Landlords Lack Of Faith In Tenancy Deposit Schemes

UK Landlords and Letting Agents Have No Faith In Tenancy Deposit Schemes

UK Landlords Have No Faith In Tenancy Deposit Schemes

Findings published online this week, reveal that UK landlords have an underwhelming lack of faith or trust in any of the Government backed tenancy deposit schemes.

The results of the survey of 100 UK PRS landlords, 50 lettings and property management agents and 1000 tenants by digital inventory provider Imfuna, conducted during February this year, were published by landlord today.

Following the introduction of new sections to the Localism Act that came into force on 6th April 2012 all landlords now face large fines of up to 3 times the deposit if the prescribed information is not correctly provided or if the tenant’s deposit is not registered in one of the three government backed schemes correctly within 30 days.

The statistics show that 100% of the UK PRS landlords surveyed have no faith in tenancy deposit schemes and all believe that the schemes are designed in favour of tenants.

100% of  the landlords surveyed believe that tenancy deposit schemes were not designed in their favour.

Lettings and property management agents shared the same sentiment, with only 20% stating that the tenancy deposit schemes favoured landlords and 52% thought the balance had tipped in favour of tenants. A further 22% felt that the schemes benefit neither party.

49% of the 1000 tenants surveyed were unaware of the existence of tenancy deposit schemes and did not know for certain if their deposits had been protected.

Overall awareness of the deposit schemes was found to be high among landlords (99%) and lettings and property managing agents (88%).

Tenant awareness levels were lower, with only 43% of tenants aware of the schemes before their tenancy began.

Legal 4 Landlords remind all UK landlords that the protection of a tenant’s deposit is a legal requirement and must be correctly registered, with all the prescribed information provided, with 1 of the 3 Government backed schemes within 30 days of receipt of a deposit from a tenant.

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