Landlords And Agents – Your Time Is Almost Up!

Landlords and agents have until Tuesday June 23 – that’s this coming Tuesday – to protect deposits that were taken before April 6, 2007, which they are still holding.

It has been required for some time that new tenancies must lodge deposits with a third party organisation to avoid landlords disappearing with tenant’s deposits or – as is more common – retaining some or all of it against dubious ‘damage’ caused.

In such a case, the deposit service would be there to arbitrate a sensible solution.

Nearly 20% of tenants who had lost their deposit prior to legislation felt it was unjustified.

Whilst there has been a reasonable amount of publicity regarding this deadline our completely unscientific reaseach (we spoke to a number of letting agents about it) shows that for many the message hasn’t got through.

The consequences however are serious with fines of up to 3 times the deposit amount as well as causing potential difficulty getting a tenant to leave.

If you think the new legislation may affect you speak to your agent or visit an authorised Deposit Protection website for further information.

Just do it soon… the clock is ticking!