Tenancy deposit protection, start to finish.

The approved schemes

Deposits must be held in one of the government-approved tenancy deposit schemes: the Tenancy Deposit Scheme (TDS), the Deposit Protection Service (DPS) or mydeposits. Each offers a custodial option, where the scheme holds the money, and an insured option, where the landlord holds it and pays a premium. Custodial is free and is what most private landlords use.

The five-week cap

The Tenant Fees Act caps a tenancy deposit at five weeks' rent where the annual rent is below £50,000, and six weeks' rent above that. Five weeks' rent is the monthly rent multiplied by twelve, divided by fifty-two, times five — which is why the number is rarely round.

The 30-day deadline

You have 30 days from receiving the deposit to protect it in a scheme and to give the tenant the prescribed information. Both halves must be done inside the window — protecting the money but forgetting the paperwork is still a breach. The clock starts on the day the money reaches you, not the day the tenancy starts.

What prescribed information is

• The amount of the deposit and the address of the property.
• The name, address and contact details of the scheme holding it.
• The landlord's name and contact details, and the tenant's.
• The details of anyone else who contributed to the deposit.
• Why any of the deposit might be kept at the end of the tenancy.
• How to apply for the deposit back, and how disputes are resolved.
• A signed certificate confirming the information is accurate.

If the deadline is missed

A tenant can apply to the county court, which may order the landlord to repay the deposit or protect it, and to pay the tenant between one and three times the deposit as a penalty. An unprotected deposit also undermines a landlord's ability to rely on certain possession notices until it is returned. There is no way to cure a late protection retrospectively.

At the end of the tenancy

Agree any deductions in writing, then request release from the scheme. If you disagree, every scheme runs a free alternative dispute resolution service that decides based on the evidence — the inventory, the check-out report, receipts and the written record of what was said during the tenancy. Contemporaneous evidence wins these; recollections do not.

How Signlet handles this

Signlet checks the deposit against the five-week cap while the agreement is being drafted, records the date the money is received, counts down the 30-day deadline, stores the scheme and reference once lodged, and generates the prescribed information for the tenant. Both parties are notified at each stage — held, lodged and protected.