Do you know your rights when it comes to your deposit?

 

Tenancy deposit schemes were introduced to protect both landlords and tenants when dealing with returning deposits.

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Deposits paid after 6 April 2007, under an assured shorthold tenancy agreement, must be registered within an approved scheme.

By law, if you pay A Bond to your landlord or letting agent, then they must protect it in a government-authorized tenancy deposit protection scheme within 30 days.

It was introduced to ensure that you are able to get your deposit back from your landlord or agent when you move out.It applies to all landlords and agents in England and Wales who have an Assured Short hold Tenancy (AST) agreement (the contract) with their tenant.

DPS  produces a deposit protection certificate to confirm that your deposit is protected .

You should receive a copy of the certificate and the my deposits Information for Tenants leaflet within 30 days.

When tenancies come to an end there are sometimes disagreements over who receives the deposit.

the dispute can be referred to DPS, and be resolved by an impartial adjudicator.

They will decide how much should be awarded to each party based on the evidence sent to them.

Is my deposit protected?

Tenants can check if their deposit is registered with DPS by visiting www.depositprotection.com.

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If tenants have received their Deposit Protection Certificate, they should enter the code number from that certificate.

Alternatively they can enter their surname, the deposit 

If a member informs DPS that the protection of a deposit should be ended,

amount, the tenancy postcode, and the date their tenancy started.

DPS will make reasonable efforts to inform the tenant before ending the protection. 

If the tenancy has not ended, the tenant (or one of the joint tenants) can object to the
ending of deposit protection by phoning the DPS customer contact center.

If the tenancy has ended and the tenant is not satisfied with the proposed split of the
deposit, then the tenant can ask DPS to resolve the dispute within three months after the end of the tenancy.