Recent judicial decisions have highlighted the importance of ensuring you have served your tenant with all the correct documents and information relating to the protection of their deposit. If you do not provide ALL of the relevant documentation to your tenant, any subsequent section 21 notices of eviction may be invalid.

The case of Swindells v Ayannga highlighted how providing your tenant with all the information relating to the protection of their deposit is part of the duty imposed by law on landlords who choose to take deposits from tenants. Mr Swindell let a property to Mr Ayannga in 2010 and took a deposit of £950 which he protected with the Deposit Protection Service alongside serving Mr Ayannga with information about his deposit and the relevant scheme.

Mr Swindells later sought repossession of the property via a section 21 notice but Mr Ayannga did not leave and so possession proceedings were issued. Mr Ayannga filed a defence based on the fact that the additional information document provided to him by his landlord did not contain details regarding the procedures available to him under the scheme.

In this case the tenants defence was upheld and the section 21 notice was deemed invalid as the landlord had not served the tenant with all of the information relating to his deposit required by law. The landlords arguments that the information was available freely online and that the tenant was not prejudiced by the missing information were dismissed.

This highlights the importance of serving all of the information prescribed by law to your tenants with regards to protecting your deposit.

Information landlords must give tenants

Once you have received the deposit, you have 30 days to tell your tenant/s:

• the address of the rented property

• how much deposit you’ve paid

• how the deposit is protected

• the name and contact details of the tenancy deposit protection (TDP) scheme and its dispute resolution service

• their (or the letting agency’s) name and contact details

• the name and contact details of any third party that’s paid the deposit

• why they would keep some or all of the deposit

• how to apply to get the deposit back

• what to do if you can’t get hold of the landlord at the end of the tenancy

• what to do if there’s a dispute over the deposit

More information and guidance on dealing with deposits can be found on the  Government website.

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