TENANCY DEPOSIT SCHEME ISSUES NEW DISPUTE GUIDE
1 June 2012
There is still a general lack of awareness and understanding about the tenancy deposit dispute process among landlords, tenants and agencies in the private rental sector, which can often lead to undue perceptions of bias and unfairness in the system
This week, the TDS issued a new guide "The Progress of a Dispute" which covers the way to take a dispute to adjudication, the information required and the time it is likely to take to resolution.
The guide follows a UK wide survey has found virtually no landlords think that deposit
schemes are designed in their favour with 54% believing they favour tenants and
35% thinking neither benefit. Overall awareness of the deposit schemes was found to be high amongst
landlords with 99% knowing about them and 88% of lettings agents aware. But
tenant knowledge was much lower however, with only 43% aware of the schemes
before their tenancy began.
Steven Hariott, Chief Executive of the Tenancy Deposit Scheme, commented, "The levels of satisfaction we are achieving with adjudication are heartening and we shall keep up with our various education programmes. The success we have been having points the way to using Alternative Dispute Resolution in other areas of the housing sector. Issues such as rent arrears and disrepair could benefit from this approach."
The new guide can be found here:
http://www.tds.gb.com/resources/files/The%20Progress%20of%20a%20Dispute.pdf