The beginning
On Monday 2nd July 2012, Scotland’s three government approved tenancy deposit protection schemes began operating. The schemes were established to accommodate legislation introduced the previous year, the Tenancy Deposit Schemes (Scotland) Regulations 2011. 2nd July 2022 is therefore the milestone date for 10 years of tenancy deposit protection in Scotland.
A recap of the regulations
Tenancy deposit regulations were introduced to ensure good practice surrounding the management of deposits. A deposit is an important safeguard for landlords in the event that a tenant’s actions leaves them out of pocket, for example by causing damage to the property or failing to pay a rent instalment. However, there are occasions where some landlords have withheld all or part of a deposit without good reason and others where they have been slow to repay the deposit to the tenant.
Tenancy deposit protection schemes provide mutual assurance to all parties, with the funds held by a neutral organisation which also provides a free alternative dispute resolution service should a disagreement about repayment arise at the end of the tenancy.
The two fundamental compliance points of the regulations are that any landlord or letting agent in receipt of a tenancy deposit must: transfer the deposit to a government approved scheme within 30 working days of the tenancy start date; provide all tenants on the tenancy agreement with particular key information, including confirmation of which scheme holds the deposit and when all or part of the deposit may be retained at the end of the tenancy.
10 years on
Statistics show that at the end of March 2022, Scotland’s three tenancy deposit schemes were collectively protecting 235,217 deposits. At the end of March 2013 this figure was 116,736, meaning there has been a 101% increase in deposits protected between those early days and the present. This indicates a growth in understanding of and compliance with the regulations, something SafeDeposits Scotland has worked with its partners and independently to help achieve over the past 10 years.
In an ever changing world, as a second decade of deposit protection in Scotland commences, nearly a quarter of a million Scottish rented households now have the peace of mind that their money is protected while landlords, letting agents and tenants of these tenancies know there is an opportunity for free dispute resolution should they require it.
