Tenants who wish to challenge any deductions made from their deposits at the end of their tenancies should ensure they follow the dispute resolution procedures of the relevant tenancy deposit scheme. Recently, a tenant who instead applied to the First-tier Tribunal (FTT) for the recovery of part of her deposit was unsuccessful as her application did not fall within the FTT's jurisdiction.
The tenant had paid a deposit of £1,295, which the landlord had placed in a tenancy deposit scheme. After she vacated the property, the landlord identified deductions totalling £677. She applied to the FTT under Section 15 of the Tenant Fees Act 2019 for recovery of that sum as a prohibited payment or holding deposit.
The landlord submitted that the amount she claimed was in relation to her security deposit. It was not a holding deposit and therefore did not fall under the Act.
The FTT found that the dispute was not one to which the Act applied, and therefore it could not make a determination in relation to it. The tenancy was an assured shorthold tenancy and the deposit was a permitted payment under Schedule 1, Paragraph 2 of the Act. The operation of tenancy deposits, including what may or may not be withheld from a tenant, was covered by the system of authorised tenancy deposit schemes under the Housing Act 2004. There was nothing to suggest that the 2019 Act intended the FTT to have jurisdiction over disputes relating to the withholding of tenancy deposits, in addition to the dispute resolution schemes under the 2004 Act.
The FTT concluded that the matter needed to be considered under the dispute resolution scheme of the relevant tenancy deposit scheme, and observed that the tenant might wish to seek legal advice.