Deposit Protection Scheme.

[Melboy]

You have 2 choices:

Insured or Non Insured.

Insured costs £15....... and the landlord keeps the deposit.

Non Insured.......free......you send the money off to be protected by a 3rd Party.

Here's my question:

If I pay my £15 DPS INSURED and keep the deposit the DPS form asks for an end of tenancy date.........if it is not known and you intend to go beyond the initial AST contract time ( say 6 months AST ) to become periodic tenancy and then you the landlord have to inform DPS that this is the case.

Do you have to pay another £15?

or is it just a case of informing DPS you are now periodic AST and carrying on?

Not clear to me and I cannot find a definitive answer to my question on the help pages and having been gloss painting all day my head is full of paint fumes !

[Melboy]

I phoned them in the end. 5 minutes of option pressing on premium number from 1 to 3 and forced listening to website information available eventually got me through to a human assistant.

So here is the answer:

You pay your £15, which I have already done and then you have to inform the DPS that the AST has gone periodic and everything carries on until your tenant quits. Failure to inform the DPS before the initial contract ends means you will lose your £15 and have to re-register at a cost of another £15 so it is up to you to inform them.

I opted to keep the deposit on an insured £15 basis rather than the free deposit option as I like to be in control of finances and my tenant is long term anyway. The £15 is a tax deductable item from HMRC as well.

[Grampa]

Slightly off topic but reverent to anyone who protects deposits.

As you are probably all aware there are 4 options/companies if you have a deposit to protect:

DPS

My Deposits

The Dispute Service

And the new boy on the block Capita

Well it appears Capita have got into trouble and ceased trading

https://www.capita-tdp.co.uk/

[Mortitia]

Mel - how much do you think you spent on the phonecall? That *isses me off every time you have to phone them.

I might try that scheme next time - thanks for informing us.

[Carryon Regardless]

Thanks for the information.

If I understand correctly as long as we inform the DPS that the tenancy has gone periodic then the original £15 paid is all that need be paid ?

Is there a time limit, of perhaps 30 days, to inform the DPS that the tenancy has lapsed into a 'periodic' ?

With my memory I can see my forgetting to tell them.

[Richlist]

Is there a time limit, of perhaps 30 days, to inform the DPS that the tenancy has lapsed into a 'periodic' ?

With my memory I can see my forgetting to tell them.

The time limit is........oh, I forgot......I had it, I definitely had it but no, its gone. Sorry.

[Carryon Regardless]

I had a thought on this, I think.

I've forgotten what I came here for now. It must be time for a cup of tea.

Ah damn I've wet myself again.

[Melboy]

Mel - how much do you think you spent on the phonecall? That *isses me off every time you have to phone them.

I might try that scheme next time - thanks for informing us.

I am not sure on how much Mortitia probably about £1.50 but you can be sure the phone call cost will be logged on my tax return under "general admin. expenses".

I could have tried:

http://www.saynoto0870.com/ which I have used for a few years now but I like to get things done quickly and over with and this is the one time I needed to do this.

Time limit? I believe you have to inform them before the end of the tenancy end date. I don't remember any leeway after the end of the tenancy. I have flagged it up on my computer 7 days before the end date to remind me and also on my wall chart.

https://www.depositprotection.com/

I thought the DPS scheme was pretty good and straightforward and an easy application which suited me and I get to keep the deposit so no debates at the end of a tenancy on who is paying for what and heated discussions.

It is the first deposit I have taken since 2007. My last property purchase I didn't bother with a deposit as there were circumstances where it was not necessary and my other property lets were all pre-2007.

My tenants love me and never want to leave.

[Richlist]

Working out the best way of claiming the cost of home phone calls generally when a phone has shared business & private use can be a problem. I add up to the total call charges for the tax year and apply a fixed percentage that reflects the number of rental properties I have. Obviously the phone use with one property is gonna be considerably less than with twenty properties. But a reasonable, justifiable, logical amount is unlikely to be rejected by HMRC and makes claiming the cost of calls relatively simple.

I use the same percentage based calculation for other shared business expenses such as .....mobile phones, ISP costs and computer software etc.