Deposit return under Renter’s Rights Act eviction?
3:20 PM, 20th November 2025, 5 months ago
22
Categories:
Looking at the .gov – Renter’s Rights Act: An overview for Landlords, I saw this under ‘Evicting Tenants’.
(After 01 May 2026) If your tenant paid you a deposit, a court will only give a possession order to evict them if you have put the deposit into a government approved tenancy deposit scheme. A possession order will also only be given if you have returned the deposit to your tenant.
My ask is. Can this be right?
What is the point of a deposit under these conditions?
Thanks,
James
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Mystic Mortar Landlord Horoscope – 21 Nov 2025
Member Since June 2023 - Comments: 14
11:02 PM, 30th November 2025, About 4 months ago
Reply to the comment left by Judith Wordsworth at 22/11/2025 – 08:54
Gave right to rent doc, all gas and electric certificates up to date. All repairs carried out , didn’t put deposit it a scheme. Worried as I want to give 18 months notice and I get the feeling they dont want to leave. They have started talking about getting a council house the wait is 3 years plus. Every time we inspect the property it’s always the parents that are there, I feel my property is no longer mine.
Member Since October 2020 - Comments: 1137
2:11 PM, 1st December 2025, About 4 months ago
Reply to the comment left by Sandra at 30/11/2025 – 23:02
Giving back the deposit can be more difficult than you think, particularly if the tenants won’t give you their bank details.
I would suggest you try to get their written agreement to use the deposit as rent, which would then allow you to serve notice when you need to. There is no point serving a legal notice yet if you want to give 18 months notice as a s21 notice expires after 6 months and a s8 notice expires after 12 months.
If you can gather evidence that the tenants are not living there, but have installed their parents instead and the parents are not named tenants, then you may be able to serve a common law Notice to Quit, which would end the tenancy when it expires. You would need to take advice on this though.