The government is tabling amendments to the Deregulation Bill intended to resolve issues arising from the case of Superstrike vs Marino Rodrigues.
The case concerns a landlord who took a deposit before the tenancy deposit regulations came into force in April 2007 but where the fixed term of the tenancy ended after that date.
The landlord did not protect the deposit as he thought this was not required. But the Court of Appeal says he acted wrongly - a decision which has caused widespread alarm from landlords in a similar position.
But if passed as expected over the next few months, the DCLG's amendments now before Parliament mean that all landlords with tenancies that commenced post April 2007, and which were originally compliant with deposit protection legislation in force at that time, will be deemed to have complied.
Landlords with tenancies that commenced before April 2007 - which have become periodic and for which a deposit is still held - will have 90 days after the start of the new legislation to protect the deposit.
For all tenancies that have ceased or where a deposit is no longer held, landlords will be deemed to have complied.
The National Landlords Association has been campaigning for some months for the DCLG's amendments and its chief executive Richard Lambert says: While legally nothing has changed yet, these amendments represent a step in the right direction and provide reassurance to landlords across the UK that the government has finally moved to sort this out.
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