View all articles
The Deregulation Bill has finally received Royal Assent so landlords and letting agents can finally enjoy some much-needed clarity on the subject of deposit protection.
******Whoops! Looks like this is an old post that isn’t relevant any more :/ ******
******Visit the blog home page for the most up to date news. ******
Fallout from the Superstrike and Charalambous Cases
Changes made to the Tenant Deposit Protection legislation have corrected issues that arose as a result of legal decisions made in the Superstrike v Rodrigues and Charalambous and Karali v Ng and Ng cases. The main areas of change are:
1. Deposits taken for tenancies beginning before 6 April 2007 that are still in existence and have since rolled into a statutory periodic tenancy must be placed in a deposit protection scheme before June 23. If a landlord or letting agent fails to protect the deposit and serve prescribed information, he or she could face fines.
2. If the tenancy continues to be rolled over or is renewed and the deposit is safely held in an approved protection scheme, the landlord or letting agent doesn’t need to re-serve information.
3. Landlords or letting agents who took deposits before 6 April 2007 on a tenancy that hasn’t changed won’t face fines for not protecting the deposit, but they won’t be able to gain possession of their property via a Section 21 notice until the deposit has been protected or returned to the tenant (or whoever paid the deposit).
Time to Sort Deposits Out
Landlords and letting agents now have a 90-day window of opportunity to sort out any deposits they hold for tenancies that began before 6 April 2007.
