The Government has just announced that from 2015, the tenancy deposit rules will be changed for  residential landlords.

Once the Deregulation Bill achieves Royal Assent and becomes law it will mean that from then on, residential landlords will no longer be required to follow deposit protection procedure for a second time, if a fixed periodic tenancy carries on after its original end date.

The rules that stand at the moment are that the landlord will have to, for a second term of occupancy, once again pay the tenant's deposit into an approved scheme and provide another copy of the prescribed information to the tenant.

This followed the Court of Appeal decision in 2013 in the Superstrike v Rodrigues case, ruled that if a fixed term tenancy evolved, after its end date, into becoming a statutory periodic tenancy then it is deemed to be a new tenancy and therefore the tenancy deposit rules come into force for a second time. Landlords failing to carry this procedure out, until the new amendment is passed, had no hope at all of being able to correct their position.

Henry Robinson, President of an association representing landowners, farmers and rural businesses, a large number of which let residential properties, said: “Once the new law comes into force; there will be no need for the landlord to keep providing the information to the tenant every time the tenancy is renewed and, while all deposits will now have to be protected, there will be an opportunity for landlords to get their house in order without facing significant penalties."

 

 

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