It is a worrying fact, according to the Deposit Protection Service (DPS) that a huge number of landlords are still ignoring the deposit legislation that requires them to put their tenant deposits with a Government registered body. It is true that the number of landlords choosing to ignore the law has halved over the past year but that still leaves an awful lot who are taking the risk of continuing to totally ignore it. According to the DPDS 30 percent of landlords openly admit to ignoring the law.
The result of this situation is that the DPS have now put their support behind the idea of a landlord register in the hopes that it will make forcing landlords to comply with the deposit laws easier.
Kevin Firth, director of the DPS, said “More needs to be done and ignorance is no excuse. We believe that the introduction of a national register would make landlords more accountable and offer tenants a greater level of protection. Mandatory registration and deposit protection would leave rogue landlords with nowhere to hide.”
Whatever you make think of this legal requirement, the fact that so many landlords continue to ignore it is great fodder for those who wish to make sure our industry is tightly controlled by Government. Perhaps it is time we all thought about doing the right thing as this demonstration that we are unable to self-regulate can only lead to trouble as far as I am concerned.
