Tenants, Is Your Rental Deposit Protected?
Typically, landlords ask for 1 month’s rent as a deposit to help protect against any damage to a rental property, to cover cleaning bills and in the case of unpaid utility bills. There have been various cases when tenants who looked after properties and believe there to be no damage or disputes with bills have struggled to have their deposits reimbursed when moving on. This is why extra protection has been given to tenants via the introduction of government approved deposit schemes.
Tenancy Deposit Schemes
When renting privately, with a small number of exceptions, landlords are required to register your tenancy deposit with a tenancy deposit scheme. This should be done within 30 working days of your tenancy start date and there are currently 3 official tenancy deposits schemes approved by the Scottish Government – MyDeposits Scotland, Safe Deposits Scotland and Letting Protection Service Scotland. Your deposit will be held by the deposit scheme for the length of your tenancy, helping to protect your money against the dealings of rogue landlords.
Is your deposit protected?
Within 30 working days of your tenancy beginning, our letting agents – on behalf of your landlord will place your deposit with Safe Deposits Scotland, which keeps our tenants protected and makes all our landlords legally compliant.
If you have rented a home directly from the landlord and you have paid a deposit but your landlord doesn’t register it within the required time period, you can apply to the First-tier Tribunal for Scotland Housing and Property Chamber who can order the landlord to pay you up to three times the deposit amount.
You can check the websites of the 3 Scottish Government approved deposit schemes to see whether your deposit has been registered with them by filling in a few details online. Instances where landlords aren’t required to register a deposit include if the landlord is a family member or is resident in the property or in the case of holiday lets, properties used by religious organisations, agricultural tenancies and supported accommodation.
Getting a deposit back
When it comes to getting your deposit back, we apply on your landlord’s behalf to the deposit scheme for repayment though you can also apply as a tenant if you believe your landlord hasn’t applied in time. The deposit scheme will contact you to check you agree with the amount to be repaid. If there are any disputes on deductions to your deposit, for instance to cover damages to the property, then you may, if you so choose, apply to the dispute resolution process which will be handled by an independent adjudicator.
With all the properties we manage, we make sure they tick all the health and safety as well as legal compliance boxes to make sure both tenants and landlords are protected. See properties to let in our portfolio now.