Whether you are a landlord or tenant, it is vital that you are aware of your legal rights and obligations. The law protects both parties and does not permit you to "take the law into your own hands", irrespective of circumstances.

It is important that landlords fully understand their obligations. The Disability Discrimination Act, Sex Discrimination Act and Race Relations Act also apply to anyone letting, selling or managing premises. If you are in doubt about the interplay of these legal areas we urge you to seek legal advice.

About your tenancy agreement The tenancy agreement is a contract between you and your landlord. It may be written or oral.The tenancy agreement gives certain rights to both you and your landlord, for example, your right to occupy the accommodation and the your landlord's right to receive rent for letting the accommodation. You and your landlord may have made arrangements about the tenancy, and these will be part of the tenancy agreement as long as they do not conflict with law. Both you and your landlord have rights and responsibilities given by law. The tenancy agreement can give both you and your landlord more than your statutory rights, but cannot give you less than your statutory rights. If a term in the tenancy agreement gives either you or your landlord less than your statutory rights, that term cannot be enforced.

Deposit Interest Regulations

We give credit to the Find a Property people over this point ; on their own web pages a very comprehensive article by Nick Sheehan records for example as follows

The penalties for either failing to protect a tenant’s deposit or not issuing the tenant with the prescribed Deposit Information Certificate (DIC, also known as a section 213 notice) are severe. If caught the landlord is also liable to pay the tenant three times the amount of the deposit. On top of that the landlord would be unable to apply to the courts using the fast-track possession notice procedure . Be warned - the Guild of Residential Landlords are currently dealing with many calls from worried landlords who want to evict tenants but haven’t protected their deposit under one of the schemes

Here at Just Lawyers ; we see a growing trend of County Court Judges who believe that this penalty is unjust when applied as a blanket / catch all solution ; whether you are landlord or tenant we believe you should have access to the latest legal arguments and case precedent decisions on both sides ; Contact Us right now