The big news at the moment is that there is a new tenancy deposit scheme for landlords which has been launched jointly by the Dispute Service (TDS) and the Residential Landlords Association (RLA).
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
| Via TDS | RLA Members | |
| Up to £500 | £16.50 | £15.00 |
| Over £500 | £24.00 | £22.50 |
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
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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.