It's your money, with rules on its side. Speak to Kestrel.
Your deposit had to be protected in a government-approved scheme within 30 days of payment, with prescribed information given to you. If it was not, you can claim between one and three times the deposit as a penalty. If it was, the scheme's free dispute service decides deductions, and the landlord must prove damage beyond fair wear and tear, not the other way round.
Landlords of assured tenancies must protect deposits in an authorised scheme within 30 days and serve the prescribed information. Failure gives the tenant a county court claim for a penalty of one to three times the deposit, on top of the deposit itself, and the claim survives even after the tenancy ends.
Deductions are the landlord's to justify. Fair wear and tear, the gentle decline of carpets, paint and fittings through normal living, is not damage and cannot be charged. Betterment is not allowed either: a landlord cannot fund a full redecoration off the back of a scuff.
Every scheme offers free adjudication. The evidence that wins is unglamorous: the check-in inventory against the check-out report, dated photographs, and receipts. Where a landlord never protected the deposit at all, the negotiation changes character entirely, because the penalty claim is now your lever.
Guide edition: August 2026. General information for England and Wales. Current law and your particular facts require assessment before action.
Search the three schemes with your postcode and tenancy dates. Unprotected changes everything in your favour.
Ask for the deposit's return and itemised justification for any deduction, with the inventory evidence.
Protected but disputed: raise it with the scheme. It is free, paper-based and decided on the inventory and photos.
Unprotected, or the landlord ignores the scheme: a claim for the deposit and the one-to-three-times penalty.
Tell Kestrel what happened. The AI legal assistant gathers the facts and prepares a summary for you to check. Request lawyer review from your Legal Centre.
Speak to Kestrel nowDeposit penalty claims are generally treated as contract-based with a six-year window. Scheme adjudication has its own short timetables after the tenancy ends, so start the written demand promptly.
This guide concerns Property & tenancy. It forms part of our reference library. Kestrel is preparing for SRA authorisation. See practice details for the proposed service and current availability.
The ordinary ageing of a lived-in home: worn carpet paths, faded paint, loose hinges. Damage is different in kind: burns, breakages, unauthorised redecoration. Time, tenancy length and household size all widen what is fair.
That is the landlord's problem, not yours. Without check-in evidence, proving the condition you inherited is nearly impossible for them, and adjudicators know it.
You can claim the deposit plus a penalty of one to three times its value, and the failure also weakened the landlord's position on other fronts. This is one of the strongest consumer claims in housing law.
Silence has a price: a letter before claim, then a money claim. Judges take a dim view of landlords who ignore both the scheme and the court.
Start with the AI legal assistant, then follow the case, messages and lawyer review in your Legal Centre.
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