{"id":733,"date":"2016-06-13T08:31:00","date_gmt":"2016-06-13T08:31:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/renovateme.co.uk\/blog\/?p=733"},"modified":"2018-09-07T19:41:19","modified_gmt":"2018-09-07T19:41:19","slug":"tenancy-deposit-schemes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/renovateme.co.uk\/blog\/tenancy-deposit-schemes\/","title":{"rendered":"Tenancy Deposit Schemes \u2013 following the rules"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><strong>What are the rules around tenancy deposits?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>All deposits relating to an Assured Shorthold Tenancy (AST) which has not yet expired, regardless of when it began, must be registered. All historical deposits had to be registered with a scheme by 23<sup>rd<\/sup>\u00a0June 2015.<\/p>\n<p>The aim of the legislation is to ensure a fair balance is struck between Landlord and Tenant. It prevents a landlord from keeping a tenant\u2019s deposit unfairly once the tenancy has expired. It also assists landlords who want to claim monies fairly required to put right a property that a tenant has left.<\/p>\n<p>Landlords are not obliged to take a deposit from their tenant, however if a deposit is taken it\u00a0<strong>must\u00a0<\/strong>be protected by a scheme.<\/p>\n<p>There are two types of scheme:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Custodial- where the deposit is physically held by the scheme; and<\/li>\n<li>Insurance- where the landlord pays a premium on an insurance policy to cover the risk that they fail to return a deposit which is due back to the tenant.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>A landlord must register the deposit with a scheme within 30 days of receipt of the deposit. However, it is safer to protect the deposit within 14 days of receipt as there is inconsistency between schemes and landlords may be held liable for failure to comply with scheme-specific provisions.<\/p>\n<p>A landlord must also provide details of the scheme to the tenant within 14 days of receiving the deposit.<\/p>\n<p>If the landlord fails to protect the deposit through one of the schemes OR fails to give the prescribed details to the tenant, there are two sanctions:<\/p>\n<p>1)\u00a0A section 21 notice (under the Housing Act 1988) cannot be served on the tenant. This notice enables a landlord to reclaim possession of the property, after the fixed term has expired, on two months\u2019 notice and after the first six months of the tenancy; and<\/p>\n<p>2) The tenant may bring a claim to require the landlord to either register the deposit or repay it to them, and they may claim compensation of three times the deposit amount. In the case of <em>Gardner v McCusker 2014 <\/em>the tenant was awarded compensation of twice the amount of the deposit from the landlord.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Tenancy Disputes<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>It is essential that the deposit scheme is notified as soon as any deposit-related dispute arises. The government-approved schemes offer Alternative Dispute Resolution and this can be useful in avoiding court and the costs often associated.<\/p>\n<p>The burden of proof always falls on the landlord. The assumption is that money is due back to the tenant unless the landlord can prove otherwise. This is why it is prudent to agree an inventory and\/or schedule of condition at the outset of the tenancy. A landlord should ensure records of rent payments and the amounts of which are constantly kept up to date.<\/p>\n<p>One of the government backed schemes, the Deposit Protection Service, offers guidance on resolving disputes:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.depositprotection.com\/documents\/essential-guide-to-dispute-resolution.pdf\"><u>https:\/\/www.depositprotection.com\/documents\/essential-guide-to-dispute-resolution.pdf<\/u><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The alternative is to take the dispute to small claims court. This is often a more expensive route as parties will be responsible for their own legal costs but the advantage is that the claimant has up to six years to bring the claim.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Selling a property subject to an AST?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<ol>\n<li>Under the custodial scheme, the new landlord must register with the scheme. It is not possible for the new landlord to change the scheme where the money is held.<\/li>\n<li>Under the insurance scheme, the existing landlord must notify the scheme of its intention to withdraw the deposit.\u00a0The deposit remains protected under the existing scheme for a 3 month period. The landlord must arrange their new scheme before this period ends. The\u00a0Tenant must be provided with the updated information.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>However, this can\u2019t be done with Tenancy Deposit Solutions Limited (one of the government backed schemes), who, despite the legislative provisions, do not allow transfers of deposit between landlords. Landlords should therefore think carefully about whether this scheme is suitable for them.<\/p>\n<p>A Landlord should therefore think carefully about what the landlord intends to do with the property as a decision on what scheme to use should be based on this.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Buying a property subject to an AST where the seller hasn\u2019t registered the deposit with a scheme?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>This can present a risky situation for the buyer landlord as they will assume full liability for the failings of the original landlord. Landlords buying property subject to an AST should seek legal advice, as they may wish to negotiate an indemnity clause in to their sale contract regarding liability. Another option might be to surrender the existing AST and create a new one, however this is not ideal and practically could cause problems.<\/p>\n<p>To find out more about Sian view her profile <a href=\"https:\/\/renovateme.co.uk\/expert\/Sian-Bithell\">here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What are the rules around tenancy deposits? All deposits relating to an Assured Shorthold Tenancy (AST) which has not yet expired, regardless of when it&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":746,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[170],"tags":[23,99],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v16.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Tenancy Deposit Schemes \u2013 following the rules -<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"What are the rules around tenancy deposits? What about if I have a tenancy dispute? What to consider when buying or selling a property with an AST?