Can I increase the deposit when reviewing the rent in AST?

Thanks, @David122 for sharing your thoughts.

Hi, my question is though, if I have a tenant now and the rent is £800 a month and he may have paid £900 deposit. He is a good tenant and it goes onto periodic tenancy. After 15 years, due to inflation, etc, the rent is £1600 and the deposit that is being protected is still £900 and it bearly covers half month’s rent and probably will not cover any replacement of appliances, etc if he does leave with some damages. Wouldn’t it be unfair to landlords if landlords are not allowed to ask for additional deposit payment during rent increases?

As others have mentioned you can if you wish sign a new tenancy and collect a higher deposit, but you’d need to end existing tennacy & refund deposit held, and collect new one. The timing of this is often financially awkward for tenants. I personally wouldn’t bother, and in Hoi-Fei example of having a tenant for 15years… if someone has rented a house for 15 years, and paid reliably, I would have pocketed alot of rent, so they would have to have caused substantial damage for me to justify a claim from the deposit held. I’d be expecting to be doing a full refurb at my cost after a 15 year rental.

1 Like

The tenant doesnt have to agree either an increased deposit or a new tenancy agreement, so what are you going to do if they decline, (as most people would)?