TPN Credit Check: What It Is, What It Costs, and How to Read the Results

If you’ve ever searched for how to vet a tenant in South Africa, you’ve almost certainly come across TPN. It’s the country’s most widely used tenant screening bureau, and for good reason — it holds rental-specific data that general credit bureaux simply don’t track.

But what does a TPN credit check actually include? How much does it cost? And what do those scores and codes really mean?

This guide breaks it all down so you can run TPN checks with confidence and make better-informed tenant decisions.

What Is TPN?

TPN (Tenant Profile Network) is a South African credit bureau that specialises in the rental industry. Unlike TransUnion or Experian, which focus on general consumer credit, TPN maintains a database of tenant-specific payment behaviour reported directly by landlords and property managers.

This means a TPN check can tell you things that a standard credit check cannot:

Whether the applicant has a history of paying rent on time
Whether they’ve been flagged for arrears, absconding, or property damage by a previous landlord
Their rental payment track record across multiple tenancies

TPN processes over 4 million tenant checks per year in South Africa, making it the de facto standard for rental screening.

Types of TPN Checks

TPN offers several check types, each providing a different layer of information:

1. Credex Score (Rental Credit Score)

The flagship product. The Credex score combines:

Traditional credit data (payment history, judgments, defaults)
TPN’s proprietary rental payment data
Affordability modelling based on declared income

The result is a score specifically calibrated for rental risk, not just general creditworthiness.

2. ID Verification

Confirms the applicant’s identity against the Department of Home Affairs database. Catches:

Invalid or stolen ID numbers
Deceased persons’ IDs being used fraudulently
Mismatches between the applicant’s details and their official record

3. Criminal Record Check

A background check against the SAPS criminal database. Note that this requires separate consent from the applicant and takes longer to process than financial checks.

4. Deeds Office Check

Searches the Deeds Office registry to determine whether the applicant owns property. This can be relevant when:

An applicant claims to be renting out their own property (potential sub-letting risk)
You want to assess overall financial stability

5. Employment Verification

TPN can contact the applicant’s employer to verify position, length of service, and income. This takes 24-48 hours and adds a layer of confidence beyond payslips alone.

How Much Does a TPN Check Cost?

TPN’s pricing depends on the check type and whether you’re buying individual checks or a bundled package. As of 2026, typical costs are:

Basic Credex check: R50 – R80 per applicant
Credex + ID verification: R80 – R120
Full screening bundle (Credex + ID + employment + criminal): R200 – R350
Deeds check: R30 – R50 (usually an add-on)

Prices vary by reseller and volume. Some property management platforms — including Indlu — bundle TPN checks into their subscription, so you don’t pay per-applicant fees.

Cost-saving tip: If you’re screening more than a few tenants per year, a platform with bundled screening will almost always be cheaper than buying individual checks.

How to Read a TPN Report

A TPN Credex report can look intimidating at first. Here’s how to interpret the key sections:

The Credex Score

TPN uses a scoring range from 0 to 10, with colour-coded risk bands:

8 – 10 (Green / Low Risk): Excellent rental candidate. Strong payment history, no adverse data, good affordability. You can proceed with confidence.
6 – 7.9 (Yellow / Medium Risk): Acceptable but warrants caution. May have minor credit impairments or limited rental history. Consider additional references or a larger deposit.
4 – 5.9 (Orange / Medium-High Risk): Proceed carefully. There may be recent defaults, high debt levels, or inconsistent payment behaviour. A guarantor or additional security might be appropriate.
0 – 3.9 (Red / High Risk): Significant adverse data. Active judgments, serious arrears history, or very poor affordability. Most landlords would decline at this level.

Payment Profile Codes

TPN uses standardised codes to describe a tenant’s payment behaviour at previous addresses:

TP (Tenant Paid): Rent was paid in full and on time — the best indicator
LP (Late Payment): Rent was paid, but consistently late
NP (Non-Payment): Tenant defaulted on rent
AB (Absconded): Tenant left without notice while still owing rent
DP (Damage to Property): Landlord reported property damage beyond fair wear and tear

A single LP isn’t necessarily a dealbreaker, but NP, AB, or DP entries should prompt serious scrutiny.

