Making sure students keep their tenancy deposits safe

It’s the start of the new academic year and for many home-owning parents, a child going to college or university away from home will be their first encounter with living in the private rented sector. Waving a child off as they set out to make their way in the world is a big enough of a milestone without having to worry about whether their offspring is going to get their tenancy deposit back. They may remember their own experiences of private renting and battling with landlords to get their deposits returned at the end of their lease.

Times have changed though. As part of the Scottish Government’s ongoing reform of the private rented sector, all private landlords (and agents) must lodge their tenants’ deposits with one of three approved schemes, of which SafeDeposits Scotland is the market leader. We keep the deposits safe and then at the end of the lease, once both parties are happy, we release the deposit back to the tenant.

If a landlord and tenant can’t agree on how the deposit should be repaid at the end of the tenancy, we help both parties by offering a free, speedy and impartial adjudication service.

Tenancy deposit schemes were introduced in Scotland in 2012 and SafeDeposits Scotland is now the largest of the schemes author- ised by the Scottish Government to manage deposits. We hold around 60% of all tenancy deposits protected in Scotland, that’s nearly £73m. We’re the only scheme which is actually based in Scotland and regularly hear from tenants, landlords and agents how much they value our local knowledge.

We’re self-funded which means that we don’t ask tenants or landlords for any fee. Our running costs are met purely from the interest we receive from the funds we keep safe. SafeDeposits Scotland is also the only tenancy deposit scheme to be run on a not-for-profit basis and any surplus we make goes to the SafeDeposits Scotland Trust, set up to improve education and training in the private rented sector.

If landlords and agents aren’t using a tenancy deposit scheme they’re breaking the law and may face financial penalties.

This is our busiest time of the year with hundreds of deposits coming in and going out every day. It’s a busy time for students too but in the chaos of the start of a new year it’s definitely worth taking a minute to check that their money is safe.