Your deposit will be registered with the Government backed TDS Scheme. A deposit protection certificate will be emailed as soon as the deposit is protected. This will be returned to you within 14 days after you have vacated. The costs of any cleaning, repairs or damages will be deducted with your agreement. In the unlikely case of a dispute arising, this would then be referred to an Independent representative of the TDS Scheme to decide.
Since the 6 April 2007, all landlords and agents who take deposits in England and Wales under an Assured Shorthold Tenancy (AST) agreement must protect your deposit in an authorised deposit protection scheme. The deposit must be protected within 30 days.
mydeposits is one of three government-authorised deposit protection schemes.
Landlords and letting agents can join our scheme and pay a deposit protection fee to protect your deposit. This fee enables them to hold your deposit for the duration of your stay, and then return the agreed amount to you when you move out.
If you are unhappy with the amount of the deposit offered to you at the end of your stay by your landlord then you can raise a formal dispute to reclaim it. The law states the deposit remains your money regardless of the fact that you have handed it to your landlord. They must provide evidence stating why they are entitled to keep any of your deposit.
A security deposit of 5 weeks rent is taken prior to move in and held in a protected account for the duration of the tenancy.
The good news is that 99% of all deposits protected with mydeposits are returned to the tenant at the end of their stay without a problem. This is due to the fact that you can chat directly with your landlord about its return and resolve your issues without needing to involve us.
In the unlikely event of you being unable to agree over the amount to be returned, you can use the mydeposits Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) service. Its completely free and uses impartial and professional adjudicators. It’s also cheaper and quicker than using the court. We’ve already resolved over 14,000 disputes since April 2007, and our dispute resolution service was shortlisted for an award in December 2010.
From 1 June 2019 the Tenant Deposit Caps are as follows:
