A big item of news this week was the launch of the Deposit Guard tenancy deposit scheme. However as they demand special tenancy agreement clauses, I also had to drop the other things that I was doing to quickly create Deposit Guard compliant versions.
This is now done, and the standard AST and room in a shared house type tenancy agreements now have a deposit guard compliant alternative. I will gradually add all the others. Phew!
But what happened on the blog?
Monday
The new tenancy deposit rules that will put you at risk
I wrote this after one of my landlords instructed me to bring proceedings for possession and after talking to him it became clear that he had not served the notice with prescribed information. So we had to hold everything up while he served this and then re-served all his other notices. If you do this after April, boy will you be in trouble! Find out whey here …
How can you recover the part of a deposit which was not protected?
Another readers blog clinic quesiton. I have to get the backlog down. Read about this one here …
Tuesday
School for landlords – tenant information forms
The new paperwork series starts properly with a video on tenant information forms – they are not just for taking tenants information. Find out what else you can do with them here …
Wednesday
Deposit Guard – a new service from the RLA and TDS
This is the post where I discussed the news and give the prices. I may be doing something else on this item in a week or so, I’ll let you know, but in the meantime you can find out how the three schemes compare here …
Thursday
Can a student be charged £100 for ending a tenancy early?
Anxious parent wants answers and seeks advice from the blog clinic. Find out what I thought about it here …
How a landlord saved his tenant’s life
A true story. It just goes to show that seemly hostile actions like serving a possession notice can sometimes be a good thing. Read it here …
Friday
Ben Reeve Lewis Friday Newsround #44
Ben has a ‘draining spaghetti on foot’ moment and has to attend Court in slippers. Find out more here …
Can the landlord make a further deposit deduction?
Finally another readers question from a tenant whose landlord is demanding extra money to paint a wall affected by damp. See what I said here …
Further reading
- My History of Law blog post last Sunday was on the Writ of Right and the start of Henry II legal reforms
- Mark Alexander of Property 118 thinks of a simple way to regulate the property lettings industry and starts a petition
- I am contacated by a TV Production company looking for tenants with problem landlords
- Finally the Land Registry urges landords to take steps to guard against property fraud