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Landlords rejoice as Superstrike problems are no more!!
Make Text Bigger Landlords up and down the country will (or should) be celebrating the demise of the ridiculous rules we have all had to put up with following the Court of Appeal decision in the Superstrike case. 
This is due to the amendments in the Deregulation Act 2015 which received the Royal Assent on 26 March, and which (so far as the tenancy deposit rules are concerned) came into force immediately. I have spent the morning amending all the relevant sections on Landlord Law, so this should now be up to date.
The rules are now as follows:
Deposits taken before April 2007 where the tenancy became periodic after that date
All deposits must now be protected and the prescribed information must be served. You have been given a period of 90 days to deal with this – i.e. until 23 June 2015.
If you protect and serve the PI within this time, the deposit will be treated as if it had always been protected. If you don’t, you will be in breach – with no excuses!
Deposits taken after April 2007 that have been protected and the prescribed information served during the original fixed term
These will be treated as if the prescribed information had been served on every renewal or whenever a statutory periodic tenancy arose – even if the prescribed information was served late initially. Provided of course that the deposit continues to be protected with the same deposit scheme.
So you no longer need to keep re-serving the prescribed information. Once will do.
Deposits taken before April 2007 which became periodic before that date
Here you are not in breach of the law and you don’t have to protect the deposit now.
However the deposit must be protected or the money returned to the tenant (or the person who paid it) before any s21 notice can be served. Landlords will not be liable for any financial penalty for non protection.
Otherwise – the new rules will not help you if you have failed to protect a deposit taken after April 2007. They were passed just to deal with the problems associated with the Superstrike decision.
Court proceedings
If you are involved in court proceedings for possession, you can take advantage of the new rules, unless you case was concluded some time ago and you are out of time to appeal.
Letting agents
The prescribed information rules have also been amended to allow for agents’ details to be given instead of landlords’ details where the agent is dealing with the deposit.
If you want to sign up to get my mailings you can do so at www.landlordlawinfo.co.uk
All the best
Tessa Shepperson – Landlord Law
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Mark Alexander
17:13 PM, 29th March 2015
About 4 years ago
Thank you for sharing this with Property118 members Tessa, it's very kind of you 😀
.
Gilly
18:44 PM, 29th March 2015
About 4 years ago
Thanks for the information Tessa.
Is it still necessary to inform the "mydeposits" or whoever, that the tenancy is entering a statutory periodic tenancy and then re-issue the certificate to the tenants, or has that gone too?
Tessa Shepperson
18:46 PM, 29th March 2015
About 4 years ago
You had better speak to My Deposits about that.
Gary Nock
19:17 PM, 29th March 2015
About 4 years ago
Hallelujah. No more killing rain forests reserving PI. Yippee!
jayne williams
19:20 PM, 29th March 2015
About 4 years ago
Hi Tessa,
I have been waiting for this news, thank you.
"Deposits taken before April 2007 where the tenancy became periodic after that date* - to be clear does that mean if the tenancy became periodic after April 2007?
I have a deposit that was taken on 14 3 06 and the tenancy became periodic in September 2006. Does that mean I don't have to register it?
Rod
20:03 PM, 29th March 2015
About 4 years ago
The other rediculous rule where housing benefit is paid direct to DSS tenants will hopefully be got rid of too. This causes problems for 'everyone' including gov' staff! Where's Guy Fawks when you need him!
Paul Franklin
10:15 AM, 30th March 2015
About 4 years ago
There was a rumour that a 'commencement order' was going to be attached to this Deregulation Act delaying the date when the legislation took effect? As I've heard nothing about this I assume this is not going to be the case?
So therefore I assume there's also a lot of other important changes, to Section 21s in particular that are now in effect? e.g:
- They can no longer be issued within first 4 months of an AST
- 6 months time limit on enforcing them
- No longer a need to get the end date 'right'
- Retaliatory s21s invalid for 6 months if council has served a repair/improvement notice (only applieds to new tenancies for first 3 years from now)
Mark Alexander
11:30 AM, 30th March 2015
About 4 years ago
Reply to the comment left by "Gilly " at "29/03/2015 - 18:44":
Just tweeted to MyDeposits ....
Tessa Shepperson
11:34 AM, 30th March 2015
About 4 years ago
My understanding is that most of the Deregulation Act clauses are subject to commencement orders. However the tenancy deposits items were considered so urgent that they come into force immediately.
I think that the retaliatory eviction items for example come into force in October. This is why my mailing concentrated just on the tenancy deposit items.
Mark Alexander
12:08 PM, 30th March 2015
About 4 years ago
The reply to my Tweet to MyDeposits ..........