Landlords have a choice of two schemes in which they can participate in. These are either a ‘custodial’ or ‘insured’ schemes.
Berriman Eaton have an account with the Deposit Protection Service www.depositprotection.com which is a custodial scheme and all deposits taken on fully managed properties are placed here free of charge. For Let Only properties landlords will need to enrol in their own scheme and the tenant(s) will pay the deposit directly to the landlord in cleared funds before signing the tenancy agreement.
With this scheme the tenant pays the deposit to Berriman Eaton in cleared funds on or before the day of signing tenancy agreement. Within 14 days Berriman Eaton pass this on to the scheme.
At the end of the tenancy, if the Agent/Landlord and Tenant agree how the deposit should be divided, they will tell the scheme what they have agreed and the money will be paid out accordingly.
Should there be a dispute over the deposit, the scheme will hold the amount until the Dispute Resolution Service or Courts decide what is fair.