Ardington Group — UK residential letting and | ardingtongroup.com
Most tenancy deposits in England are capped at five weeks' rent and must be protected in one of three government-approved schemes within 30 days.
The cap is measured in weeks, not months. Where the annual rent is below £50,000 the tenancy deposit cannot exceed five weeks' rent; at £50,000 or above the ceiling is six weeks. The holding deposit that reserves the property beforehand is capped separately at one week's rent.
To turn weeks into pounds, divide the annual rent by 52 and multiply by five — that product is the most the deposit can be for the majority of tenancies.
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Once the money is received, a 30-day clock starts. Within it, the deposit must be placed in one of the three government-approved schemes, and the prescribed information — the scheme details and the dispute process — must be served on the tenant.
The two failures that dominate deposit disputes are an unprotected deposit and late or missing prescribed information; both are failures of the same 30-day window rather than of the cap itself.
Deposit handling is one of the jobs bundled into a full-management fee — the fees page shows how that service is priced — and the deposit sits alongside the safety certificates on the compliance calendar described on the deadlines page.
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