The Deposit Protection Service Blog

What does your role involve?
I am a Chartered Legal Executive with 20 years experience in the legal profession. I worked in private practice, for local government and a housing association before taking up my role here in 2008.

I am responsible for the team of in house adjudicators, allocating the cases which are ready for adjudication, ensuring that they are completed within the required deadlines, and providing advice, assistance and support to the adjudicators in respect of the decisions they make. I also complete a number of decisions myself.

What’s the funniest thing you’ve seen whilst in the role?
There are two things that spring to mind. The first was a landlord who sent in dirt, dust and mouldy sweet wrappers from the loft show me that the tenant had been ‘living’ up there. The second was a tenant who wallpapered the lounge of their rental property using silver foil!

What’s the best thing about your role?
I am very conscious that all cases must be given full and fair consideration, and enjoy the challenges of making practical decisions in respect of actual disputes. I have adjudicated in thousands of disputes, and can honestly say that no two cases are ever the same!

I also run a practical case study in respect of adjudication in the ADR Workshops which are run by the DPS for Landlord’s and Agents. This is, I hope, an interesting insight into the role of an adjudicator. I usually find that by the end of the session most participants come up to me and say “I’m glad I don’t have to do your job!”

However, I’m glad I am doing it! I enjoy the challenge and the satisfaction I get from ensuring the quality and integrity of our decisions.

What’s most challenging?
Probably reading comments on social media sites which suggest the outcome of an Adjudication was unfair. In most cases, we’re unable to identify who the aggrieved party is, and therefore have no way to reply.

If complaints about the decisions are raised with us directly, we would hope to be able to provide further clarification or explanation as to why the landlord, letting agent or tenant may have lost. In most situations, the reason a landlord’s claim fails is because the evidence they presented was not sufficient. Querying the outcome directly with The DPS is often an important way in which landlords can learn from their past bad experience and improve their evidence in future claims.

The DPS runs regular ADR workshops in which you can improve your evidence submissions. Keep an eye on our website where we post details of future events.

What does your role involve?

I’ve worked for The DPS for almost two years and I take inbound customer service calls in the contact centre, provide help and advice and resolve our customers’ account issues on a daily basis.

Usually, the calls are from tenants, letting agents and landlords wanting to know something about their account or deposits but we occasionally receive calls from solicitors and other third parties as well.

We’re able to access our customers’ account details so that when they call we have all the information we need via The DPS administration site – so we can see records of all previous notes, deposits and any issues in order to fully assist the caller.

When call volumes are high my days can be pretty full on and I can take up to 15 calls per hour. During quieter periods we catch up on admin and perform follow-up to the day’s calls.

What’s the funniest thing you’ve heard whilst at The DPS?

The funniest call we’ve received in the contact centre was actually nothing to do with deposit protection at all! One of my colleagues took a call the other day from a gentleman requesting we issue him with a new copy of his driving licence as he had lost his old one – unfortunately, we were unable to assist but did point him in the direction of the DVLA!

What’s the best thing about your role?

Being able to solve problems and send customers away happy. As a CSR I’m normally the first point of contact The DPS customers and my aim is always to make their telephone call a pleasant experience. In most cases, I am able to answer the question over the telephone, and it is always nice to receive a ‘thank you’ from the customer at the end of the call.

As well as the satisfaction of helping our customers, I love the people I work with! Everybody is very friendly and supportive; even colleagues in other departments who I don’t see on a daily basis. With the best will in the world we can’t answer all calls right there and then so need to call on the wider DPS team – they’re always professional and look to assist me as promptly and efficiently as they can.

What is Most Challenging?
The most challenging aspect of the job is when I find myself in a situation where I’m unable to assist a customer over the phone. For example, the question could relate to a decision reached by an Adjudicator, in which case this has to be referred to the adjudication team. In this instance I’d normally ask the customer to send the enquiry to us in writing to ensure the customer gets their answer as soon as possible.

If you’ve been meaning to get in touch with us about an enquiry, give our team a call on 0844 4727 000 – you might get to speak to Chris!

We have a great team here at The DPS and I’m sure you’re all wondering what they get up to on a daily basis! Well now’s your chance to find out. We’ve asked several of our team members to write a blog for you, introducing themselves and what they do as part of The DPS.

Among those contributing will be Chris Jackson, one of our Customer Service Representatives. You’ll also hear from one of our letting agent Account Managers, an ADR case Handler and our Head of Adjudication.

To kick things off though, here’s a little bit about our Director, Kevin Firth, in his own words.

What does your role involve?
I have overall responsibility for The DPS, including our employees, our systems, the decisions we make and the service we provide. No pressure then !!

What’s the funniest thing you’ve seen whilst in the role?
A landlord had walked around their rental property in bare feet, gathering the dust and crumbs from the floor, then sent us the picture of her feet as evidence that the tenant had not cleaned the floor. Whilst adjudication is a very serious issue with sometimes quite large sums of money at stake, every now and then a landlord’s interpretation of a paper-based service provides for some light relief.

What’s the best thing about your role?
I like attending and hosting events because it gives me the chance to meet with landlords, letting agents and tenants and find out what they think of the service, what they think we do well, and ways in which they think we could enhance the service. We’ve updated several of our processes following feedback from our customers and it’s made the scheme more efficient over the years.

What’s most challenging?
Raising awareness amongst tenants to ensure their landlords and letting agents are complying and protecting their deposits. It’s harder to spread the message amongst the tenant community as it’s constantly changing and we’re always looking for different ways to reach them. Social media channels like Twitter are helping us reach this audience and we’ve got nearly 2,500 followers.

The Localism Act achieved Royal Assent in December and the DCLG has now confirmed that changes to tenancy deposit protection, introduced by the Bill, will come into force on 6^th April. Tenancies already in place on this date will have 30 days in which to comply with the new rules.

Here’s a recap of the changes due to take effect as a result of The Localism Act:

30 days – not 14 – to protect deposits

From 6^th April, landlords and letting agents have 30 days from receipt of deposit in which to protect it.

The re-wording and extension of this timeline also closes the loophole with regards to deposit protection deadlines that was highlighted by cases such as Universal Estates v Tiensia in 2010.

Now, if a deposit is not protected within 30 days, the tenant can take their landlord or letting agent to court – there is no other way to interpret this legislation.

Prescribed Information

The requirement for providing the Prescribed Information to the tenant will also be changed to within 30 days of receipt of the deposit.

Whilst we provide a template for Prescribed Information on our website, it is the landlord or letting agent’s responsibility to ensure it is issued at the correct times so it’s vital they review the Localism Act and understand when Prescribed Information should be issued.

No retrospective protection after the tenancy ends

If a tenant makes an application to the county court once the tenancy has ended, the landlord will no longer be able to retrospectively protect the deposit in order to comply with the Act. If the tenancy has ended, the only option is for the landlord to repay the deposit, or part thereof, to the tenant.

Revised sanctions for non protection

The changes give the courts discretion to award not less than the amount of the deposit and not more than three times that amount depending on the individual case. For example, a repeat offender may find themselves with a larger fine compared to a landlord who has simply forgotten to protect as  an administrative oversight.

Section 21 notices

Further clarity to Section 215 of the Housing Act highlights that a section 21 notice may not be given where a deposit has not been protected within the 30 day period. However, there are exceptions to this which you can view in The Localism Act.

For a comprehensive explanation of each change, read our blog from September 2011 – ‘Tenancy deposit protection amendments proposed by the Localism Bill’. You can also read the The Localism Act (section 184) and view the amendments against the Housing Act 2004 (sections 213 – 215 are relevant).