You might be protecting your deposits, but not all landlords are. According to a survey carried out on behalf of www.money.co.uk, 284,000 landlords haven’t bothered protecting tenants’ deposits, despite the fact that they are obliged to. This is around 15% of all landlords in the UK, which is an astonishingly high figure.
Landlords at Risk
Landlords who don’t protect their tenants’ deposits are leaving themselves at risk. It is now mandatory to place deposits in a government backed deposit scheme within 30 days of receipt. Landlords also have to give their tenants information about where their money is deposited. And if something goes wrong, the deposit scheme gives landlords (and tenants) access to a dispute resolution process.
“Renting is a money minefield and with troubled times ahead for the buy-to-let market, the problems caused by ‘dodgy landlords’ are only likely to get worse,” says Hannah Maundrell from money.co.uk.
“While many landlords are doing the right thing and protecting deposits in one of the official government backed schemes, a worrying amount of money is falling through the cracks and far too many tenants are being left vulnerable.”
Compulsory Landlord Register
She is calling for the government to step in and take action, by introducing a landlord register that lists every landlord in England and Wales. Such a scheme is already in place in Scotland and Wales and she believes there is no reason why it shouldn’t work equally as well in the rest of the UK.