\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/renovateme.co.uk\/blog\/tenancy-deposit-schemes\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Tenancy Deposit Schemes \u2013 following the rules -\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"What are the rules around tenancy deposits? What about if I have a tenancy dispute? What to consider when buying or selling a property with an AST?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/renovateme.co.uk\/blog\/tenancy-deposit-schemes\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Renovate-Me-Limited-1532414700378807\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-06-13T08:31:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-09-07T19:41:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/renovateme.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/Tenancy.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"640\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"480\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Sian Lloyd\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/renovateme.co.uk\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Renovate Me\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/renovateme.co.uk\/blog\/\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Renovate-Me-Limited-1532414700378807\/\",\"https:\/\/uk.pinterest.com\/RenovateMecouk\/pins\/\"],\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/renovateme.co.uk\/blog\/#logo\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/renovateme.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/small-logo.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/renovateme.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/small-logo.jpg\",\"width\":300,\"height\":100,\"caption\":\"Renovate Me\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/renovateme.co.uk\/blog\/#logo\"}},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/renovateme.co.uk\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/renovateme.co.uk\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"\",\"description\":\"Blog for Renovation and Build\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/renovateme.co.uk\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/renovateme.co.uk\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/renovateme.co.uk\/blog\/tenancy-deposit-schemes\/#primaryimage\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/renovateme.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/Tenancy.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/renovateme.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/Tenancy.jpg\",\"width\":640,\"height\":480,\"caption\":\"Tenancy agreement\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/renovateme.co.uk\/blog\/tenancy-deposit-schemes\/#webpage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/renovateme.co.uk\/blog\/tenancy-deposit-schemes\/\",\"name\":\"Tenancy Deposit Schemes \\u2013 following the rules -\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/renovateme.co.uk\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/renovateme.co.uk\/blog\/tenancy-deposit-schemes\/#primaryimage\"},\"datePublished\":\"2016-06-13T08:31:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-09-07T19:41:19+00:00\",\"description\":\"What are the rules around tenancy deposits? What about if I have a tenancy dispute? What to consider when buying or selling a property with an AST?\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/renovateme.co.uk\/blog\/tenancy-deposit-schemes\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/renovateme.co.uk\/blog\/tenancy-deposit-schemes\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/renovateme.co.uk\/blog\/tenancy-deposit-schemes\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/renovateme.co.uk\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Tenancy Deposit Schemes \\u2013 following the rules\"}]},{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/renovateme.co.uk\/blog\/tenancy-deposit-schemes\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/renovateme.co.uk\/blog\/tenancy-deposit-schemes\/#webpage\"},\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/renovateme.co.uk\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/ccc79c55b79e6658a4a0366097bcbc77\"},\"headline\":\"Tenancy Deposit Schemes \\u2013 following the rules\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-06-13T08:31:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-09-07T19:41:19+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/renovateme.co.uk\/blog\/tenancy-deposit-schemes\/#webpage\"},\"wordCount\":791,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/renovateme.co.uk\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/renovateme.co.uk\/blog\/tenancy-deposit-schemes\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/renovateme.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/Tenancy.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"AST\",\"tenancy\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Legal &amp; Finance\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/renovateme.co.uk\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/ccc79c55b79e6658a4a0366097bcbc77\",\"name\":\"Sian Lloyd\",\"description\":\"Sian Lloyd is a Commercial Property Solicitor at Hillyer McKeown LLP based in Chester. Sian has gained experience in residential and commercial property law, including sales, purchases, remortgages, buy to lets and Landlord and Tenant. Sian advises a range of clients, from individuals starting out on the path to owning investment properties, to small and large companies acquiring properties and development sites. Sian works as part of an experienced team at Hillyer McKeown LLP. They have years of experience dealing with all aspects of property law, such as acquisitions and disposals, pension fund acquisitions, all aspects of leasing, planning matters, option and overage agreements, development finance. They are passionate about helping their clients grow their business and they are focused on delivering excellent client service. Please note that Sian\\u2019s blogs or any other material on this website are only intended as general information and should not be relied upon as a substitute for formal advice.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/renovateme.co.uk\/blog\/author\/sian-bithell\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Tenancy Deposit Schemes \u2013 following the rules -","description":"What are the rules around tenancy deposits? What about if I have a tenancy dispute? What to consider when buying or selling a property with an AST?","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/renovateme.co.uk\/blog\/tenancy-deposit-schemes\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Tenancy Deposit Schemes \u2013 following the rules -","og_description":"What are the rules around tenancy deposits? What about if I have a tenancy dispute? What to consider when buying or selling a property with an AST?","og_url":"https:\/\/renovateme.co.uk\/blog\/tenancy-deposit-schemes\/","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Renovate-Me-Limited-1532414700378807\/","article_published_time":"2016-06-13T08:31:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2018-09-07T19:41:19+00:00","og_image":[{"width":640,"height":480,"url":"https:\/\/renovateme.