Tenancy Deposit Scheme - Landlord success rates

Landlords looking to protect their tenants deposits will have to use one of three government approved schemes.

The three are:

1. Deposit Protection Service (DPS) (custodial scheme)
2. My Deposits (insurance scheme)
3. Tenancy Deposit Scheme (TDS) (insurance scheme)

The latest research on how these different schemes are performing makes interesting reading.

Firstly according to Mydeposits, their scheme ends in just 0.61% of cases end in dispute.

On the other hand Tenancy Deposit Scheme (TDS) – which it is thought to have around 50% market share – suggest that 2% of cases this year will end in dispute.

Percentage success for landlords

Most interestingly from a landlords point of view are the differences in the outcomes of disputes, all of which legally have to be resolved by the independent process of ADR (Alternative Dispute Resolution).

The TDS – a non profit making organisation says that the results break down 50:50 in respect of decisions for tenants and landlords/agents both where disputes are found wholly in favour of one or the other, and where amounts within the deposits are split between landlord and tenant. These figures seem to be a bit of a cop out non statistics but they are what were supplied.

Mydeposits, which is the other insurance-backed tenancy deposit scheme indicate that 92% of all disputes end either in favour of the tenant or are split decisions. Not good news if you are a landlord. Breaking down the figures further, 55% of disputes are found wholly in favour of the tenant with only 8% found wholly in favour of the landlord or agent. The remaining 31% of disputes are split between the landlord and tenant.

Custodial Scheme - Deposit Protection Scheme (DPS)

The only tenancy deposit scheme which accepts deposit money the Deposit Protection Service (DPS) says that only 18% of adjudications have been fully awarded to the landlord or letting agent. In the case of 38% of disputes between landlord and tenant the monies have been awarded in full to the tenant. The remaining 44% of disputed deposits have been split between landlord and tenant as a result of the arbitrators ruling.

To find out how tenancy deposit arbitrators view a tenancy deposit have a look at our recent article on the arbitrators view.

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