Sign up or face fine
The deadline for Landlords to sign up to an official deposit scheme is 23rd June this year, those that fail to register with such a scheme will face heavy penalties.
The Government is running a 90-day amnesty for Landlords who have yet to put their tenants’ deposits into an official scheme, it is thought that about 1/3rd of Landlords in England and Wales are not registered with any type of deposit protection scheme.
Most importantly any landlords with an “assured short hold tenancy” agreement who fail to register will also be left powerless if they want for any reason their tenant to leave at the end of their contract as the landlord will be seen to have failed their obligations.
The Buy-to Let revolution is expected to further increase with a new wave of investors “Granlords” the older investor with released pension funds to invest. Granlords and any other Buy-to-Let investors should be carefully considering their responsabilities as a private landlord, that is if they wish to follow private route. Alternative to being a private landlord they should also be considering the benefits of using a professional letting agent to manage their property, such agents should be up to date and fully aware of all such regulations appertaining to the rental market, it may just be a false economy trying to go it alone.