Affordability Ratio

The report calculates what percentage of the applicant’s declared income would go toward rent. TPN generally flags:

Below 30%: Comfortable affordability
30% – 40%: Stretched but potentially manageable
Above 40%: High risk of payment difficulty

Adverse Data

This section lists any:

Judgments — court orders for unpaid debts
Defaults — accounts handed over to debt collectors
Notices — formal demands from creditors
Sequestrations or administration orders — the most serious financial distress indicators

Look at how recent the adverse data is. A judgment from five years ago that’s been settled tells a different story from one filed three months ago.

TPN vs TransUnion vs Experian

Each bureau serves a different purpose. Here’s how they compare for tenant screening:

TPN

Best for: Rental-specific data and risk scoring
Unique advantage: Tracks actual rent payment history reported by landlords
Limitation: Only useful if the tenant has been screened through TPN before (newer tenants may have no TPN record)

TransUnion

Best for: Broad consumer credit profile
Unique advantage: Largest SA credit database; includes retail, banking, and telco accounts
Limitation: No rental-specific data; a clean TransUnion profile doesn’t mean the tenant paid rent elsewhere

Experian

Best for: International cross-referencing and detailed debt analysis
Unique advantage: Strong fraud detection tools and commercial credit data
Limitation: Smaller rental-specific dataset in SA compared to TPN

Which Should You Use?

For thorough screening, use at least two bureaux. The most common combination is TPN + TransUnion:

TPN tells you whether the tenant has a history of paying (or not paying) rent
TransUnion tells you about their broader financial health

Adding Experian provides a third data point and catches anything the other two miss. Indlu’s screening dashboard runs all three in a single check, so you don’t have to visit three separate portals.

Common Mistakes When Using TPN Reports

1. Relying on the score alone The Credex score is a summary, not the full story. Always read the underlying data — a score of 7 might reflect one settled judgment and otherwise perfect history, or it might reflect thin data with no rental track record.

2. Ignoring the affordability ratio A tenant with an 8/10 Credex score but a 45% affordability ratio is a higher risk than the numbers suggest. Income changes, and stretched budgets break first on rent.

3. Not checking all bureaux A tenant who’s never rented through a TPN-reporting landlord will have no TPN rental history. That doesn’t mean they’re a bad tenant — it means you need TransUnion or Experian data to fill the gap.

4. Screening only one applicant If you only screen the person you’ve already mentally chosen, confirmation bias kicks in. Screen all serious applicants and compare objectively.

5. Skipping POPIA consent Running any credit check without the applicant’s explicit written consent violates POPIA and can result in fines. Make sure you have consent documented before requesting a report.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long does a TPN check take? A basic Credex check returns within minutes. ID verification is near-instant. Employment and criminal checks take 24-48 hours. Full bundles typically complete within two business days.

Can a tenant dispute their TPN record? Yes. Under the National Credit Act, consumers have the right to dispute inaccurate information on their credit record. TPN must investigate and correct errors within 20 business days.

Does running a TPN check affect the tenant’s credit score? A single enquiry has negligible impact. However, multiple checks across different landlords in a short period could appear as a minor flag — similar to multiple loan applications.

Can I run a TPN check myself, or do I need a platform? Individual landlords can register directly with TPN for pay-per-check access. Alternatively, platforms like Indlu provide TPN checks as part of a broader management and screening subscription.

What if the applicant has no TPN history? No TPN record simply means no previous landlord has reported data on them. This is common for first-time renters, tenants from private landlords who don’t use TPN, or people relocating from abroad. Supplement with TransUnion/Experian data and strong reference checks.

Get TPN, TransUnion, and Experian checks in one dashboard — no per-applicant fees. Start screening with Indlu from R99/mo.