on rental-relevant facts. Handle the documents under the DSGVO too: ask only for what you need to decide, and delete the files of applicants you turn down rather than keeping payslips and ID scans you no longer have a reason to hold.

Running the viewing and the shortlist

A sought-after flat draws thirty to fifty applications fast, so decide how you will handle the crowd before it arrives. Group viewings are efficient and normal in Germany; individual viewings give you a calmer read on each person and suit a higher-end flat at the cost of your time. Invite only applicants whose basics already fit, take their documents at the viewing or ask for them straight after, and note your impression while it is fresh. On Domily the shortlisting is structured: applicants attach their documents to the application themselves and you set your income and document criteria per listing, so you compare like-for-like profiles instead of chasing paperwork.

After you have chosen

Once you have your tenant, the lease and handover follow. The rental contract should set out the cold rent, the service-charge advance, the deposit (at most three months' cold rent), notice periods, and any repair clauses in their fair form. At move-in, record the condition of the flat and every meter reading in a handover protocol, which is your protection when the deposit is settled at the end. Do those two things properly and a well-screened tenant becomes a tenancy you rarely have to think about.