Protect and serve in thirty days
And keep the proof.
Thirty days decides everything
Protect the deposit and serve the prescribed information inside thirty days, or lose section 21 and face a penalty.
How we work
Why this one deadline matters most
Where a deposit is taken on an assured shorthold tenancy, it must be protected in a government-approved scheme and the prescribed information given to the tenant within thirty days of receipt. The consequence of missing it is disproportionate to the administrative effort involved: the landlord cannot serve a valid notice under section 21 of the Housing Act 1988, and the court may order payment to the tenant of between one and three times the amount of the deposit.
It is the single most common expensive mistake in private renting, and almost always a paperwork failure rather than bad faith. A deposit gets protected but the prescribed information never goes out; or it goes out late; or the landlord cannot later prove either happened. Years afterwards, when the tenancy needs to end, the landlord discovers the route they expected to use is closed. So we protect, serve and retain the evidence, and a tenant should ask any landlord for proof of all three.
The second thing worth being clear about is what kind of counterparty we are. We act as principal: we own what we let and we transact on our own account. Letting and estate agents are required to belong to an approved redress scheme and to protect client money, and those requirements are not engaged for a landlord letting its own property. That is not a loophole we are using — it simply is not the same activity — but a prospective tenant could easily assume otherwise, which is why it is stated rather than left implicit.
Our principles
Three beliefs behind the method
Say that we are a principal
Agent protections are not engaged.
Fitness is continuing
Not a condition met only on day one.
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