The first-ever history of Tenancy Deposit legislation, legal challenges and proposed future changes has been published by the House of Commons Library.
It is being presented to MPs, although it is also available to the wider public.
The document, running to over 40 pages, does not contain new proposals but is for the first time a summary of how deposits were introduced in 1998 when the National Association of Citizens Advice Bureaux highlighted problems tenants had in reclaiming deposits from some private landlords.
The new document runs through the provisions of the Housing Act 2004 to place a duty on ‘the appropriate national authority’ to establish at least one statutory tenancy deposit protection scheme, and how such schemes became operational from 2007.
Bringing the history of deposits up to date, the Commons Library report says there were around 4.1m deposits protected in England and Wales at the end of March 2020, with a total value of around £4.31 billion.
There are separate reference to the Scotland and Northern Ireland schemes.
Changes to the legislation proposed through The Localism Act 2011 and The Deregulation Act 2015 are covered, along with the Tenant Fees Act 2019 which has placed a cap on the amount that tenants can be required to pay in the form of a security deposit in England.
The report concludes by mention the current government’s analysis - which has been going on for two years - of submissions to a consultation process on future changes to deposits.
It says: “The Queen’s Speech 2021 confirmed the Government’s intention to outline proposals for a new ‘lifetime’ tenancy deposit model later in the year. A White Paper setting out a package of reforms to the private rented sector is expected in autumn 2021, with legislation to follow in due course.”
You can download the full House of Commons Library report here.
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Deposits limited to the equivalent of one month's rent means tenants won't pay the final month's rent, leaving landlords insufficient time to take them to court before the end of the tenancy.
Landlords will need to insist on rent being paid quarterly in advance from the start, or scrap deposits altogether and increase the rent pro-rata, which discriminates against good and honest tenants.
Deposit isn’t worth the trouble now, guarantor or no tenancy
True, but if we have their NI number we can track them down once they have left.
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