Rental housing agents are demanding more financial information from potential tenants, with some requiring a bank link to verify income and expenses before they can even view the available houses, broadcaster NOS reported.

A bank statement or pay slip to prove a tenant can pay the rent is among the normal requirements but increasingly agencies are demanding permission to check prospective tenants’ bank accounts directly, NOS said.

Privacy watchdog AP said it has received 50 reports about inquisitive rental agents so far and that the number is rising.

“If you demand a lot of privacy-sensitive information from people, you had better have a good reason for it,” AP deputy chairwoman Monique Verdier told broadcaster NOS. “From the reports we have been getting, many agents don’t, nor do they explain this to the prospective client,” she said.

According to tenants’ association Woonbond, an agent can only ask for financial information when a tenant is offered the house.

“But in practice we see that agents want extensive financial information upfront,” spokesman Marcel Trip told the broadcaster. “A bank link, where an agent can see financial transactions, is going very far.”

Bank links are a way of verifying other data, Britt Orchard of Verra rental agents said. “Sometimes we are shown forged bank statements or pay slips. But we only ask for a bank link when the person has seen the house and wants to rent it, and not before,” she said.

People who refuse to allow agents to check their bank account are less likely to be considered as a tenant, Orchard said.