Tuesday 12 June 2012

Where should you place your tenant's deposit monies

When deciding where to place tenant's deposit monies Landlords may be interested to know that under the Government's Custodial Scheme there is a statutory process which can be followed when Tenants disappear.

If a landlord has made attempts to locate and inform the missing tenants of the consequences of their actions they can approach a Solicitor and sign an Oath confirming that they have made such attempts to locate the missing tenants and providing details of any deductions they have incurred and thereafter they are allowed to release the deposit monies.

Neither of the two insured schemes have this facility and their view will be that since the tenant's monies are held by the Landlord or the letting agent, if usuccessful efforts have been made to find the tenants and the landlord/letting agents has written to them informing them of the consequences of their actions then there would appear to be no dispute. 

The Landlord/letting agent must therefore make their own decision as to whether they release the deposit but if they do and the tenant returns within 6 years then the insurers will expect the money to be returned to them for adjudication.

This published article may contain information of general interest about current legal issues, but does not give legal advice



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