Second major agency chain quits TDS

News Category: Industry News

Another large firm has quit the Tenancy Deposit Scheme and switched to Mydeposits.

LSL, parent company of Your Move and Reeds Rains, has 584 lettings branches. The move to Mydeposits follows that of Countrywide Residential Lettings. Both firms made the decision to quit following large price hikes by the TDS

The departure of LSL was confirmed by a TDS spokesman. Both LSL and Mydeposits declined to discuss the matter, but Estate Agent Today was able to confirm the arrangement that LSL has with Mydeposits through straightforward inquiries at branch level.

The fact that its two biggest customers have gone appears to have left TDS untroubled. This week, it released a statement saying that over 92% of letting agent members – a total of 2,622 firms – have renewed their subscriptions.

The statistic appears to suggest that Countrywide and LSL were considered as only 2% of the membership, despite their size, number of deposits and value to the scheme.

The TDS also announced that Professor Martin Partington QC, pictured, is to become chairman of The Dispute Service, the organisation that runs the TDS. He takes over from John Hornsey, who remains as an independent member of the board.

A spokesman for the TDS said that Hornsey had wanted to step down before the row over the price hikes, but felt that he could not walk away during the scheme’s difficult times.

A new user group is also being set up at the TDS, to replace its current council.




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