New protection for tenants

Local MP ensures security for tenants' deposits.

Kemptown MP Des Turner has secured a change in the law to ensure landlords cannot withhold deposits without a valid reason.

He said "there is an unusually large proportion of privately rented accommodation locally, and at the end of a tenancy there is all too frequently a problem where landlords and letting agents withold the tenant's deposit for no valid reason."

Des tabled amendments to the recent Housing Bill proposing a National Tenancy Deposit Scheme which came into effect on 6th April 2007. From now on, when a tenant gives their deposit to a letting agency, agent or landlord, the landlord has ten days to decide whether to place the money with a Custodian or the Deposit Protection Service, or to use protection insurance. Either way the return of the deposit is assured and the landlord has to make a claim if he or she considers there to have been any damage caused by the tenant.