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If a tenant provides you with a cash deposit (as opposed to a certificate from a Deposit Guarantee company), then you are legally obliged to retain that deposit either through a Custodial, or Insured scheme with one of the 3 Government approved services; MyDeposits, TDS, or Deposit Protection Service.  If you do not, you are liable to a fine a minimum XX times the value of the deposit, as well as restricting your future ability to receive tenant deposits.

A landlord may submit a claim for some, or all, of the deposit with X days of the tenancy ending.  Once the amount to be deducted from the deposit has been agreed by you, or has been confirmed by an official adjudication, then the remainder must be returned within Y days.

Once you have received a cash deposit (usually the equivalent of 5 weeks rent), as a landlord you must lodge that deposit within an approved scheme. You have a range of options of which scheme to choose, but all of them must provide “prescribed information” to tenant, and any relevant persons, showing the details of where their cash is protected.

If as landlord you don’t provide this within 30 days of tenant giving you deposit you may be liable to a fine of up to 3 times the deposit amount.