Massive problem with my deposits

whalster

I have relieved four phone calls today from long term tenants who have read a letter in the post from My Deposits stating that the deposit had been unprotected automatically .and it appears 9 deposits I have with them are the same so expecting more calls.

Landlords must beware and it seems check their junk mail as I have done and within junk are messages stating that unless I went back into the system and confirm the tenancy is still active they would be cancelled .

I called My Deposits and it seems it is their policy to do this whereas the other insurance backed schemes don't, why though after four years?

My Deposits actually cut me off when I asked to complain further ,I will make a. wav file of this conversation and post it online as I recorded it .

Haveany other landlords had this problem? And considering these tenancies started in 2009 and the deposits protected at the time have they decided to automatically unprotect It is an absolute farce and I am livid .

So I am just in the process of re securing them with TDS deposit guard through Residential Landlords Association , I have a lot of other deposits with these and it states on their website deposits will be protected until informed otherwise .
My Deposits were kind enough to offer to re protect them if I paid again good of them eh! So paying through the RLA instead .

I have had hundreds of deposits protected since the scheme came in and on top of having worried tenants calling it reflects very badly on me as a landlord

silvercar

I had a letter in the post outlining their new policy.

Basically saying that from now on if a tenancy becomes a periodic one after the fixed term, you have to let MyDeposits know that the tenancy is continuing. They will then continue to protect it without making a further charge.

The rational is that MyDeposits were holding deposits from a few years back with no idea if the deposits had been returned, the tenancies finished or what. As this deposit scheme is insurance backed the landlord holds the deposit. So a tenancy could have ended and MyDeposits none the wiser. This way MyDeposits will know that all the protections they hold are for deposits still running.

That said, I received notification of this a few months ago in the post. It specified that the next step was to notify, by phone or online, that the tenancy was continuing and they would offer protection; the default was that they would unprotect any deposits where they had no notification that the deposit needed continuously protecting.

whalster

If I had been sent something in the post all well and good but wasn't ,they said to me this afternoon that because the email they sent me had not bounced then it was assumed I had received and read it which is not the case.

However they still hold my telephone number and postal address which they could quite easily have used to contact me .

This is very bad practice on their part and if as sad on their website they are endorsed by the National Landlords Association and backed by the government then it is these two wh should pull them up and bring them into line with the other deposit schemes .

I have literally just finished re securing the nine deposits at a cost of £200 still a lot cheaper than they wanted to charge me again.

It's not the money it's the principle more than anything and the fact they a are leaving landlords wide open, because if I had not had those calls from tenants today then that's the position I would have been in

agrinnall

One question you should be asking yourself is why the email went into your junk mail. Perhaps you should be updating your whitelist with all important email addresses to make sure it doesn't happen again.

I_have_spoken

fnar, fnar!

whalster

Yes I will have to look at a white list once I find out what a white
List is , however My Deposits which is owned by the National Landlords Association should have more regard for its customers ,ok I don't check junk but lots of emails I get come with a confirmation box that you tick to confirm to the sender that you have at least acknowledged receipt .
The clue is in the name national LANDLORDS association ,they are suposed to look out for landlords not put them in jeopardy by leaving them unable to issue s21's etc .

You could say it is an Uphill struggle but really is no laughing matter

SerialRenter

OP - I don't really think it's myDeposits job to make sure you're junk filter is set up correctly. There should have been a letter though, maybe you put your postal address as your rental house? Tenants got the letter after all.

For the reason why they've done this, see here:
http://www.mydeposits.co.uk/sites/default/files/Guidance%20on%20the%20Court%20of%20Appeal%20judgement%20%28Superstrike%29_0.pdf

silvercar

I only had a letter - no email.

gordonbennet

All the tenancy deposit schemes have had to revise their practises since the "Superstrike" ruling. You will have been sent a leaflet about it in the post. I seem to recall it was a generic leaflet from all the organisations outlining how each of the TDSs were responding. Perhaps you missed it thinking it was just another advert?

I'm surprised though that myDeposits weren't a little more lenient about it on this occasion and agree to re-protect for free. There were likely to be teething problems. Perhaps (as they cut you off on the phone) you became too irate too soon? Looking forward to hearing that .wav file....

Frustrating though it is, I don't think they can be held responsible for your spam filter.

silvercar

I was surprised that myDeposits can unilaterally unprotect a deposit on the basis of sending one email and not receiving a reply.

whalster

I have been on the phone to the residential landlords association this morning ,I re protected through deposit guard with them as I said yesterday.
All the other insurance backed schemes have not followed My Deposits and are maintaining their policy of keeping the deposit protected until told otherwise by the landlord .

Apparently following the super strike case all the insurance providers the RLA and the National Landlords Association had a meeting together where it was decided to maintain the above policy , the RLA legal team had received many similar calls to mine and were perplexed as to why the National Landlords Association and Hamilton Fraser insurance who own My Deposits had taken this unilateral action.

I wanted to clarify this morning my re securing of the deposits as I had to put the start dates in 2009 which technically invalidated the new policy as it is was longer than the maximum fixed term period ,three years I think.

I have also been advised that an email is not classed as a durable medium even an email with a read receipt would be dubious and that any change in or cancelation of an insurance policy should have been sent in writing.