I tried to repay my tenants deposit last night or should I say accept their request.The first annoyance is that notification email from the Deposit Protection Service (DPS) had found it's way into my spam folder. Then I couldn't find my repayment ID. I needed this too.
Having eventually found my ID after a long time searching my historic email (thank goodness I'd not deleted it like my dad does) I then unfortunately had to reject the tenants request to repay the full amount. Rather than acknowledging this as an action the system seemed to keep calling for my repayment ID but appeared to reject it for being wrong! Eventually I worked out that the ID was wrong because when I requested my repayment ID they had actually reset the old ID with a new number (but had failed to tell me!)
Nothing I have seen so far has changed my mind that the website could do with improvement and that is most likely to come from the competition from another custodial deposit scheme.
I've never worked out why the government licensed two insurance based deposit protection schemes but only one custodial one. Any answers anybody?
Landlord insurance - all risks
I am glad that they only licensed one custodial scheme - what a waste of tax payers money. I know it was MEANT to be zero cost to the tax payer - but it actually cost millions!
ReplyDeleteI don't trust anything the Government proposes - they're ALWAYS ill thought out. I use an insurance backed scheme where I keep the deposit so that, when the tenant, ask for it back, I can easily give it to them - no need to apply to the custodians and get in all sorts of mess.
ReplyDeleteThe only time the insurance company gets involved is when there's a dispute and, in my 4 & 1/2 years experience, either the tenants left quietly or they're still there.
One tenant left my property in a mess and the agent didn't return their deposit - it was used to put right the mess they left behind.
I had two deposits with DPs, one the letting company went to bankrupt, as you can imagine a nightemare. The debt left by the tenant was £1700.00 DPS awaded the deposit to the tenant so had i not lost the money in rent but the deposit too. How about being fair to the landlord. Next ome they awarded it to the tenant and I was not even consulted so i lost out again.
ReplyDeleteI have had ALL my deposits with DPS since the day they started. I have repaid and recovered monies without one iota of problem. I personally do not understand why people have so much trouble with the smallest of things. My tenants like it, I like it & strangely enough I also like my tenants and never had one to complain about.
ReplyDeletePerhaps if you didn't use letting agents and found the right tenants yourselves and actually became responsible landlords your problems would be halved.
One final point, why would I pay anyone for an insurance backed policy that I don't need.
I agree with Steve, I have used DPS since the start of the protected deposit schemes and have probably placed in excess of 50 deposits with them. I find their web site and system very easy to use. Any frustrations with the scheme are down to government rules and regulations and not the DPS.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the feedback. But can anybody explain how the Batch system is supposed to work?
ReplyDeleteI always use an insurance based scheme. The tenants seem to like the idea that they will get thier money back immediately, no hassle. Dealing with a yet another government body is just complicating things for them.
ReplyDeleteI have not had problems when the deposit was being returned in full to tenants, this works well on the system.
ReplyDeleteRecently I needed to recover all of a deposit to cover lost rent when a tenant moved out suddenly without giving me any notice. The tenant was not well organised and forgot to tell me they were moving!
This system has now been waiting for over two weeks for the tenant to reply and agree to my legitimate claim so that I may be paid.
(They did get full details from myself of the claim and reasons for making it, verbally and in writing when they checked out and returned the keys.)
Looks like I need to go to the trouble of making a single claim now, why am I not surprised that this tenant has not bothered to answer or respond to the DPS system?
Been going through the DPS for a return of the deposit due to damage and flooding of a bathroom. Non cleaning of the house and non ventilation causing bad smells which no one, even contractors could stand, also no care to the garden. Submitted photographs and invoices to the DPS who did not forward all to the ADR scheme. They found in favour of the tenant despite us having to pay enormous amounts of money to get the property habitable again. They will do the same to the next LL. I am moving out of this now, only got involved due to the stagnant housing market. It will mean there will not be good LL's. Why should I bring our property up to the level it was when I know the tenant will abuse it and walk away without paying anything. Maybe now the tenant will have to be given rubbish properties because that is how they hand it back.
ReplyDelete