Royston Smith – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Royston Smith on 2016-09-02.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what provisions there are for tenants to ensure that they able to recover security deposits that have been returned to the letting agents by the MyDeposit scheme.

Gavin Barwell

If a tenant meets all their obligations at the end of the tenancy, the deposit will be returned to them in full by the agent (under the insured scheme) or by the tenancy deposit scheme (under the custodial scheme).

If there is a dispute about the amount of deposit to be returned to the tenant, both parties can either agree to use the free alternative dispute resolution (ADR) service provided by the schemes or go to court. If they decide to use the ADR service, the case will be considered by an independent adjudicator and the decision will be binding on both parties.

The disputed amount will be held by the scheme until the court or adjudicator makes a decision on how the amount should be apportioned between the parties.