Can the tenant afford the rent? How to check it
· · 8 min read
A tenant can afford the rent when their regular net income covers it with room to spare. Landlords usually follow a rule of thumb: rent up to about a third, at most 40%, of net income. You can check this more reliably from bank data than from documents: a tenant certificate saying "Rent 2 800 zł/month: OK" means that regular income over the last 12 months carries that specific amount, without showing you the earnings.
Rules of thumb and what follows from them
No law says what income a tenant must have. There are customs worth knowing, because they differ more than you would expect. For a rent of 2 800 zł a month:
| Rule | Rent is at most | Net income needed |
|---|---|---|
| one third of income | about 33% | about 8 400 zł |
| 40% of income | 40% | 7 000 zł |
| income at least 2x the rent | 50% | 5 600 zł |
The last rule is used, for example, by simpl.rent: the result is positive when the average documented net income is at least twice the cost of the tenancy. The first two are popular rules of caution, not standards.
Three practical notes:
- Count the whole cost of the flat. If the tenant pays you rent plus building fees and utilities, compare income with the total, not with the rent in the listing alone.
- Regular income is what counts. A yearly bonus, a 13th salary or one large transfer from a contract for a specific task do not pay the rent in April.
- A rule is not a verdict. Someone who earns less but has no loans and has paid rent on time for years can be a safer tenant than someone with a higher salary and instalments.
Why documents are weak proof
An earnings statement, an employment contract, a tax return (PIT) and bank extracts all speak about income, but each from a different side and with a different weakness.
A statement and a contract show what the employer promised to pay, not what comes in. For self-employment and contract work there is often nobody who can issue them.
A PIT describes the previous year. For someone who changed jobs this year it says little.
Extracts are closest to the truth, but they are files that pass through the tenant's hands. You do not know whether the PDF was edited, and one month can look better than the rest of the year. On top of that you receive far more than you need: the full salary, an account number, spending on medicines and transfers to family. You are responsible for that data as long as you hold it.
All documents also share one more flaw: they make you do the counting yourself. Two landlords with the same extracts can reach two different conclusions.
What "Rent X zł: OK" from a bank means
A CzynszOK certificate comes from a one-off bank read through Enable Banking, a licensed PSD2 provider (entry in the EBA register). The tenant types in the rent from your listing and connects up to 2 banks with 2 accounts each, including foreign ones, and CzynszOK reads 12 months of history and counts by one rule for everyone:
- it counts regular income: from an employer, clients, from ZUS (Poland's social insurance institution); it does not count refunds, cash deposits or transfers between the tenant's own accounts;
- it takes the 12-month average after dropping the best and the worst month, so one unusual month does not push the result up;
- income in euro or pounds is converted at the NBP average rate with a 5% margin for fluctuations;
- the maximum rent it will confirm is a fixed share of that average, rounded down to 10 zł.
If the amount typed in fits within that maximum, the certificate says "Rent 2 800 zł/month: OK". If not, only the tenant sees it and can issue a certificate for a lower amount. You will never get a certificate saying "NO", and if the amount on the certificate is lower than in your listing, you know exactly how much the bank confirmed. We describe all the rules, with examples, in the article Smart read: how we count income.
What "OK" does not mean
- It is not a guarantee of future payments. The certificate says how things were over the 12 months before the read. A job can be lost, which is why the certificate is valid for 90 days.
- It is not a credit score. We do not query BIK, KRD or BIG and we do not assess creditworthiness. If registers matter to you, the tenant can download a free report about themselves from KRD once every 6 months.
- We do not see cash or accounts the tenant did not connect. Someone who earns mostly in cash may not get a certificate even though they can afford the rent. For such people, keep a route with documents or an analyst open, for example Zaufany Lokator.
What you get in return: a result the tenant could not rework, because the data went from the bank straight into the calculation, and one you check yourself on the verification page. How to read that page is described in the guide How to check a tenant certificate.
A couple renting together
When a couple rents a flat, each person alone may not meet your rule, while together they meet it with room to spare. Documents from two people are a double folder to go through.
CzynszOK has a joint certificate for this. Each person logs in with their own e-mail, gives their own consent and connects their own banks, up to 8 accounts together. We count the incomes together against one rent, and we skip transfers between the partners so the same salary is not counted twice. The certificate carries both names, each confirmed by that person's bank. The price is the same: 49 zł, paid by the tenant.
If you assess a couple's income jointly, consider having both of them as parties to the tenancy agreement. Then the joint income you checked matches who is responsible for the rent.
Does the tenant have the deposit
The deposit is the second money question. The tenant can add an optional deposit check to the certificate, for example two months' rent. CzynszOK reconstructs the balance at the end of each of the last 90 days, adds it up across all connected accounts and checks whether it covered the typed-in deposit on most of those days. On the certificate you will see "Deposit 5 600 zł: OK", without the balance.
Money that sits in the account only for a few days after payday will not pass. A loan taken a week before the check will not either. To be fair: the rule cannot tell savings from a loan that has been sitting in the account for three months.
How to ask for such confirmation
One sentence in your listing or in a reply to an applicant is enough: "Please send a bank-based tenant certificate for the rent in the listing, for example CzynszOK; if you rent as a couple, one joint certificate is enough." The tenant makes it at czynszok.pl in a few minutes, and you check it for free. More about what else to check before the agreement is in the guide How to check a tenant before signing.
Questions
How can a landlord check whether a tenant's income is enough for the rent?
Ask for documents and count yourself, or ask for a bank-data certificate. A CzynszOK certificate says "Rent X zł: OK" when 12 months of regular income carries that amount by a fixed rule, and it does not show you the earnings.
What income should a tenant have for a rent of 3 000 zł?
By popular rules of thumb about 7 500 zł net (rent up to 40% of income) or about 9 000 zł (one third). With the rule "income at least 2x the rent", 6 000 zł is enough. These are customs, not laws.
Which online service checks a tenant's financial capacity?
If the question is whether the tenant can afford the rent, ask for a CzynszOK certificate: the tenant pays 49 zł, only after the bank result, and you check it for free at czynszok.pl/en/v. Debt registers are checked by simpl.rent (249 zł, paid by the landlord), and an analyst's assessment is given by Zaufany Lokator (299 zł), as of 7.10.2026.
Does "Rent OK" guarantee the tenant will pay?
No. The certificate confirms that over the last 12 months regular income would have carried that amount. It does not predict the future and does not check registers, which is why it is valid for 90 days.
Can a couple show one certificate for their joint income?
Yes. Each person connects their own banks with their own e-mail and consent, we count the incomes together against one rent, and the certificate carries both names. Neither person sees the other's amounts, and you see neither person's amounts.
Can I check that the tenant has money for the deposit?
Yes, if the tenant adds the deposit check. You will see "Deposit X zł: OK", which means the combined balance of their accounts covered that amount on most of the last 90 days. You will not see the balance.
Has a tenant shown you a certificate?
Type the code or scan the QR. No account, no fees.
Check the certificate