In this week’s #AskTDS, we answer a landlord’s question: “I am taking over the management of my property from my letting agent, how do I transfer the deposit protection from the agent to myself?”
Sometimes in tenancies, circumstances change. In previous blogs, we’ve discussed what changing tenants means for deposits, but there may also be repercussions when the management of the property transfers from an agent to a landlord.
The first consideration should be to find out what tenancy deposit protection (TDP) scheme the agent is using, and if it’s TDS, whether they use the Custodial or Insured scheme.
Here are a few potential scenarios for switching deposit protection:
From TDS Insured to TDS Custodial
If your agent currently uses TDS Insured and you want to make switch to the free TDS Custodial Scheme under your own management, the first step would be to create a custodial membership (if you don’t already have one) and register the details of the deposit under your own custodial membership.
Once you have registered the deposit, you should provide the TDS Custodial scheme bank details and the relevant reference to the agent so that they can transfer the deposit monies directly to TDS. Once TDS receives the money, we will allocate this against the registration, and you will receive an email to confirm the deposit is protected.
From TDS Custodial to TDS Custodial
With switches between custodial members, the process is straightforward. As a TDS Custodial member, you can independently use the member-to-member transfer function.
This seamlessly transfers the deposit from one member to another at the click of a button.
From TDS Insured to TDS Insured
With switches between agents and landlords within the TDS Insured scheme, the process is straightforward.
The landlord would simply have to create an individual landlord membership. They would then need to register the tenancy deposit details under their insured membership and pay the relevant deposit protection fee.
Once they have protected the deposit, proof of this protection can be passed to the existing agent or landlord and they can then transfer the deposit monies over to the new landlord for them to hold.
From an alternative scheme to TDS
There are three Government-backed TDP schemes in England and Wales, and often landlords and agents switch deposits to TDS from the other schemes.
In these circumstances, TDS’ Business Development team can assist with the switching process. This process will vary depending on the scheme currently in use and the scheme you want to join.
There is further advice on switching tenancy deposit protection schemes on our switching page.
For more landlord tips, please view our landlord FAQ page.
About TDS
The Tenancy Deposit Scheme is part of The Dispute Service (TDS), the largest tenancy deposit protection (by value) and resolution service provider in the UK making life easier for tens of thousands of agents, landlords, developers, and millions of tenants and homebuyers.
Our award-winning customer service is highly rated on both Trustpilot and Google, and we’re backed by the NRLA.
We offer free deposit protection in our Custodial scheme, and the lowest rates for landlords in our Insured scheme.
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