"prescribed information"?

Yellowstar_2

Hi all


I'm just looking for a bit of advice. This is not an urgent query by any means – it’s something that I happened across today and am wondering where I stand.



I’m a tenant, on a periodic tenancy following a fixed term. I have had no contact with the LL, and all communication so far has been through their agent.



About a month after we’d moved in, I searched the 3 deposit schemes to check our deposit was protected. It turned up as “registered” but not “protected” with DPS, and the DPS website suggested I contact my LL/agent to confirm our deposit ID. Which I did. The agents came back and said it was protected and not to worry. Surprise surprise the next day I received an email from DPS saying it was now “protected”, and it gave me the deposit ID.


If I’ve understood correctly, the LL/agent is supposed to issue the tenant with “prescribed information” about how their deposit is protected. Is the automated email I received from DPS the “prescribed information”? It certainly looks nothing like this (found on the dps website http://www.depositprotection.com/documents/prescribed-information-template.pdf), and does not contain a lot of the information in this document (e.g. how the scheme works and that the Ts & C’s are).


If I have not received the “prescribed information” – what would be the best thing to do? Should I request it? Or keep quiet? Would any section 21 notice be invalid if the prescribed information has not been issued to the tenant?


Thanks for any insight!


Yellowstar x

motherofstudents

Sorry, I can't answer all your questions but I sent the 'prescribed information' and 'terms and conditions' to my tenant because as far as I understand, it is the law. It gives information about where your deposit is held and what to do to get it back etc. I think you could ask for it. Maybe someone who knows a bit more about it will give you some more advice.

anselld

S21 is invalid if PI not issued so you might as well keep quiet.
Looks like you have downloaded most of it anyway. Part of the PI is the LL contact details but there are other means to get these if you want to.

see section 215 ......
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2004/34/part/6/chapter/4

tbs624

Yellowstar wrote: »

I’m a tenant, on a periodic tenancy following a fixed term. I have had no contact with the LL, and all communication so far has been through their agent.

About a month after we’d moved in, I searched the 3 deposit schemes to check our deposit was protected. It turned up as “registered” but not “protected” with DPS, and the DPS website suggested I contact my LL/agent to confirm our deposit ID. Which I did. The agents came back and said it was protected and not to worry. Surprise surprise the next day I received an email from DPS saying it was now “protected”, and it gave me the deposit ID.


If I’ve understood correctly, the LL/agent is supposed to issue the tenant with “prescribed information” about how their deposit is protected. Is the automated email I received from DPS the “prescribed information”? It certainly looks nothing like this (found on the dps website http://www.depositprotection.com/documents/prescribed-information-template.pdf), and does not contain a lot of the information in this document (e.g. how the scheme works and that the Ts & C’s are).


If I have not received the “prescribed information” – what would be the best thing to do? Should I request it? Or keep quiet? Would any section 21 notice be invalid if the prescribed information has not been issued to the tenant?

See here for guidance on recent changes to deposit regs. For a s21 notice to be valid your LA/LL has to have (a) scheme registered the tenancy deposit and (b) be able to show that s/he has given you the Scheme's "prescribed information". As you now have confirmation that your deposit *is* registered you may wish to remain silent about the LA's omission on the other part.

There is no excuse for LLs and LAs to fail to comply with the deposit regs - their obligations are made perfectly clear on the scheme's own websitelink.

Passing on the prescribed info to the T is not the responsibility of the Deposit Scheme itself - that responsibility absolutely rests with the LL and his LA

Yellowstar_2

Thanks all for clarifying things for me.

It seems that the best thing to do might be to simply keep quiet for the time being. tbs - I hadn't seen that link before and it was very useful - so thanks for posting it. I hadn't realised that the new rules applied even to tenancies existing BEFORE the new rules came in. This is VERY interesting and useful information.

So it seems that I *could* apply to the court for the return of my full deposit, and a financial penalty for the LL/LA, simply because they have not provided me (the tenant) with the scheme's prescribed information within 30 days of receiving the deposit. They can't retrospectively do this to avoid paying, and I can apply to the court for this even after the tenancy has ended. It also seems as though any Section 21 would only be valid if they returned the full deposit first.

I'm a pretty honest and decent Yellowstar, and so I have no intention of using this information as carte blanche for not cleaning/paying for any damages I have caused when the time comes for me to move out. But it might be worth me remembering this if the LL/LA get sticky over return of the deposit...

Thanks again, y'all!

Yellowstar x