• Home
  • About
  • Clinic
  • Training
  • Tenants
  • Landlord Law

The Landlord Law Blog

From landlord and tenant lawyer Tessa Shepperson

  • Home
  • Posts
  • News & comment
  • Cases
  • Tenants
    • The Renters Guide Website
    • 15 Places for tenant help
  • Clinic
  • Series
    • Analysis
    • should law and justice be free
    • HMO Basics
    • Tenancy Agreements 33 days
    • Airbnb
    • Grounds for Eviction
    • Tips

Guidance issued on the Superstrike case

August 1, 2013 by Tessa J Shepperson

NewsThis is a case regarding tenancy deposits – you can see my blog posts on the case here and here.

There is some confusion about whether this case affects deposits taken since April 2007, and in particular whether deposits need to be re-protected and the prescribed information re-served when a periodic tenancy arises.

Guidance now issued by the Deposit Schemes

The guidance is the same for all schemes – you can download it from My Deposits page >> here along with a briefing document with comments on the implications of the case.

Basically:

  • If your tenancy is still within the original fixed term

You are advised to check the deposit is still protected at the end of the fixed term and re-serve the prescribed information at that stage if the tenants do not vacate.

  • If your tenancy has renewed either as a new fixed term or as a new periodic tenancy

(Eg the tenants have just stayed in the property on a month to month basis) – then it is possible you may be in breach already without realising it.

We don’t know if this is the case or not until there is another Court of Appeal of Supreme Court decision.

It is up to you whether you

  • Re-protect (if necessary) and re-serve the prescribed information now or (bearing in mind that most tenancies end amicably with the tenants moving out)
  • Re-serve the prescribed information just before you serve a section 21 notice (assuming the deposit is still protected).

This is all highly unsatisfactory and just shows what happens if legislation is not thought through properly.

I will post here if I hear any more news.

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Filed Under: News and comment Tagged With: Deposit, Tenancy Deposit

Scroll down for the comments

IMPORTANT: Please check the date of the post above - remember, if it is an old post, the law may have changed since it was written.

You should always get independent legal advice before taking any action.

Notes on comments:

For personal landlord and tenant related problems, please use our >> Blog Clinic.
Note that we do not publish all comments, please >> click here to read our terms of use and comments policy. Comments close after three months.

Keep up with the news on Landlord Law blog!

To get posts sent direct to your email in box click here

About Tessa J Shepperson

Tessa is a specialist landlord & tenant lawyer and the creator of this site! She is a director of Landlord Law Services which runs Landlord Law and Easy Law Training.

« Do you have to disclose to lodgers that you are a tenant and not the property owner?
Ben Reeve Lewis Friday Newsround #117 »

Comments

  1. JamieT says

    August 1, 2013 at 3:57 PM

    Last part:

    “…in order to ensure full compliance with the implications of the Superstrike decision,
    you should re-serve the Prescribed Information within 30 days of each renewal or the creation of a
    statutory periodic tenancy.”

    In all my years in the letting industry I don’t think I’ve come across such an utterly ridiculous situation. Agents would have to do this every month for many SPTs.

    The 3 page grid of ‘Likely Implications’ is a nightmare and just shows how screwed up this situation really is. It’s worse than the confusion caused when they first launched deposit protection.

    Sometimes I’m very glad most of our assured tenancies are non-shorthold.

  2. Romain says

    August 2, 2013 at 4:05 PM

    “Agents would have to do this every month for many SPTs.”

    Why?
    A periodic tenancy continues from period to period. It is not a new tenancy that is created every period!

  3. Industry Observer says

    August 3, 2013 at 10:20 AM

    One of the commonest foolish mistakes/suppositions is the need to re-serve PI and re-protect every month a periodic tenancy rolls over. There is absolutely no need to do so it is one NEW tenancy which continues until the parties renew, or one serves notice on the other.

    In simple terms here is what to do to ensure you comply with TDP whether you think it stupid or not:-

    There is a huge amount of info now coming out and complex tables. In simple terms

    Every time you do a re-let to new tenants protect and serve PI

    Every time those tenants renew do the same

    If those tenants go periodic, do the same

    On existing tenancies

    If they renew, do as above

    If they go periodic, do as above

    On all existing tenancies where they are still fixed term or periodic – review your paperwork and if not 100% correct i.e. you have protected and served 100% correct PI, decide what to do between nothing, satisfying TDP, or doing a renewal and satisfying TDP

    All other comment is just additional words – do as above and be 100% safe.

    Or don’t and risk it

  4. JamieT says

    August 5, 2013 at 9:16 AM

    IO.

    I thought everyone was worried about it because the court of appeal ruled it was a new tenancy each time? If the ruling was just that a periodic tenancy is new the first time it’s created, then that’s nothing new, it’s how we’ve always seen it anyway.

    We don’t do many ASTs so it’s not a big issue for us and so I hadn’t read the ruling. I’d appreciate you not calling me a fool though. You need to think about your language before posting.

    The fact is the situation is still messy and the guidance as issued by TDS et al is still unnecessarily complicated.

  5. Tessa Shepperson says

    August 5, 2013 at 9:24 AM

    I’m sorry Jamie, maybe I should not have published that comment. I will in future try to remove words and sentences which might be offensive (but will leave that one online so people know what we are talking about).

    It would be VERY much appreciated if people could NOT post comments which could upset other users. I am going to be a lot stricter on this in future.

    Please accept my apologies.

“Interesting posts on residential landlord & tenant law and practice - in England & Wales UK”

Subscribe to the Landlord Law Blog by email

Never miss another post!

Sign up to our
>> daily updates

If you are new to the blog >> click here

Get Your Free Ebook:

Click to get your Free Ebook

>> Click Here for Your Free Copy

Featured Post

Tessa Shepperson

Why you need and how to get proper legal advice on landlord and tenant issues

Tessa’s Podcast

The Landlord and Lawyer Podcast

Worried about Insurance?

Landlord Law Insurance Mini-Course

Disclaimer

The purpose of this blog is to provide information, comment and discussion.

Although Tessa, or guest bloggers, may from time to time, give helpful comments to readers' questions, these can only be based on the information given by the reader in his or her comment, which may not contain all material facts.

Any comments or suggestions provided by Tessa or any guest bloggers should not, therefore be relied upon as a substitute for legal advice from a qualified lawyer regarding any actual legal issue or dispute.

Nothing on this website should be construed as legal advice or perceived as creating a lawyer-client relationship (apart from the Fast Track block clinic service - so far as the questioners only are concerned).

Please also note that any opinion expressed by a guest blogger is his or hers alone, and does not necessarily reflect the views of Tessa Shepperson, or the other writers on this blog.

Cookies

You can find out more about our use of 'cookies' on this website here.

Associated sites

Landlord Law Services
The Renters Guide
Eco Landlords
Your Law Store

Legal

Landlord Law Blog is © 2006 – 2021 Tessa Shepperson.

Note that Tessa is an introducer for Alan Boswell Insurance Brokers and will get a commission from sales made via links on this website.

© 2006–2022 Tessa Shepperson | Rainmaker Platform | Contact Page | Privacy | Log in

This website or its third-party tools use cookies which are necessary to its functioning and required to improve your experience. By clicking the consent button, you agree to allow the site to use, collect and/or store cookies.
I accept