After last year’s turmoil and the controversial hiking of subscriptions, the Tenancy Deposit Scheme is back in the black, its board has reported.
The TDS is now forecasting a surplus for 2010-11 and says there will be no increase in subscriptions in the next financial year, starting in April.
The announcements follow a board meeting last week.
Subscription levels of a maximum £15 per tenancy for RICS and NFoPP members and £18 per tenancy for NALS and Law Society members, all with possible discounts of up to 60%, remain unchanged.
Prior to 2010, subscriptions were calculated on a fee for each branch. This capped subscription income had to finance the rise in both the overall number of tenancy deposit registrations and in disputes.
From only 577 disputes in the year ending in March 2008, the number rocketed to 11,613 by the year ending March 2010.
Despite this, nearly £1bn in deposits belonging to 1,488,508 tenants in 969,817 tenancies were protected. There was a relatively even split in the awards made after adjudication, with tenants receiving 56% of the awards, landlords 46% and agents 2%.
At nearly 50%, cleaning remained the single biggest cause of disputes among the wide variety of issues referred for Alternative Dispute Resolution. As a cause of contention, cleaning is followed by damage, 39%, redecoration 24% and gardening 12%.
Rent arrears as a cause of dispute have fallen substantially since 2007, from 22% to 15%.
In the last year, there have been significant changes at board level and amongst senior staff. These include the appointment of new CEO Steve Harriott to the board together with compliance expert Jodi Berg.
Mike Morgan has been confirmed as head of adjudication and independent case examiner and Ben Beadle has been promoted to head of member relations. In addition to these appointments, the TDS Members Forum representing the full spectrum of the membership has been formed, and currently meets monthly.
TDS chairman Professor Martin Partington said: “By any measure, 2009-10 was a challenging year and the board was forced to take a number of difficult decisions. These are now proving to be the right decisions and I believe we are now set fair to provide a competitive and first-class service to our members. I would like to thank them and our staff for their support during the last year.”
The TDS Review 2009-10 and the annual accounts are available on www.tds.gb.com
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