This looks like it will be easy to use and the price cleverly undercuts the My Deposits scheme. As the TDS say, they are a not for profit organisation so this gives them more leeway on price.

You will (unless you know already) be wanting to see the prices. Here they are:

TDS/DepositGuard

No joining fee, other than to join the RLA, which is £75  or £95 pa depending on how you pay.

My Deposits

Up to £300 – £17.50
Over £300 – £30.00

Joining fee £60 or £20 for NLA members.  NLA membership costs £98 for one year, with discounts if you join for up to 5 years in advance.

The DPS scheme is of course free, but you have to lodge the deposit money with the scheme and there is more administration involved.

The TDS/RLA scheme requires special tenancy deposit clauses, and as soon as I get hold of a copy of them I will be providing compliant tenancy agreements on Landlord Law, as I am sure a lot of members will wish to use this scheme.

This is a big thing for the RLA and I am sure it will boost their numbers considerably. I wish them and TDS all the best with it. You can read more about it on the RLA website here

******

Note – I now have a TDS/Deposit Guard compliant AST agreement on the Landlord Law site for members, so if you want to use the scheme but prefer not to use the RLA tenancy agreements there is now a choice.

We rented out a flat in May 2010, to secure the flat we placed a holding deposit of £750 with the letting agent.  On signing the lease we paid another £1328 to bring the deposit up to 6 weeks rent (£1500pcm, silly times)

The letting agent only deposited the £1328 with the DPS, and unfortunately at the time we did not notice (as we were moving house).

The original letting agent  has since gone out of business, the new agent claims to only know of the original amount deposited with the DPS, and as such we are struggling to recoup that money.

Do we have to try and claim the money back from the administrators of the first agent?

Is it the landlords ultimate responsibility to ensure that the correct amount as been deposited with the DPS? and as such should we be trying to contact him for the return of the £750?

I read somewhere that if the deposit has been incorrectly lodged the landlord is liable for 3 times the amount in fines? I dont really care about that I just want what we deposited in the first place.

I hope you can help as I feel that I am running against a brick wall speaking to the new letting agent.

Richard, I would suggest you forget about bringing any claim against the agents.  The first agent has gone bust, and realistically when this happens, only the Inland Revenue and secured creditors have any chance of a payout.  The other agent was not involved with the first payment and so cannot be held responsible.

However the landlord will be liable for the full amount of the deposit.  Even though the money was paid to the agent.  I know this seems unfair on the landlord, but thats the way it is.  Under agency law, principal is liable for the acts of his agent  (well most of them).

You will need to be able to prove that the money was paid.  I assume you have a written receipt.  Write to the landlord enclosing a copy of this (DON’T send the original!) and ask for reimbursement.

You won’t be entitled to the 3x the deposit award I am afraid (you can read why here) but you are entitled to the return of your deposit.

This is fortunate because come April when the new regulations come into force, they are going to get a lot tougher.

Even with the regulations as they are now, many landlords are still making a mistake which could cost them dear.

This is the failure to serve a notice containing the prescribed information upon their tenants.  Many landlords have no idea that this needs to be done AS WELL AS protecting the deposit.

What can happen if you protect but don’t serve this notice?

Now (pre April 2012) the penalties are:

• a payment of three times the deposit sum which the tenant claims via the courts – although you can serve the notice late and avoid the penalty, and

• any section 21 notice served is technically invalid – although if you serve the prescribed information late, a section 21 notice served after that will be all right

When the new regulations come in, the penalties will be:

• you will not be able to use section 21 AT ALL unless either you refund the deposit, or you offset it against money due from your tenant by agreement, or if your tenant has brought a claim regarding the penalty which has been resolved.  You will no longer be able to correct the problem by serving the notice late

• your tenant will have the right to claim against you for the penalty of between 1 – 3 times the deposit (the exact amount to be in the discretion of the Judge) if you have failed to serve the notice within 30 days of receiving the deposit money.  You will not have any defence to this claim.  Your tenant will be able to make this claim at any time up to six years after the deposit was paid (after which time the statute of limitations will kick in).

The requirement to serve the prescribed information is as important as the requirement to protect the deposit.  You need to do both.

Where do you get the prescribed information form?

• TDS have a form which they provide to their members
• DPS have a template on their website
• My Deposits include the information in the certificate documentation and the leaflet they provide

However landlords, particularly amateur landlords, are often still unaware of the need to provide the prescribed information.  After April, failure to serve the notice will leave them open to a claim they cannot defend for the next six years.

Another potential problem:

What if one or more of the schemes’ forms was found wanting?  For example in a defence to a section 21 repossession claim?  This would leave the landlords who had used it open to a claim from their tenants.

Hopefully this will never happen.  However, we all thought we knew how the existing regulations worked until the Court of Appeal drove a coach and horses through them, with their decisions in the  Tiensia and Gladehurst cases.

I would prefer to see a prescribed form provided by government.  Then there can be no argument.

Danger picture by KatJaTo

Hi, I own one (and my only) house in Wales. I am abroad working. When I left I rented it privately to a tenant as an Assured Shorthold Tenancy since 2009.

She quit in December, and left a lot of damage, uncleaned, damp, broken stained furniture etc.. I intended to keep £500 of her £650 deposit. However I did not ‘protect’ it under the Housing act 2004 (as I knew nothing of this), she is now demanding the full deposit in 14 days or will sue me.

I return to UK to live in my house on Feb 6th. Help!! If I give her the deposit back in full I will have to accept a big loss due to the damage etc.. however I may have inadvertently broken the law on registering her bond, so?!! help I need advice. I am not rich, just renting my house to pay the mortgage! Help and advice much appreciated asap. Thank you

At the moment, the most recent Court of Appeal authority is that the tenant cannot claim for the penalty payment of three times the deposit sum after the tenancy has ended.  You can read about this here.

So I suppose on the basis of that it would be all right to refund the £150 and say that if she issues proceedings you will defend.  People often say they are going to court when actually they have no real intention of doing this.

However if it sounds as if she is serious then refer her to my blog post (or one of the articles referred to there) and give her full details (receipts etc) to justify your deductions.

Note by the way that the rules on tenancy deposits are due to change in April and landlords who fail to protect will then be at risk of being ordered to pay a penalty payment to the tenant by the court. Ignorance of the law will be no defence.

Here is a question to the blog clinic from Teresa who is a landlord:

Tenants deposit was not put into a deposit scheme.

Tenant refuses to leave house and has not payed rent for over 14 months. we have had previous court sessions ( tenant must have wrote the book on how not to get evicted, he used every excuse going, benefits not sorted,post never receives it, lost papers etc) and judge always accepted his lies bearing in mind there has been a different judge time and case adjured again.

Ran out of money to continue court action. He does not accept registered mail and refuses to answer door.

How do I evict him? Tenancy ended Nov 2010

The FIRST thing you need to do is to protect the deposit.  If you do not it will put you in the wrong and your tenant will be able to wrong foot you in any claim for possession.  Do it today.  As the fixed term has ended you will need to use the DPS as I don’t think the other organisations will accept it.

Then you will need to either proceed with your current claim for possession or end that and start a new one (although you need to be careful about ending litigation as it may authomatically make you liable for your opponents costs).

The ONLY way you can legally evict a tenant who will not move out voluntarily is via a court order for possession.

Most solicitors will be reluctant to take on a case which has already started, and if they do the costs will generally be high.  However you may be able to get some guidance on eviction proceedings from my do it yourself kits, which you can read about here.

By the way, it was only the fixed term which ended in Nov 2010.  The tenancy will have continued as a periodic tenancy.