Amendments to the Housing Act 2004 took place on 6th April 2007, when Tenancy Deposit Protection (TDP) came into force on all new Assured Shorthold Tenancies and stated that a landlord may no longer hold a security deposit on behalf of their tenant.
The Landlord is responsible for ensuring:
- That the Tenant’s Security Deposit is forwarded to or insured by an approved scheme to be held for the term of the Tenancy
- That the Tenant or the person paying the deposit (eg: parent or guarantor) receives the relevant Prescribed Scheme Information
- This all must happen within 30 days of receipt of the deposit
At the present time this legislation does NOT apply to non-Housing Act tenancies, which are:
- Tenancies with an annual pure rent of over £100,000 or less than £1,000
- Tenancies with a resident landlord
- Tenancies where the property is a 2nd home and not the tenants main residence
- Company Tenancies
However, as all client money including security deposits needs to be held in a ring-fenced account, we are more than happy to securely hold the deposit for non-housing Act tenancies in our deposit account.
We use the DPS - Deposit Protection Service
The DPS are authorised to protect deposits for tenancies in England and Wales and as the biggest provider of deposit protection in the UK, they’ve been helping landlords for over 10 years.
