Property Management
Frequently asked questions:
(please note “Landlord” also covers Letting Agent)
Unprotected Deposits
What happens if a deposit has not been protected?
Membership of a tenancy deposit scheme will be mandatory to all landlords who take a deposit; those who take a deposit but don’t join an accredited tenancy deposit protection scheme will face the following penalties for non-compliance:
- Unable to use ‘notice only’. Currently a landlord can regain possession of the property after the first 6 months of an AST providing any fixed term has expired and the tenant has been given at least 2 months’ written notice (under S21 of the Housing Act 1988). This right to repossession using the usual ‘notice only’ grounds will be lost if the deposit has not been safeguarded in an authorised scheme and the prescribed information passed on to the tenant within 14 days.
- Tenants can apply for a court order requiring the deposit to be safeguarded and the prescribed information about the scheme in which it is held to be supplied, or to return the deposit to the tenant. Where the court believes the landlord has failed to comply with these requirements or the deposit is not being held in an authorised scheme the court will either order the landlord to repay the deposit within 14 days or to pay the deposit into a scheme. The court will also fine the landlord three times the deposit amount payable to the tennant within 14 days.
