Interest on security deposits- whose is it?

scoobydooneedsaclue

We are currently renting and are coming up to renewing the tenancy for the second year.
To keep things brief, my question is are we legally entitled to the interest that our security deposit would have earned during the year that the estate agents have been holding it???
If so i believe that there are a lot of people out there losing out on money to greedy estate agents because they are none the wiser.
I would appreciate any info on this subject.
Kind regards C.

clutton_2

if your deposit is lodged with DPS then - they pay no interest at all to anyone

if it is with Mydeposits or TDSL then the money is in the landlords account, but s/he will have had to pay £50+ to "protect" your money... so i think, as a LL, that your asking for interest is.. well.. cheeky.....

in any case how much money are you talking about £500 for 6 months at 1.5%p.a. - a few pennnies methinks....

greedy ? LL or tenant ?

RobertoMoir

What Clutton said, basically. I think you mis-understand how security deposits work these days. Now if of course you're saying your deposit is improperly protected and is part of some massive slush fund somewhere in a very large EA that's a different kettle of cod. Still not sure my first question in that case would be "who gets the interest" though.

ET1976

I don't know about the other schemes, but I use the DPS (although I have yet to get to the deposit return stage with them yet), and this is from the FAQs on their website. Given current interest rates you'd have to be renting the same place for a very long time to get anything meaningful back! edit: I got an earbashing a few months ago from a regular poster on here about not passing interest on to my tenants...


What happens to the interest that is generated on deposit submissions, and how is this repaid?

Both agents/landlords and tenants are eligible to receive interest in the event that some/all of the deposit is returned to them. However, they can each elect to waive their portion of interest that has accrued, in which case it will be retained by The DPS.
The rate of interest paid will vary from time to time relative to the Bank of England Base Lending Rate (Base Rate). Currently, interest will be paid at Base Rate minus 2.32%. The rate at which interest is paid is reviewed annually with the Communities and Local Government (CLG).

Horizon81

Base rate -2.32%? Doesn't that mean you'd end up owing them money!!!

clutton_2

DPS have paid no interest for the past year... they sent out emails to everyone saying that as interest rates had gone down they would no longer pay any interest.

i dont know why, but of all the problems/complaints we read on here, this one has really annoyed me

the assumption that many EAs/LA/LL are stealing interest from tenants when OP openly admits to not knowing how the system works

and moaning about a few pennies.....

think its time for a camomile

no wonder Dr Julie Rugg found that nationally landlords were "demonised" - posts like this Really show that.....

c_

ET1976

at least they didn't ask you to pay them on account of the negative rate:rotfl:!

clutton_2

Kevin Firth (CEO of DPS) has handled £480,000,000 of tenants monies since he got the franchise.....

""at least they didn't ask you to pay them on account of the negative rate" - if he thought he could have got away with it - i am sure he would have tried "

Milliewilly

clutton wrote: »

Kevin Firth (CEO of DPS) has handled £480,000,000 of tenants monies since he got the franchise.....

""at least they didn't ask you to pay them on account of the negative rate" - if he thought he could have got away with it - i am sure he would have tried "

Same with the Inland Revenge - they are paying zero % to anyone who is owed money. They are not extending the same generous courtesy to anyone owing any tax though.

clutton_2

at least with the Inland Revenue you can appeal a tax claim..... not with DPS