New legislation to protect tenants in Northern Ireland comes into effect on April 1st, with government-licensed Tenancy Deposit Schemes (TDS) launched to bring Northern Ireland into line with England, Wales and Scotland.
All landlords and letting agents in Northern Ireland who take a deposit from their tenant must submit it to the scheme within 14 working days from the receipt of money. The law applies to only new deposits.
They must also provide the tenant with important information about where their deposit has been protected (The Regulation 12 prescribed information) within 28 days.
Landlords and agents will have to protect their tenant’s deposits using either a custodial or insurance-based option. In other words, they must decide whether they wish to hold onto their tenant’s deposit money themselves (by using an insurance-based scheme), or hand it over to the scheme to retain for the duration of the tenancy (by using a custodial scheme).
Tenancy deposit protection was introduced in England and Wales in 2006 and in Scotland last year to raise standards in the private-rented sector and it’s hoped its introduction here will do the same for Northern Ireland tenants who until now have had no protection or guarantee over their deposit.
my|deposits Northern Ireland has been formally approved by the Government to operate a scheme in Northern Ireland having run a similar scheme in England and Wales over the past six years and Scotland since last year.
The scheme has protected £1.6billion worth of deposits on behalf of nearly 100 thousand members along the way and has consistently met all targets set by the Government.
There are strict penalties for of up to three times the deposit amount for those who do not protect a tenant’s deposit under the new law or provide the necessary information about how the deposit will be protected to the tenant, meaning it’s important all involved are informed about how the scheme will affect them.
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