Deposit protection scheme

Tenant Discussion
1

So we have been living in this rental property since August 2019 and our landlord apparently has not deposited our money in any deposit protection scheme and we know this coz we have checked with all the 3 DPS providers. Now since last 4 months we have been following up with the landlord and he claims that he has done the needful and will send across the documents. Every time we call his reasons get more absurd, documents are on their way in post, wife pregnant, complication at work computer, person not available etc. We have another 6 months on this lease. What are our legal options in this case? Has anyone else experienced this? Thanks.

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You have both legal and practical options. If you take any legal moves at this time, based on legal advice, the landlord could get upset and evict you, so if you want to stay, don’t act on legal advice but be prepared to do so. How long you can stay depends on your tenancy agreement: at least six months since the start of the tenancy.

  1. You can report the landlord to, I don’t know, but certainly the local Council for not registering the deposit. If it is a Council that registers landlords, and the landlord is not registered, the landlord could be in big financial trouble.
  2. Don’t worry about it. a) the landlord may have borrowed it and hopes to save up enough to repay you, or b) at the end of the tenancy, if you don’t get your money back, having kept notes of when you have spoken about the deposit being registered and the excuses given with dates, use those to support your on-line claim against the landlord at the Small Claims Court, and be prepared to attend the hearing just in case the landlord turns up and tries to argue his way out of refunding you, and you should get your deposit back, and the cost of using that court service, and possibly compensation for ‘stress’, less anything you have agreed to be taken out of the deposit to cover breakages. Taking court action sounds worse than it is in practice - I am told it is easy and cheap to do so. After the court action, you can then report the landlord to the council if you feel aggrieved and want some form of revenge, or to help prevent this issue arising with other tenants, if you wish to be a good citizen.
    So don’t worry, but keep notes of your requests, at least three or more dates, and notes of any issues about damage if any occurs, and just enjoy being there.
    Good luck.
1 Like
3

Hi Kiran, I’m sorry to hear that your landlord has not secured your deposit or provided you with the prescribed information about how it is being treated.

Landlords who do not propertly secure a tenancy deposit are at risk of tenants winning a payment of up to three times the deposit value.

This article outlines how it works quite well:

And Shelter have good advice, too:

Sam