The third tenancy deposit scheme operating in England and Wales has announced its bid for the Scottish scheme as part of a consortium which includes Shelter.
The custodial scheme, The Deposit Protection Service, and the National Landlords Association’s spin-off Mydeposits, have already announced their bids.
Now The Dispute Service, which operates the Tenancy Deposit Scheme, has announced its bid, as part of a consortium.
The TDS has joined forces with Shelter and the National Union of Students, plus others to form a new not-for-profit company, SafeDeposits Scotland.
Those in the consortium are the TDS, Scottish Association of Landlords, Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations, Shelter Scotland, National Union of Students Scotland, ARLA and the NAEA and RICS.
The TDS is an insurance-backed scheme aimed at letting agents rather than landlords, and which currently protects over £1bn in tenants’ deposits and has resolved over 30,000 deposit disputes since 2007.
Although it has no experience of running the custodial-only schemes which will be allowed in Scotland, the TDS plans to provide “a number of operational, finance and adjudication services to SafeDeposits Scotland”.
The new company’s head office will be in Scotland where, together with a Glasgow-based call centre, it will be the primary contact for landlords, agents and tenants.
A key feature of the SafeDeposits Scotland bid is that any future surpluses will be used in Scotland for the benefit of the private rented sector, primarily through a new Scottish charitable trust to be created, the SafeDeposits Charitable Trust.
This independent trust will distribute grants for improving tenancy management in the private rented sector throughout Scotland.
The consortium’s bid for a licence to operate a scheme has been submitted to the Scottish Government and is now under consideration.
www.safedepositsscotland.com
.png)
Comments