Does my landlord have to pay me interest on my deposit?

[Sushifiend]

Sold a house but didn't have a new one to move to yet, so rented a house for 20 months. Paid the landlord £4200 as a deposit, which I understand he has to keep safe under some sort of scheme. Now it's time for him to pay my deposit back and I enquired about the interest on my money. He says it's only £2 something, which doesn't sound right after 20 months.

So my question is this. Does the landlord have to pay me my interest earned on the deposit (still my money after all), and doesn't he have to make sure the money is kept in an account that will pay at least an average amount of interest? In other words, if he chooses to put it in an account earning no interest whatsoever, am I not still entitled to the interest I would have earned had I kept it in a savings account? I didn't mismanage the money - he did. Thanks in advance for any replies, whether they are encouraging or not!

[Sushifiend]

The rental was £2800 per month. £4200 as a deposit didn't seem unreasonable to me.

Thanks for all the replies - If that's the way it is then I'm more than happy to take my deposit back and let the landlord keep his couple of quid interest. He's actually got a few rental properties and was pretty sketchy on how he'd keep the deposit safe. He said he'd registered with the deposit scheme but I had understood that they don't actually hold the funds. I'm almost 100% certain he didn't lodge it with any deposit scheme - he just set up a separate savings account.

Edited by Sushifiend on Friday 20th November 19:49

[Sushifiend]

nyt said:

Sushifiend said:

I'm almost 100% certain he didn't lodge it with any deposit scheme - he just set up a separate savings account.

Edited by Sushifiend on Friday 20th November 19:49

You should have received at least an email from the deposit agency.
In order to get the deposit back you need to lodge a request which your landlord then approves.

If a scheme wasn't set up within a few weeks of the start of the tenancy then the landlord is liable to quite significant penalties.
I guess there's no real foul if he returns it all but quite a bit of leverage on your part if he tries to withhold anything.

He is taking big risks for little benefit if he didn't set up a scheme.
If you let via an agent they should have made sure that a deposit scheme was set up.

There was no email from the deposit scheme, and I'm sure he didn't register with one. I didn't let via an agent - he advertised it privately on Gumtree and he's actually someone known to me - I went to school with one of his sons years ago. I have no intention of causing trouble for him as long as he returns the deposit in full which he has already agreed to.

[Sushifiend]

BoRED S2upid said:

Sushifiend said:

The rental was £2800 per month. £4200 as a deposit didn't seem unreasonable to me.

Thanks for all the replies - If that's the way it is then I'm more than happy to take my deposit back and let the landlord keep his couple of quid interest. He's actually got a few rental properties and was pretty sketchy on how he'd keep the deposit safe. He said he'd registered with the deposit scheme but I had understood that they don't actually hold the funds. I'm almost 100% certain he didn't lodge it with any deposit scheme - he just set up a separate savings account.

Edited by Sushifiend on Friday 20th November 19:49

That is steep for a deposit it's never more than one month for me.

Deposit protection can be lodged but they don't have to hold any money they simply act as a mediator if the landlord tries to screw you for a new carpet.

Let him keep a few quid interest get your deposit back and move on.

All the lettings agents we spoke to wanted between 1.5 and 2 months rental as a deposit. That was my first and only experience of tenancy in this country, so I wasn't sure how it worked - hence the OP. If I am due interest on the money, then I feel entitled to ask for it. If not, then that's all there is to it. I just wanted to know either way.

Thanks for all your responses everyone!

Edited by Sushifiend on Saturday 21st November 07:34