Some deadlines can be ignored. Most cannot. The Letting Protection Service Scotland’ tells you why May 15 is one of those you have to put in your diary.

Nine months in and we are just two weeks away from the final deposit protection deadline for Scotland: May 15, 2013.

OK, so what does that date really mean?

In a nutshell, all qualifying deposits – including those taken before March 7, 2011 – have to be protected by then.

If you are a landlord in Scotland holding a deposit where the tenancy started on March 7, 2011 or before, the law has exempted you from deposit protection laws (provided that the tenancy was not renewed between October 2, 2012 and April 11, 2013). However, that honeymoon period ends on May 15.

So… have you got any deposits which you took before March 7, 2011? If so you must lodge them with an approved protection scheme, and give your tenants the relevant Regulation 42 information.

You can find a link to a template for that information here.

I know there are still landlords and agents who are confused by the legislation; please feel free to contact us for guidance.

For everyone who has taken a deposit after March 7, 2011, it’s business as usual: you have to register any new deposit within 30 days of receiving it.

Remember: failure to lodge a deposit with an approved scheme or failure to give the required Regulation 42 information to your tenant could result in compensation of up to three times the deposit being paid by you to your tenant AND having to lodge the deposit with a scheme.

The Letting Protection Service Scotland is an independent deposit protection scheme, and the most experienced of its type in the UK. We were also the first scheme to be approved by the Scottish Government.

Visit us here.

Remember, the May 15 deadline is retrospective and therefore applies to all existing relevant tenancies.

Are you a tenant?

If your deposit has been protected you should have received confirmation from your landlord and from the relevant scheme.

If you think your deposit should have been protected the first thing to do is speak to your landlord or agent and find out what they have done or are planning to do about it. If they claim to have protected it with us you can check here.

For more information on deposit protection in Scotland, visit http://www.lettingprotectionscotland.com/tenant-info