{"id":12802,"date":"2013-07-05T12:59:04","date_gmt":"2013-07-05T11:59:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brlets.co.uk\/news\/?p=12802"},"modified":"2025-07-24T08:31:29","modified_gmt":"2025-07-24T07:31:29","slug":"landlords-need-now-risk-fined","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.benhams.com\/news\/benham-reeves\/landlords-need-now-risk-fined\/","title":{"rendered":"Landlords: what you need to do now or risk being fined"},"content":{"rendered":"

Your core obligation: Protecting tenant deposits<\/h2>\n

All landlords with properties in the UK should know by now that they must protect a tenant\u2019s\u00a0deposit otherwise they are unable to evict a tenant until the deposit has been returned and\u00a0unlikely to recover any money if there is damage or rent arrears. They will also have to pay\u00a0compensation to the tenant equivalent to three times the deposit.<\/p>\n

\"Landlords<\/p>\n

Warning: Landlords are the new target for litigators<\/h2>\n

\u201cThe worrying development is that the group of unrepentant, no win no fee litigators are now\u00a0looking for another victim after the PPI cases and have set their eyes on unsuspecting\u00a0Landlords.\u201d says Marc von Grundherr, Director of Benham & Reeves\u00a0Estate Agents \u00a0(www.benhams.com). \u201cWith the law making unprotected deposits illegal and awarding an\u00a0automatic return of the deposit to the tenant, plus automatic compensation of three times the\u00a0deposit, there is big money to play for. Landlords are going to get caught as these litigators\u00a0will not take any prisoners in their quest for fees.\u201d<\/p>\n

Understanding the tenancy deposit laws<\/h2>\n

Tenancy deposit laws were introduced in the UK to ensure deposits paid to landlords are\u00a0kept safe and that a tenant gets their deposit back at the end of the tenancy, so long as\u00a0there has not been a breach of the tenancy agreement, such as unpaid rent or damage to\u00a0the property. Marc says: \u201cIt is now more important than ever that landlords are aware of the\u00a0laws governing tenancy deposits to avoid succumbing to a court case and big fines.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 30-day compliance rule<\/h2>\n

Landlords letting out properties in England and Wales on an Assured Shorthold Tenancy\u00a0(AST,) started after 6th April 2007, must safeguard the tenant\u2019s deposit in a government\u00a0approved tenancy deposit protection scheme within the first 30 days of receiving the money.<\/p>\n

Beyond protection: Providing “prescribed information”<\/h2>\n

In addition, landlords are legally obliged to give tenants \u201cprescribed information\u201d which\u00a0details; the scheme the deposit is registered with, who is holding the deposit, how much the\u00a0deposit amount is, who paid the deposit and the contact details of all parties. Landlords\u00a0must also by law give tenants a booklet (provided by the scheme) which is a tenant\u2019s guide\u00a0to what the scheme is about as well as advice on getting the deposit back at the end of the\u00a0tenancy. Marc continues: \u201cAll landlords need to be aware that if they do not give a tenant\u00a0ALL of this information within 30 days of paying the deposit then a tenant may have a legal\u00a0claim to compensation. Furthermore, if a Landlord is using an agent, make sure the Agent is\u00a0protecting the deposit as the landlord is ultimately responsible\u201d.<\/p>\n

For more information on Benham & Reeves Estate Agents, please call 020 7433 6670\u00a0or visit https:\/\/www.benhams.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Your core obligation: Protecting tenant deposits All landlords with properties in the UK should know by now that they must protect a tenant\u2019s\u00a0deposit otherwise they are unable to evict a tenant until the deposit has been returned and\u00a0unlikely to recover any money if there is damage or rent arrears. They will also have to pay\u00a0compensation … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Landlords: what you need to do now or risk being fined”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26094,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12802","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-benham-reeves"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.benhams.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12802","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.benhams.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.benhams.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.benhams.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.benhams.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12802"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.benhams.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12802\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26105,"href":"https:\/\/www.benhams.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12802\/revisions\/26105"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.benhams.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26094"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.benhams.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.benhams.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.benhams.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}