Is new tenant deposits ‘charter’ a blueprint for future rules?

The UK’s longest-established tenant deposits scheme says it may make compliance with its new ‘deposits charter’ a condition of membership in the future. Drawn up with the help of The Property Ombudsman, ARLA Propertymark and RICS, its Code of Recommended Practice outlines the standards it expects of The Deposit Service (TDS) members when protecting deposits. The document also spells out how agents should frame terms of business with landlords and draw up tenancy agreements, complete check in and check out reports and negotiate deposit deductions. Tenant deposits Although TDS says its new ‘charter’ is not compulsory and only previous rules will be enforced formally, TDS says it “does reserve the right in the future to make compliance a membership a requirement”. The company also says that, because it deals with over 15,000 deposit disputes a year, this gives it the “outstanding insight into what causes tenancy deposit disputes, and what can be done better to avoid them arising”. But TDS is careful to point out that its charter does not replace the existing and “much more substantial” deposit codes of practice already in place from the other industry organisations. “It captures, in an easy to understand statement, those ‘best practice’…