News from the Residential Property Investor, the bi-monthly magazine for RLA members other articles from the November / December 2005 issue RPI news archive

Tenants’ dirty habits - November / December 2005

POOR HOUSE CLEANING by tenants is the main reason why landlords are retaining rental deposits, according to the Tenancy Deposit Scheme. The TDS, a voluntary arbitration scheme, has dealt with over 80 cases in its first 12 months, with a further 40 under resolution.

Almost all the cases have been referred by letting agents - 1,000 of whom are members of the scheme. Tenants are the next likely to refer, followed by landlords. The values of the disputes range from £70 to £12,000.

Lawrence Greenberg, TDS chief executive, said: "As well as opinions differing over what is clean or not, we are most often called upon to adjudicate on the costs of small amounts of damage."

After an adjudication, all deposit money which is ruled to be due to the tenant is returned within five working days. The adjudication itself takes no more than ten days.

Compulsory use of Tenancy Deposit Schemes comes into force next October. One type will be run as an insured scheme. The alternative will be a custodial scheme with a Government-appointed agency holding deposits.

Other articles from the November / December 2005 issue

• RLA attacks soft approach to rent arrears
• Landlord loses a year of rent
• Lively Liverpool
• Crazy for Croatia
• Crackdown
• Tenants' dirty habits
• L is for Licensing
• A case for experts