Tenant Deposit Scheme

[biryani]

Hi all. I wonder if anyone can help? I'm letting a property soon and I have no experience of tenancy deposits under the new arrangements. For my latest tenant, I waived the deposit as I saw no point in taking one as I unable to invest it in the peoprty under the current arrangments. Is this correct? People I know who have used the tenancy deposit scheme claim it takes ages to get it back at the end of the tenancy anyway. Help! Thanks.

A deposit isn't for investing in the property, it's there in case the tenant trashes the place and you need to redecorate/repair.

If you take a deposit you must put it in the tenancy deposit scheme, this is to protect the tenants form unscrupulous landlords who spend the deposit and never give it back.

If you don't take a deposit then you risk the tenants doing horrible things to your house and you having no way to get any money off them.

You don't actually have to hand the money over to the TDS, you just have to state the amount you received and then agree to hand it back at the end (minus any agreed deductions), In between there is nothing stopping you doing what you like with it as long as you are able to pay it back when the tenant leaves. You pay a small admin charge that covers an insurance premium that guarantees the TDS will be refunded the money if you do disappear with it and can then pass it onto the tenant.

I don't know why it has taken your friends ages to get the money back - it's the LL playing silly buggers, not the scheme itself which is at fault and, as Trillian says, if you don't take a deposit you risk paying for any damage etc that the tenant may cause.

I got my deposit back from the scheme about 2-3 days after applying. I found it quite efficient from a tenants point of view.

Thanks both. Trillian - by "investing" in the property I mean funding for the duration of or prior to the tenancy ie decorating, replacement of white goods or anything else that may arise. The current tenant I have is a friend whom I see everyday; otherwise of course I would have taken a deposit. Actually, you don't seem to agree on whether it's compulsory to deposit the money or not but I'm inclined to follow lala's advice here and check it out before the tenancy agreement is signed.

There are different ways of doing it but the scheme but the method I use is the cheapest option which is registering the amount and paying an insurance premium. HTH

yes - I'll definitely go for that. PS: what's "HTH"

"Hope that helps"