Landlord and tenants worried about tenant deposit scheme
It has emerged that both tenants and landlords are becoming concerned about the effectiveness of one of the three tenant deposit schemes that were set up to protect the deposits of tenants, with concerns that measures that have been put into place to cut costs could actually end up affecting the quality and effectiveness of the scheme.
Three such schemes were brought into play in 2007, and the scheme about which many tenants and landlords are concerned in the Tenancy Deposit scheme, which is the biggest of the three independent schemes.
The schemes were set up to protect the deposits of tenants, and with this in mind landlords that thought they had a right to keep any or all of a tenant’s deposit would have to provide evidence of the damage or arrears for which they intended to keep the deposit. A decision would then be made with regards to whether the landlord had a right to keep all or part of the deposit. Independent adjudicators would be used to resolve any disputes with the claims.
However, it has been revealed recently that the Tenancy Deposit Scheme is cutting back on staff members in order to cut costs, and this is what is causing concern to tenants and industry officials with regards to whether the scheme can keep up with its current level of service. The scheme is said to be cutting down its employee numbers from seventy to just twelve, and the National Landlords Association is convinced that this could cause problems.
Officials from the Tenancy Deposit Scheme have denied that there will be any adverse effects from the changes to staffing, stating that it will help to make the whole process speedier. The TDS said: ‘We’ve brought adjudication in-house, which should make it a quicker process. We have a near 50:50 split on cases in favour of the tenant or landlord, so there is no bias.’
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