Deposit protection schemes (DPS)

3 min read

This page provides information about the government approved options for securing a deposit.

Your landlord is legally required to register your deposit with a government approved scheme within 30 days of receiving it. There are currently three approved schemes listed below.

The Deposit Protection Service

You can check if your deposit is protected with The Deposit Protection Service on their website.

The Tenancy Deposit Scheme

You can check if your deposit is protected with The Tenancy Deposit Scheme on their website.

MyDeposits

You can check if your deposit is protected with MyDeposits on their website.

A landlord must protect their tenant’s deposit within 30 days and provide them with particular information including:

• the property address
• amount of deposit protected
• the scheme the deposit is registered with
• your contact details

Gov.uk details what landlords have to tell the tenants.

Your tenant can take you to court and you could pay a fine if you do not do this.

If you are a tenant, you can check if your deposit has been registered. Select on the scheme above that your landlord has registered your deposit with and select ‘is my deposit protected?’, then fill in the required information.

End of tenancy

Landlords should return the deposit within 10 days of the end of the tenancy and discuss any deductions – this is the case even if you are evicting a tenant. If you cannot reach an agreement, the deposit protection scheme can help with dispute resolution, or you can choose to go to court.