Tenancy Deposits — Your Rights and How to Get Your Money Back

If you have an assured shorthold tenancy (AST) — the most common type — your landlord must:

• ✓Protect your deposit in one of three government-approved schemes within 30 days of receiving it
• ✓Give you 'Prescribed Information' about the scheme within 30 days
• ✓The three approved schemes are: Deposit Protection Service (DPS), mydeposits, and Tenancy Deposit Scheme (TDS)
• ✓The deposit can be protected in a 'custodial' scheme (scheme holds the money) or 'insured' scheme (landlord holds it but pays a premium)

In Scotland, landlords must protect deposits within 30 working days of the tenancy start date. The three approved schemes are: SafeDeposits Scotland, mydeposits Scotland, and Letting Protection Service Scotland.

• ✓Landlords must provide written confirmation of the scheme used within 30 working days
• ✓Penalties for non-protection: the tenant can apply to the First-tier Tribunal for Scotland — penalty is up to 3 times the deposit
• ✓All private residential tenancies (PRTs) are covered — not just ASTs

Northern Ireland introduced mandatory deposit protection in 2013. Landlords must use an approved scheme and provide tenancy deposit information within 28 days.

Your landlord must return your deposit within 10 days of you both agreeing how much you should get back (in England and Wales). In Scotland, the landlord must propose a split within 30 working days of the tenancy ending.

• ✓Your landlord can only make deductions for: unpaid rent, damage beyond fair wear and tear, missing items from the inventory
• ✓'Fair wear and tear' means normal deterioration from living in the property — carpets wearing, paintwork fading. Landlords cannot charge for this
• ✓Your landlord must provide evidence of deductions — estimates alone are not sufficient
• ✓Take photos at move-in and move-out and compare against the check-in inventory
• ✓If there's no inventory, it's much harder for the landlord to prove damage