Controversial government plans for a mandatory deposit scheme would not do enough to protect tenants’ money according to experts at Edinburgh’s Cullen Property.

The plans could see landlords governed by dispute resolution obligations and forced to pay rent deposits into named tenant accounts in an attempt by the Scottish Government to address the estimated £3.6 million of tenants’ money allegedly unfairly held in Scotland each year.

But Steve Coyle, operations director at Cullen Property, believes this is not enough and that landlords and property management companies need to do more to ensure that tenants’ money is protected from the outset.

He said: “These government plans will not protect tenants’ money because any individual or company that currently withholds deposit money illegally will simply adapt their policies and practices to continue doing so. Indeed the worst offenders won’t even sign up to the TDS schemes in the same way in which unscrupulous landlords haven’t signed up to the landlord registration scheme either.

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“We are all for being fair, open and transparent and being able to prove any deductions is the best way of doing that but this appears to be yet more regulation where the good landlords who it’s not aimed at will support it, and the bad ones who it should be targeting will simply ignore it, probably without any recourse from the powers that be.”

Cullen Property has established a best practice method of dealing with tenants’ deposits to avoid disputes arising in the first place, and is unusual in insisting that the tenant(s) is present at the check-out of the property, so that any discrepancies can be dealt with on the spot. Cullen Property also carries out regular property inspections to ensure that any damage is dealt with immediately, thereby preventing problems worsening.

Mr Coyle adds: “In the 13 years we have been in business we have never been involved in a small claims procedure so we are confident that our deposit procedure works effectively and fairly for both tenant and landlord. This saves our landlords the potentially costly and time-consuming process of becoming involved in a small claims action, while ensuring that our tenants have a good experience renting from us."

(GK)