A powerful consortium of Scottish landlord and tenant organisations has announced a bid to run a tenancy deposit protection scheme in Scotland through a new not-for-profit company, SafeDeposits Scotland Ltd.

The members of the consortium are the Scottish Association of Landlords, the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations, Shelter Scotland, the National Union of Students Scotland, The Dispute Service, the Association of Residential Letting Agents, the National Association of Estate Agents and the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors.

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The Dispute Service, which operates the Tenancy Deposit Scheme in England and Wales currently protects over £1 billion in tenants deposits and has resolved over 30,000 deposit disputes since 2007. The Dispute Service will provide a number of operational, finance and adjudication services to SafeDeposits Scotland.

The new company’s head office will be in Scotland where, together with a Glasgow-based call centre, it will be the primary contact for landlords, agents and tenants.

A key feature of the SafeDeposits Scotland bid is that any future surpluses will be used in Scotland for the benefit of the private rented sector, primarily through a new Scottish charitable trust to be created, the SafeDeposits Charitable Trust. This independent Trust will distribute grants for improving tenancy management in the private rented sector throughout Scotland.

The Bid for a licence to operate a scheme has been submitted to the Scottish Government and is now under active consideration.

(GK)