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The majority of private sector tenants who have rented a property in the past five years have failed to get their full deposit back after vacating, new research reveals.

A survey of 1,034 people earlier this year revealed that 52 per cent of deposits were fully or partially withheld over the past five years, equivalent to more than 400,000 deposits per year based on official estimates of the rental population.

Some 80 per cent of tenants reported having some degree of trouble getting their deposit back.

Cleaning and minor repairs are the most common reasons for withheld deposits, while over a quarter of tenants claimed their agent or landlord delayed returning their deposit despite not making any deductions.

Only 20 per cent say they got their full deposit back without any problems while over a quarter say they managed to get their deposit back in full only after a dispute with the landlord or letting agency.

Unsurprisingly, London tenants were the ones least likely to get their full deposit returned.

The survey was conducted on behalf of removal firm Kiwi Movers.

Comments

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    This report I think is fabricated and actually if was true that would only be half of my database, considering that there are 100s of thousands of tenancies across the UK, it would not be difficult to get the DPS surely to give a proper and accurate idea of a report like this, right wasted enough time on this report a bit like whoever wrote it I'm off

    • 23 April 2015 08:37 AM
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    I disagree with these findings... as always, it depends on where the survey was carried out, who the target was etc etc, but to extrapolate that out to the country as a whole is nonsense.

    I've let approaching 1000 properties over the last 8 years and i'd say the vast majority got their bond back in full, only a tiny percentage (less than 5) had any deductions and i bet the number where the bond was wholly withheld is less than 10.

    it comes down to the property you're letting and the tenant you're letting to.

    • 23 April 2015 08:30 AM
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