Do I need a s.213 notice?

The chances are if you are letting a property you will need a section 213 notice. This is because it is required under the governments Tenancy Deposit Scheme. It simply tells the tenant where you are holding their tenancy deposit along with other details about you the landlord.


What is a section 213 notice?

A section 213 notice simply contains all the information needed by the tenant so they know where their deposit is being held and what they need to do to get it back when the tenancy comes to an end.

Where do I get a section 213 notice?

Both types of section 213 notice are contained within Property Hawk's property management software and can be downloaded for free.

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Landlord Forms Forms Forms

Landlord we love forms, don't we....

No - actually we don't, most of us hate them. I certainly do!

Unfortunately they are a fact of life. We have been providing our Free Tenancy Agreement for several years which I know many of you use. We are in the future looking at improving it, but if you have any suggestions please let us know.

However, many landlords new to Property Hawk may have not known that we also provide many other Free landlord forms. These are:

Section 21 notice for possession
Section 8 notice for possession
Section 13 notice to increase the rent
Section 213 notice (prescribed information) TDS
Guarantor forms

They can all be found in the new section on landlord forms. Remember if you do have a Property Hawk account you don't need to go through the process of re-registering. Just login and go to the Property Manager and then Forms. You can then download them from there.

Right, where was I... yep back to my form filling!

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Landlords creating a tenancy need to remember the section 213 notices.

Landlords that are letting their property and take a deposit will need to ensure that they serve what is known as a section 213 notice on their tenants.


What is it?

A section 213 notice is a set of information explaining to the tenant how their deposit has been protected.

This information has also to be given to any third party / interested party (i.e. someone who has paid the deposit on behalf of the tenant whether in whole or part). For example, a parent who pays the deposit on behalf of a student tenant.


Where can I get them from?

Landlords can download a FREE section 213 notice from Property Hawks Property Manager. Simply login and go to the forms section. Then choose from the prescribed section 1 or 2 depending on whether you are using the custodial scheme run by the Deposit Protection Service or one of the insurance based schemes. You will also need to print of part two of the forms from the standard form section below.

Serve the section 213 notice on your tenants when they sign the tenancy agreement and make sure they sign it to acknowledge receipt. Make sure you also have a copy for your records.


What happens if I don't do it?

The legislation is quite clear. Failure to serve this notice or the required information effectively makes a landlord liable for the same penalties as if you had not protected the actual deposit. Potentially you are liable for a penalty of up to 3 times the deposit and will not be able to serve a section 21 notice for accelerated possession.

For more info on the section 213 notice

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Importance of sticking to DPS RULES.

Any landlord that is tempted to disregard the Deposit Protection Scheme on the basis that they are a good person and will treat their tenants properly and that the law and justice will prevail should read this recent post.

It is a tale of how a landlord suffered from being owed three months of rent and having their apartment trashed still ended up out of pocket despite the court accepting that the tenants actions were wrong!

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This is because the tenants counter sued and used the provisions of the DPS legislation to claim that they had not been notified correctly under the provisions of section 213 of the 2004 Housing Act.

Make sure you donwload your FREE section 213 Notice when taking a tenancy deposit.

Those landlords that still haven't provided their tenant with a section 213 notice should do it immediately even if they failed to provide the required information at the time of the tenancy. Some recent court cases have shown that if the landlord has provided the tenant with the section 213 information to the tenant by the time the case gets to court the judge is reluctant to award the claim of 3 months rent against the landlord for failure to comply with the legislation.