Landlords

5. Dispute resolution

At the end of the tenancy, the Tenantwhat's this? and Landlordwhat's this? may disagree about how much of the depositwhat's this? should be returned. In these cases (and if both parties agree and satisfy the requirements), they can use the Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) servicewhat's this?, which is free and impartial.

 

Step 1 Advice & Assistance

Tenant mydepositsLandlord

  • mydeposits will provide advice and assistance to help the Tenant and your Landlord to reach agreement over the amount of the deposit to be returned.
  • If our advice and assistance does not does not the parties to reach an agreement, the Tenant can register a formal dispute with mydeposits.

 

Step 2 Tenant notifies mydeposits

Tenantletterarrowmydeposits

  • Tenant requests a Dispute Notification Claim Formwhat's this? from the mydeposits Customer Service Centre.
  • Tenant completes and returns the Dispute Notification Claim Formwhat's this? with any evidence supporting their claim e.g. inventory, photos, rent statements, bills, or other correspondence within 10 days.

 

Step 3 Landlord's counter claim

mydepositsletter

  • mydeposits notifies the Landlord of the claim.
  • mydeposits requests the Landlord's counter claim and evidence within 10 days.

 

Step 4 Disputed amount lodged with mydeposits

xxx

  • Landlord will also be asked to lodge the disputed amountwhat's this? with mydeposits within the same 10 day period, where it will be held in a secure client account.
  • This disputed amount will be held by mydeposits until a fair distribution has been agreed – either through the ADR service or the court.
  • If the Landlord fails to pay the disputed amount to the Scheme within the time allowed, mydeposits will apply the Scheme's discipline procedures to the Landlord leading to their explusion from the Scheme.

 

Step 5 Deposit distributed

LandlorddepositmydepositsdepositTenant

  • mydeposits will distribute the disputed amount based on the decision of the ADR service or court.

 

Summary

  • Within 90 days of the deposit being unprotected, a Tenant can dispute the amount of the returned deposit.
  • If the Tenant disputes the amount of deposit being returned by the Landlord, they can complete a Dispute Notification Claim Formwhat's this? which is available from the mydeposits Customer Service Centre.
  • mydeposits will try to assist the Tenant and the Landlord to reach agreement over the amount of the returned deposit. If our advice and assistance does not result in an agreement, the Tenant can then register a formal dispute with the Tenancy Deposit Scheme. We call this our Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) servicewhat's this?. This service is free and impartial.
  • Where ADR is used, the entire dispute resolution process should not exceed 60 days in most cases.
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(company registered in England no. 05861648)
registered office address: 3rd floor, Kingmaker House, Station Road, New Barnet, Hertfordshire, EN5 1NZ

mydeposits is a trading name of Tenancy Deposit Solutions Ltd, an appointed representative of HFIS plc who are authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority.