TENANCY DEPOSIT PROTECTION
Tenancy Deposit Protection (TDP), was set out in the Housing Act 2004, and came into force in April 2007. The legislation requires that all deposits paid under an assured shorthold tenancy (AST) are protected under a government-authorised tenancy deposit scheme within 14 days of receipt.
The landlord is responsible for protecting the deposit, whether or not an agent has been instructed. The deposit remains at all times the property of the tenant.
If the deposit remains unprotected, there is a possibility that the landlord may be fined.
The law is intended to ensure that tenants who are entitled, receive all or part of their deposit back at the end of the tenancy.
Inventories are not compulsory, but in practice they are essential.
In the event of a dispute over entitlement to the return of a deposit, the burden of proof lies with the landlord. This evidence must be submitted promptly.
To avoid disputes going to court, each tenancy deposit scheme is supported by an Alternative Dispute Resolution service (ADR); whose aim is to make disputes faster and cheaper to resolve. In the event of a dispute which the parties are unable to resolve by themselves, the adjudicator from the ADR service needs good quality written evidence to carry out the role - a well prepared inventory, checked at the start and end of a tenancy, is an effective way of gathering quality evidence which is ready to hand when required.
No. As of 1st June 2019 you cannot charge tenants any admin fees and this includes any inventory services. You can charge tenants for check outs up to 1/6/2020 where their tenancy started before 1/6/2019.
Yes. But we will need the report before we attend the check out. A check out compares the condition of the property to what it was at the time the tenants moved in so it’s an essential document.
Please wait until you have the check out report from us, we send reports to whoever instructed us so normally this isn’t the tenants. If there is anything that you feel the clerk has missed after viewing the report please let us know and we will look into it immediately.
The report will clearly show in text and high resolution pictures any damages, cleaning issues and causes for concern that you may want to discuss with your tenants before returning a deposit. Whilst we are property inventory experts we do not deal with the return of the deposit, this is down to the landlord or agent to put together a claim on the deposit and put this to your tenants. The aim of a good inventory report is to minimise disputes but if your tenants don’t agree to your claim and you can’t find common ground then you may only be left with the option of going through the dispute process with whichever deposit scheme you have lodged the deposit with.