For the first time in England and Wales, landlords and letting agents can now choose which deposit protection method they use – either custodial or insured – from the same supplier.
As from this week, the Deposit Protection Service is offering both services.
The DPS is England and Wales’ only provider of a custodial scheme. It has now added an insurance-backed scheme.
The choice between the two types of scheme can be made online or by phone, but while the new insured scheme is available to all landlords, it is only available to letting agents who belong to a recognised trade body, including NALS and SafeAgent.
Landlords and agents will be able to manage both their custodial and insured deposits via one easy, integrated online account.
Both services are supported by the same Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) service in the case of disagreement at the end of the tenancy.
The DPS says that its price for the insured scheme is a match for the cheapest schemes on the market, and has no subscription.
Letting agents will be charged per deposit monthly by direct debit; the (ex-VAT) fee to protect each deposit will be £9.50. Further discounts will be available for volume.
Landlords will be charged £15 (inc VAT) per deposit for deposits under £500, and £22.20 (inc VAT) per deposit for deposits over £500 on a pay-as-you-go basis.
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Comments
Oh no. I agree with IO again.
I would agree IO
This is becoming more and more complicated for tenants and landlords it is bordering on farcical
One custodial scheme should have been the answer but NLA and others have their snouts in the trough
This is bizarre.
At least the Custodial scheme achieved the objectives of the legislation - to protect the deposit because they hold the money.
Now the Custodial scheme provider is enabling landlords and agents to do the very thing the legislation was created to prevent - hold the money and thus allow it to be at risk.
Bad enough that admirable objective was watered down by powerful lobbying allowing a weak CLG to cave in and allow insured schemes in the first place. For CLG to now allow this development is absurd.
I assume this insured scheme works the same as the others - the deposit itself is not insured and protected as doubtless tenants think it is. Only the amount in dispute that presumably will have to then be paid into DPS for adjudication, as with the other schemes.
What a pity
Hmmmm, is this a pre-cursor to DPS withdrawing the custodial scheme?
I prefer custodial as it costs nothing(DPS using the interest), is I think cheaper to administer (partly in that we have no interest to keep track of) and if there should be a dispute then as EA's we can avoid the hassle of having either landlords or tenants thumping on our desks for their money, as we don't have it.
Mydeposits to follow with suitable price reduction, surely...