Deposit Protection and the Inventory

You hand £1,150 to someone you’ve met twice. A tenancy deposit is security against things like unpaid rent or damage you cause. It isn’t rent in advance, and it isn’t the holding deposit you may have paid to reserve the home.

For a private assured tenancy, the landlord must put the deposit under a government-approved deposit protection scheme. Think of the scheme as the referee: it runs the process for returning the money and settling disputes at the end, but it doesn’t always hold the ball. In a custodial scheme, the scheme holds the money. In an insured scheme, the landlord or agent keeps it and pays for the protection.

So a landlord still holding your cash isn’t, by itself, a sign that anything is wrong. And protection gives you a fair process, not a promise that every deduction will fail.