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/Tenancy.jpg","path":"\/var\/www\/vhosts\/renovateme.co.uk\/httpdocs\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/Tenancy.jpg","size":"full","id":746,"alt":"Tenancy agreement","pixels":307200,"type":"image\/jpeg"}],"twitter_card":"summary","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Sian Lloyd","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/renovateme.co.uk\/blog\/#organization","name":"Renovate Me","url":"https:\/\/renovateme.co.uk\/blog\/","sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Renovate-Me-Limited-1532414700378807\/","https:\/\/uk.pinterest.com\/RenovateMecouk\/pins\/"],"logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/renovateme.co.uk\/blog\/#logo","inLanguage":"en-US","url":"https:\/\/renovateme.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/small-logo.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/renovateme.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/small-logo.jpg","width":300,"height":100,"caption":"Renovate Me"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/renovateme.co.uk\/blog\/#logo"}},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/renovateme.co.uk\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/renovateme.co.uk\/blog\/","name":"","description":"Blog for Renovation and Build","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/renovateme.co.uk\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/renovateme.co.uk\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/renovateme.co.uk\/blog\/tenancy-deposit-schemes\/#primaryimage","inLanguage":"en-US","url":"https:\/\/renovateme.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/Tenancy.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/renovateme.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/Tenancy.jpg","width":640,"height":480,"caption":"Tenancy agreement"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/renovateme.co.uk\/blog\/tenancy-deposit-schemes\/#webpage","url":"https:\/\/renovateme.co.uk\/blog\/tenancy-deposit-schemes\/","name":"Tenancy Deposit Schemes \u2013 following the rules -","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/renovateme.co.uk\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/renovateme.co.uk\/blog\/tenancy-deposit-schemes\/#primaryimage"},"datePublished":"2016-06-13T08:31:00+00:00","dateModified":"2018-09-07T19:41:19+00:00","description":"What are the rules around tenancy deposits? What about if I have a tenancy dispute? What to consider when buying or selling a property with an AST?","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/renovateme.co.uk\/blog\/tenancy-deposit-schemes\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/renovateme.co.uk\/blog\/tenancy-deposit-schemes\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/renovateme.co.uk\/blog\/tenancy-deposit-schemes\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/renovateme.co.uk\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Tenancy Deposit Schemes \u2013 following the rules"}]},{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/renovateme.co.uk\/blog\/tenancy-deposit-schemes\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/renovateme.co.uk\/blog\/tenancy-deposit-schemes\/#webpage"},"author":{"@id":"https:\/\/renovateme.co.uk\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/ccc79c55b79e6658a4a0366097bcbc77"},"headline":"Tenancy Deposit Schemes \u2013 following the rules","datePublished":"2016-06-13T08:31:00+00:00","dateModified":"2018-09-07T19:41:19+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/renovateme.co.uk\/blog\/tenancy-deposit-schemes\/#webpage"},"wordCount":791,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/renovateme.co.uk\/blog\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/renovateme.co.uk\/blog\/tenancy-deposit-schemes\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/renovateme.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/Tenancy.jpg","keywords":["AST","tenancy"],"articleSection":["Legal &amp; Finance"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/renovateme.co.uk\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/ccc79c55b79e6658a4a0366097bcbc77","name":"Sian Lloyd","description":"Sian Lloyd is a Commercial Property Solicitor at Hillyer McKeown LLP based in Chester. Sian has gained experience in residential and commercial property law, including sales, purchases, remortgages, buy to lets and Landlord and Tenant. Sian advises a range of clients, from individuals starting out on the path to owning investment properties, to small and large companies acquiring properties and development sites. Sian works as part of an experienced team at Hillyer McKeown LLP. They have years of experience dealing with all aspects of property law, such as acquisitions and disposals, pension fund acquisitions, all aspects of leasing, planning matters, option and overage agreements, development finance. They are passionate about helping their clients grow their business and they are focused on delivering excellent client service. Please note that Sian\u2019s blogs or any other material on this website are only intended as general information and should not be relied upon as a substitute for formal advice.","url":"https:\/\/renovateme.co.uk\/blog\/author\/sian-bithell\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/renovateme.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/733"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/renovateme.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/renovateme.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renovateme.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renovateme.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=733"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/renovateme.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/733\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":833,"href":"https:\/\/renovateme.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/733\/revisions\/833"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renovateme.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/746"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/renovateme.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=733"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renovateme.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=733"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renovateme.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=733"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}