What’s the deal with student deposits?

Not sure what’s what when it comes to student deposits? We’ve outlined what you need to know.

When looking at property, it’s likely that your student deposit is on your mind. There is only one deposit for each lease, although it is shared. It covers rent, damage to the house and/or contents, unpaid bills and other breaches of the lease.

One deposit covers all breaches by any tenant listed on the lease. Everyone named on the lease is equally as well as solely liable for every rent payment or breach of lease.

There is a parental guarantee to cover individual tenants but the joint deposit is additional security for the Landlord.

Deductions from deposits can be made for not cleaning properly, not removing rubbish, damage to carpets and/or property etc. The biggest items where your deposit is at risk is rent arrears, going over your capped budget on bills and not cleaning the house to the correct standard on leaving. Deductions from the deposit can be made for not cleaning properly….

The role of the Lead Tenant is to act as point of contact for the Landlord and deposit scheme administrators.

All student deposits are by law to be covered by a deposit protection scheme approved by the Government. These all provide for a dispute resolution scheme and arbitration. The parties can go to court in any event (but this is rarely used these days).

There are time limits for protection of the deposit by the Landlord and he has to serve notice of the protection of the deposit on the Tenant. The Landlord cannot withhold part of all of deposit without the Tenant having recourse to deposit dispute procedure.

Read up on the sites for Government deposit protection schemes, DPS and myDeposits.

Check with your Landlord well before the end of the lease that all the rent is up to date and whether there may be any deductions to your deposit. Once everyone has gone it may be too late to sort out.

If you are in a house where Gloucester Student Houses manages for another Landlord, Gloucester Student Houses is not responsible for your deposit. This is the legal responsibility of your Landlord. Raise any questions or queries about your deposit in these instances with your Landlord.

Top tip: read your lease!