Deposit not protected? The claim worth more than the deductions

Two separate claims come out of a tenancy deposit in England and Wales, and tenants usually only pursue the small one. The deductions dispute is decided free by the scheme's adjudicator. The protection claim is decided by the county court, which can order the landlord to repay the deposit and pay you between one and three times its amount (Housing Act 2004, ss.213-214).

When the protection claim arises

Two duties, both with a 30-day clock from the day the deposit is received:

1. Protect the deposit in an authorised scheme — DPS, TDS or mydeposits (s.213(1)).
2. Serve the prescribed information: scheme details, landlord contact details, how to get the deposit back, and how disputes are resolved (s.213(5)-(6)).

Miss either and the tenant can apply under s.214. The award is between one and three times the deposit — the court has no discretion to award nothing once a breach is established, only to set the multiple. The claim survives the end of the tenancy.

Before asserting non-protection, search all three scheme registers using the property postcode and the landlord's details. Landlords sometimes protect late, or under an agent's name, and a claim built on the wrong assumption goes nowhere.

The five-week cap is a separate breach

Since the Tenant Fees Act 2019 a deposit may not exceed five weeks' rent, or six where annual rent is £50,000 or more. On a rent of £1,100 a month that is roughly £1,269 — a £1,500 deposit is over the line. The excess is a prohibited payment: recoverable in its own right, and while the landlord holds it a notice seeking possession is not valid.

How deduction disputes are actually decided

Adjudicators decide on documents, and the burden is on the landlord:

Landlord claims	Usual outcome
Repainting after a long tenancy	Not recoverable — fair wear and tear
New carpet for a worn one	Reduced heavily for age and remaining life; betterment is not chargeable
Cleaning	Only to the standard recorded at check-in, evidenced
Damage beyond wear	Recoverable with invoice plus dated before-and-after photographs
Unpaid rent	Recoverable, with a statement of account

What decides it is the check-in inventory and the check-out report, both with dated photographs. Without them the landlord usually cannot discharge the burden — which is the practical reason a tenant should photograph everything on the day the keys go back.

Use the free ADR

Where the deposit is protected, the scheme's adjudication is free, decided on the papers, and binding once both sides use it. The disputed sum stays with the scheme until it decides, and the undisputed part is released anyway — so there is no reason to accept unfair deductions just to get some money moving.

Since 1 May 2026

The Renters' Rights Act abolished the assured shorthold tenancy and with it section 21, so the old lever — an unprotected deposit blocking a no-fault notice — matters differently now. What has not changed is the money: the s.214 penalty is unaffected, and it remains the largest single sum most tenants can recover at the end of a tenancy.

Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own regimes: in Scotland the application goes to the First-tier Tribunal (Housing and Property Chamber), which can order up to three times the deposit; in Northern Ireland enforcement sits with the local council rather than with a tenant claim.

One letter, both claims

Our guided deposit dispute letter disputes the deductions item by item and demands the evidence for each, then — where your answers show the deposit was unprotected or the prescribed information late — raises the s.213-214 claim in the same letter, checks the deposit against the five-week cap, and points the dispute at the scheme's free adjudication.

→ Tenancy deposit dispute letter

Related: letter before action — contents, notice period and costs risk · what replaced the AST.