How safe is your tenancy deposit?
Basically if it is protected in a scheme it is safe, if it is not protected, it may not be.
From 7 April 2007 all tenancy deposits for assured shorthold tenancies have to be protected in a government authorised tenancy deposit scheme. There are three tenancy deposit schemes:
- The Deposit Protection Service
- My Deposits and
- The Dispute service / TDS
When you pay a deposit to a landlord or his agent, they are supposed to arrange for this to be protected within 14 days and give you a form with information about the scheme they have used.
What if you have not had the notice?
This will normally indicate that your deposit has not been protected. But you can check by contacting the three schemes and asking them. Their contact details are as follows:
- The Deposit Protection Service : website: www.depositprotection.com, tel: 0844 4727 000
- My Deposits : website: www.mydeposits.co.uk, rel: 0844 980 0290
- The Dispute Service / TDS : website: www.thedisputeservice.co.uk, tel: 0845 226 7837
If your landlord has not protected your deposit, what should you do then?
Well the best thing to do is to write to him.
Tell him that your deposit should be placed in a deposit protection scheme and ask him for confirmation that this has been done. You could also say that if he does not, there is a penalty of three times the deposit sum for non compliance.
There is no need to mention the fact that after the Tiensia case, the landlord will be able to protect the deposit late without penalty! In any case it is believed that this case is going to be appealed to the Supreme Court so this may change.
Hopefully your landlord will then arrange for your deposit to be protected so there won’t be any need for you to withhold the last months rent in lieu of being returned the deposit, as was often done by tenants in the days before the tenancy deposit scheme came in force (although you are not supposed to do this).
What if you find out that your deposit has not been protected after you have moved out?
You are probably in a stronger position vis a vis the penalty as it is understood that the rule in the Tiensia case does not apply if the deposit is unprotected when the tenant moves out.
Indeed we have a no win no fee service which relies on this, where a claim will be brought both for your deposit and for the award of three times the deposit sum.
Any questions?
If you have any questions about tenancy deposits, note that I will be interviewing Kevin Firth, the director of the Deposit Protection Service next week, for my first podcast, and will be putting to him questions received from readers to answer.
You can read a bit more about this and find a form for the questions >> here.
You can also find out more about tenancy deposits on my Landlord Law site.
Hi Tessa
I was wondering if you know whether I could sue my landlord for three times the deposit after the end of my tenancy agreement (I have moved out), but did not pay the last month’s rent in lieu of the deposit.
The deposit technically has been paid back to me by my not paying the last month’s rent. Can I still claim 6 months on?
YOu may be able to. The law is a bit uncertain at the moment as there are various cases working their way through the system and when they have been decided we will have a clearer idea.
See my more recent post here: https://www.landlordlawblog.co.uk/2011/03/14/tenant-legal-help-the-current-situation-with-tenancy-deposits/
Hi Tessa,
My landlady has not protected our deposits, despite several letters asking her to do so. We now want to move out of the flat.
My flatmate does not want to go via the court route and wishes to keep back the final rent in lieu of deposit, but I do not want to do something which I know is unlawful.
We know our landlady is in financial difficulty and has missed mortgage payments on several of her properties, which makes it seem likely she will either just not give the deposit back, but if we take her to court she may not pay up either!
What is our best option?
Hi Tabitha
It is technically ‘wrong’ to withhold the final months rent. However your landlord was the wrong first by not protecting the deposit, so it would be difficult to criticise you. It is probably the option that will cause you the least hassle. As you say, it may be the only way you will actually get your deposit back.
Hi Tessa,
I gave my deposit to the letting agent who then passed it onto the landlord. This was over 4 months ago and I have called the landlord every few weeks since I moved in to get him to send on the details about the deposit scheme he has placed my deposit in. During each phone call he just laughs it off and says something like ‘yes, yes I’ll send it on’. To date he hasn’t sent me anything and I regularly check the three deposit protection websites to see if my deposit appears on there and so far it hasn’t. I want to give my notice to mive out in a months time and I’m afraid as the landlord is obviously not a law abiding landlord he won’t return my deposit either. I’m considering withholding my last months rent as that’ll cover my deposit paid. Is there anything I can do between now and when I give my notice in a months time to show that I’ve taken as many steps as I can to get him to protect my deposit? ie a letter etc? Also, is withholding my rent a very very bad idea? I’m just afraid that as he clearly doesn’t feel he has to follow the law then there’s a very good chance that he won’t have any qualms about keeping my deposit either.
@Mike Please see may answer above regarding withholding the deposit.