Mydeposits has been given government approval to operate a custodial based tenancy deposit protection scheme in England and Wales from April 2016.

Protecting tenants’ deposits has been a legal requirement in England and Wales since 2007, with landlords and letting agents having the choice of an insurance based scheme that involves a fee, or a free-to-use custodial scheme to protect deposits and comply with the law.

The announcement is significant because it now means landlords and letting agents who prefer the custodial based option will have a choice in which scheme they use.

Eddie Hooker, CEO of mydeposits, said: “Mydeposits has been through a detailed procurement process with the government and we are delighted to have been given the green light.”

“We’ve been hopeful of winning the contract for some time and have already begun an exciting and ambitious reboot of Mydeposits. We’re taking a fresh look at deposit protection and are investing in our systems and processes to create a faster, smarter scheme designed to remove delays and problems associated with deposit protection.

“We’ve held numerous focus groups with landlords, letting agents and tenants, along with our sponsor, the National Landlords Association, to form a detailed blueprint of how we can improve. We are delighted that landlords and letting agents will soon have a genuine choice of which custodial scheme they use and look forward to welcoming anyone who wants to change from their current provider.

“Our scheme continues to go from strength to strength having also been chosen by the Jersey States as the sole supplier of a custodial tenancy deposit protection scheme on the island which launched earlier this month.”