Monday 25 July 2011

DPS shortfall is around £30 million

Looking at the last line of my previous post on this blog, I think it is fair to say that I spoke a bit too soon.


I for one am impressed that the DPS, which is funded by the interest on the deposits it holds, has managed to keep going through such a long period of rock-bottom interest rates. Surely their contingency planning couldn’t have foreseen what is a sea change in fiscal policy. All power to them for adapting to a rapidly changing environment.”

It emerged in the press this week that the DPS had a clause in it’s contract with the government which required central funds (or The Taxpayer, if you read the tabloids) to bail out the DPS if it didn’t make enough money from interest alone. With interest rates so low for so long, the DPS, which is funded by interest on the deposits it holds, had gone cap in hand to the treasury, admitting to a projected shortfall of over £30million over the life of the contract.

Monday 11 July 2011

Cosmetic Developments in Deposit Protection

The three deposit protection schemes have been actively updating their public presence of late and it seems to be paying off. My Deposits has just unveiled a very swish new website which has garnered them some good publicity and looks very user focussed and clean. TDS have recently received five accreditations from the Plain Language Commission for some of their key dispute documents which, to be honest, needed a bit of simplifying. All credit to them for improving their service. The DPS, meanwhile

Monday 4 July 2011

Happy Deposit Protection Dispute Clients

I thought I would share some recent testimonials with you from satisfied customers of ADR Solution.
“I can highly recommend Tom's services. He has always been very helpful and willing to go the extra mile. He has a great level of expertise and knowledge. He has saved me a huge amount of of time and effort when having to deal with property issues. His company offers a very unique service which is extremely useful to any landlord who manages their own property. I have found him extremely good value for money!” 
C. Surujpaul, London

Tuesday 28 June 2011

Student Deposit Dispute Season

If the weather is anything to go by, summer is upon us already, which can only mean one thing for thousands of landlords up and down the country: student changeover time.
In my, admittedly anecdotal, experience adjudicating deposit disputes, there are three groups of people responsible for significantly more damage to rented property than everyone else put together. They are:
  1. Barristers (the shame!)
  2. Doctors. I saw a defence from a tenant once that read “I don’t have to clean, I’m a doctor”. They didn’t win.
  3. Students. It’s no surprise really. Students have a well deserved reputation for trashing properties and there will be very few student landlords who don’t need to make a claim on any protected deposits this summer, so here is some advice for landlords in the run up to changeover season.

Monday 6 June 2011

Better Inventories Required

Better Evidence For Landlords
I have been very busy recently getting a new project off the ground which could really change the fortunes of landlords and letting agents in deposit protection disputes. 

The Problem With Inventories

All too often landlords lose deposit disputes simply because their inventory evidence doesn’t show what they need it to show. Inventory clerks tend to focus their attention on any parts of the property that are already damaged, whereas what landlords require is an inventory that shows the property in it’s undamaged condition at the beginning of the tenancy. Only with concrete evidence that the property was in good condition to start with can the landlord show that the tenant is responsible for any change in condition - damage to the property.
Ordinary inventories tend to come with a dozen or so photographs by way of supporting visual evidence. It is simply not possible with a few photographs to categorically demonstrate the condition and cleanliness of every part of every wall, every metre of skirting board, or the inside of every kitchen cupboard. 

A New Inventory

I have been working closely with the Video Inventory Network on their video inventory training course, developing a system that enables inventory clerks to take an average of 60,000 still images per inventory to corroborate their work.

Monday 9 May 2011

Useful Guidance From The Deposit Protection Schemes

I was very pleased last week that the deposit protection schemes have finally got together to offer some joint advice on the dispute process. The advice itself is very practical and if you are involved in a dispute, I would recommend you read it. Each scheme has published their own version, but I am assured the text is the same in each. Even I am not dull enough to compare them. Read the booklet here:

Tuesday 19 April 2011

The Future Of Deposit Protection Disputes


I had a really enjoyable day last week giving an inventory masterclass to the experienced team at Inventory House in London’s Docklands, who had asked me to consult on the format and content of their inventories. Their inventory product is already very professional and the guys really know their business inside out, so we were able to delve very deep into what makes a great inventory, touching on subjects as diverse as how deposit protection adjudicators arrive at decisions and awards, how to maintain admissibility of evidence for criminal court and how language is used to describe phenomena in quantum mechanics.
One of the recurring themes of the day was whether the deposit protection dispute model as currently practiced is sustainable and how the inventory industry, and other interested parties, might be able to influence any developments.
Several questions kept recurring which included: 
Whether the methodology for resolving disputes through adjudication could be standardised, as there is a feeling that the standard of proof was interpreted differently across the schemes?
Whether the schemes could agree a baseline of expected lifespans for commonly claimed for items (such as carpet) in an average tenancy, to prevent landlords claiming with unrealistic expectations, or unnecessarily pursuing claims that are without merit?
A feeling that the trained inventory professional’s opinion is underused led to discussion of whether a (self?) regulated inventory industry adhering to common standards could remove some of the burden from the deposit protection schemes’ dispute resolution departments?
Answers on a postcard please...

