Protecting student deposits

Anyone living in a university city will be aware of the yearly transition of first year students from halls of residence to privately rented accommodation for the remainder of their studies. Not surprisingly, my office receives an increased level of complaints from students and landlords several months after this transition occurs on the top of protecting student deposits. The current trend is for tenancies to be agreed months in advance of the start date, often with significant sums taken upfront to reserve properties, as students want to secure a property for the next academic year prior to their end of year exams. In the past, under the previous tenancy deposit protection arrangements, where a security deposit was taken, the agent had been able to retain these monies before registering them shortly after the commencement of the tenancy. However, the Localism Act, which came into force on 6 April, changed Tenancy Deposit Protection legislation and now the deposit holder has a 30 day period to register it with a tenancy deposit scheme and provide the prescribed information effective from the date those monies are received. This is an absolute time limit which allows the tenant to make a claim, if needed, 31 days after payment regardless of whether the requirements relating to deposit protection have been met. The penalties for not registering the deposit and providing the prescribed information can be severe; the…