Ignorance about TDS 'among tenants and landlords'

Despite regulations being in place for several months, many landlords and tenants are still unaware of Tenancy Deposit Protection Schemes, an industry expert has claimed.

From April 6th, all deposits taken by landlords or letting agents for assured shorthold tenancies in England and Wales must be protected by a tenancy deposit protection scheme.

However, Chris Town, a spokesperson for the RLA, said that the new rules had not been widely publicised which means that both landlords and tenants were still in the dark about the system.

He explained: "I don't think there's been the publicity [for the scheme] and I don't think it's something that's high on the radar for tenants.

"I dare say there's a number of landlords who are not aware of it as well, or maybe don't understand it and maybe they don't look around.

"There's an assumption nowadays that if you put something on the internet then everybody knows about it. But of course there's quite a lot of people even today who don't use the internet."

Mr Town added that many landlords were put off the scheme because of the detailed inventory that is required.

Despite this, he concluded that the new rules had proved popular for students living in private rental accommodation.