If your deposit is protected with TDS Insured, then your landlord or agent holds your deposit. You should contact them requesting the deposit as soon as possible after your tenancy ends.

If you’re not sure who holds the deposit, check the tenancy agreement and other information you received at the start of the tenancy.

You only need to contact TDS if you have a dispute with your landlord over charges from your deposit.

Your landlord or agent should return the deposit within ten calendar days of you requesting it.

If you do not receive your deposit within this time frame, talk to your landlord or letting agent first. If you still haven’t received the deposit, you should consider raising a dispute with TDS.

Your landlord can only deduct money from your deposit if you have broken the terms of your tenancy agreement, leaving the landlord worse off. Common reasons for deductions are:

• Cleaning
• Damage
• Redecoration
• Unpaid rent

The landlord can only claim to restore themselves to the position they would have been in had you met the terms of your agreement. The average decline in the condition of the property and its contents (“fair wear and tear”) cannot be charged to the tenant. Your landlord must consider the costs before deducting any charges for repairs, redecoration or replacements from your initial deposit.

For example, if you have broken a five-year-old sofa, you should be charged the value of the five-year-old sofa and not the value of a brand new one.

Some tenancy agreements give timescales for when an agent/landlord should inform a tenant if they want to deduct money from the deposit. These timescales add an element of structure at the end of the tenancy. A tenant is unlikely to get their deposit back by default if they aren’t told within the timeframe specified in their tenancy agreement. You should raise a dispute if the timescale isn’t met.

Once TDS has been asked to address a deposit dispute, the landlord or the agent must send the disputed deposit amount to TDS. This is required by law and failure to do so within ten calendar days of the TDS request may result in the termination of TDS membership. The landlord or letting agent should release any undisputed amount accordingly.

If your landlord believes they have reason to withhold any amount of your deposit, they should tell you as soon as possible. The parties should discuss the matter to reach an agreement on how to split the deposit. Most disputes are resolved informally in this way. But if your deposit isn’t returned within ten days of requesting it, any of the parties can ask TDS to resolve the dispute.

You should check your tenancy agreement as this will tell you what will happen to the interest on your deposit. When a disputed deposit is paid to TDS, no interest is paid.