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Scheme looking to reunite tenants with their deposits
This article is an external press release originally published on the Landlord News website, which has now been migrated to the Just Landlords blog.
A tenancy deposit scheme north of the border is looking for Scottish tenants who have forgotten to claim back their deposits.
SafeDeposits Scotland has vowed to return substantial amounts of cash to their rightful owners.
Deposit schemes
Tenancy deposit schemes were brought in during July 2012. Since then, in excess of 156,000 deposits have been repaid by SafeDeposits Scotland. Despite millions of pounds being safely returned to tenants at the conclusion of their agreement, a small proportion of renters do not claim back money owned.
A large percentage of this proportion are students. With the start of the academic year just around the corner, September is generally the busiest month for deposits being paid both in and out.
Data from the firm suggests that over 2,000 tenants have ended their leases without claiming back money owed to them. This in total adds up to more than £500,000. Should deposits not be claimed back after six years, any monies will go to the Crown.
Scheme looking to reunite tenants with their deposits
Attempts
The finance team at SafeDeposits Scotland attempt to reunite tenants with their deposit money via a range of different methods; sending letters, text messages, emails and phone calls.
A number of these methods prove successful, however some cases prove more complex. Monies cannot be paid straight into bank accounts, as this information is not disclosed to any of the three approved tenancy deposit schemes.
Jennifer Paice, Chief Executive of SafeDeposits Scotland, said, ‘it’s extremely surprising that people can leave their rented property and forget to ask for their deposit back. The vast majority of tenants remember to claim their money but there’s a small minority who don’t. Our finance team do a great job in tracking most of them down but there are a significant number they can’t get hold of. We don’t think it’s right that people lose out on what’s due to them so we do everything we can to try and get people the money they are owed.’[1]
[1] http://www.propertyreporter.co.uk/finance/scheme-aims-to-return-500000-in-unclaimed-rental-deposits.html