Monday 28 March 2011

Preparation, Preparation, Preparation


As a landlord, the onus is on you to take action to avoid deposit disputes and to ensure that you win the ones that you cannot avoid. There are a few things that you can do that will really help.

Tuesday 15 March 2011

Negotiating a Settlement in a Deposit Protection Dispute

If, at the end of the tenancy, you and your tenant cannot agree over the distribution of the deposit, tempers can flare. Often relations break down entirely between landlord and tenant and both sides are reduced to communicating by increasingly acrimonious emails.
If your relationship with your ex-tenant is strained, you could be missing out on your best opportunity to resolve the matter quickly and painlessly.

Thursday 10 March 2011

Landlord Assist

I am very pleased to say that ADR Solution is now helping Landlord Assist clients.

Wednesday 9 March 2011

Thoughts on Universal Estates v Tiensia and Honeysuckle Properties v Fletcher

Universal Estates v Tiensia and Honeysuckle Properties v Fletcher were joined as a single appeal. The judgment handed down by the Court of Appeal on 11th November 2010 is widely considered to have confirmed a loophole in the deposit protection legislation, but the exact nature of the precedent set has been a cause of some confusion amongst landlords.

Wednesday 2 March 2011

Mould: Condensation v Damp

A conversation with a client last week made me realise just how many deposit protection disputes are over the cost of repairing mould. As an adjudicator, I would dread claims relating to mould, not just because the pictures of black and green slime colonising walls would make my skin crawl, but because they always came down to the same argument, and sometimes it was very difficult to know who was right.

Wednesday 23 February 2011

Some Thoughts On Inventories

A recent discussion on a linkedin.com group has sparked this weeks post. There has been a lively debate on the merits of independent inventory agents versus the perceived cost saving of landlords completing inventories themselves.
As a deposit protection adjudicator, it is reassuring to receive independently created inventories as you can be more confident that they are objective and, because the inventory agent wants

Friday 11 February 2011

Small Claims Court As An Alternative To Deposit Protection ADR


Several people have asked my opinion recently on using the small claims court as an alternative to pursuing a dispute through the deposit protection schemes. In the most part, this comes in response to adverse decisions from the schemes which appeared unjustified. One letting agent in particular felt that judgments from small claims action were more predictable than adjudication decisions, but when I asked some more about how they operate it turned out that the agent herself was traipsing off to court every time and spending at least half a day waiting for the case to be heard, and well over two hours in the hearing every time.

Friday 4 February 2011

How ADR Solution works:

I just wanted to give you a quick overview of how our deposit protection dispute service works, so you can get a better idea of whether it will be useful for you.
When you call, we discuss the claim with you in detail on the telephone, giving advice as to what can be claimed for and the types of evidence that you should be looking for. We then ask you to send the evidence to us, preferably by email, along with a detailed breakdown of how much they you want to claim and exactly what it is for.
Once we have the evidence we conduct a systematic analysis

Thursday 27 January 2011

Prevention, Rather Than Cure

It’s the nature of the business that I’m in that I deal with a lot of unhappy landlords. Landlords who have had their trust abused, been ripped off and left to clear up someone else’s mess. Most of the people reading this blog will have been in that situation at some time or another.
Most landlords come to me for help sorting the situation out, but we often get round to discussing how to prevent it happening next time. Naturally we talk about inventories, interim inspections and properly drafted tenancy agreements, which I will no doubt discuss the finer points of in the future, but I also raise the issue of tenant referencing. 

Wednesday 19 January 2011

How To Win Deposit Protection Claims

Naturally, the question everyone asks me is how they can win their deposit protection claim. I am afraid that there are many obstacles to trip up the honest landlord, which is why landlords lose so many disputes.

Over on Property Hawk I have been compiling some useful tips to help landlords avoid the major pitfalls, on a more or less weekly basis. Here are some of the more recent posts.

Friday 14 January 2011

Welcome

Welcome to the Deposit Protection Dispute Blog. This blog is written by Tom Derrett of ADR Solution.

We will be looking at all aspects of deposit protection disputes and the legal side of letting, landlord and tenant relations and life in general, through the lens of the ADR Solution office window.

Please feel free to add your comments or take an RSS feed. If you want to contact ADR Solution with a specific enquiry, and you are reading this on www.adrsolution.co.uk, please use the contact form, email us, or give us a call on 0845 519 4597. We will be very happy to discuss your situation without charge.

Thank you for reading, and come back again soon.