Your landlord takes your deposit on moving day and tells you it will be protected. Most tenants nod, sign, and think nothing more of it. Then, months or years later, when you want that money back, you discover you have no idea where it is, whether it was ever registered, or what you can do about deductions. That gap between "they said it was protected" and "I can prove it" costs UK tenants real money.
mydeposits is one of three government-authorised tenancy deposit protection schemes in England and Wales. Knowing which product your landlord used, what paperwork you should have received and how to challenge deductions helps you recover your deposit.
What mydeposits does and which scheme you're in
mydeposits offers two distinct protection models, and which one your landlord chose matters more than most tenants realise.
Insurance-backed protection means your landlord holds the deposit money in their own account but pays a premium to mydeposits to insure it. Your landlord has the cash. If they disappear, go bankrupt, or refuse to engage, mydeposits steps in. This model is common with letting agents and larger portfolio landlords.
Custodial protection means the money itself is held by mydeposits, not your landlord. Your landlord transfers the deposit to the scheme, and it sits there until both parties agree how it should be split at the end of the tenancy. This is closer to what most tenants picture when they imagine "deposit protection".
The practical difference is that in a custodial scheme your landlord physically cannot spend your deposit. In an insurance-backed scheme they can, and rely on the insurance to cover any payout. Once a dispute is raised, though, even an insurance-backed landlord must lodge the disputed amount with mydeposits, which holds it until the decision. If your landlord is insolvent and the scheme has to pay out, the process takes longer.
If you are unsure which model applies to you, use the mydeposits Deposit Checker online. You will need your deposit protection certificate number. If you cannot find that number, that itself is a signal worth paying attention to.
What Prescribed Information is and why missing it matters
For covered English tenancies and Welsh occupation contracts, the landlord has 30 days from receiving the deposit to meet the protection and information duties. England's rules are in the Housing Act 2004. Wales uses section 45 and Schedule 5 to the Renting Homes (Wales) Act 2016, with separate required-information regulations. A proven failure can support compensation of one to three times the deposit, but the court procedure differs.
Prescribed Information must contain the details required by law, including the scheme's contact details, the tenancy and deposit information, the repayment and dispute procedures, and the required landlord certification. A scheme template is useful, but the mydeposits insured scheme rules allow another format if it includes all the required information. A generic letter or another scheme's form is not automatically invalid: check its actual contents and accuracy.
Compare when your landlord received the deposit with when they gave you the required information. The clock does not run from moving in, and the date printed on a document does not establish when it reached you. Keep the payment record and delivery evidence together.
Keep your Prescribed Information document somewhere accessible. You will need it if you raise a dispute or make a claim.
How to check your deposit is protected
Landlords do not always protect deposits, despite the legal requirement. Government data suggests a meaningful proportion of deposits go unprotected, and tenants typically only discover this when they try to get their money back.
The check takes about two minutes. Go to the mydeposits website, find the Deposit Checker tool, and enter either your certificate number or your personal details and tenancy address. The checker will confirm whether a deposit is registered under that scheme.
If it comes back empty, run the same check on the other two authorised schemes, the Deposit Protection Service (DPS) and the Tenancy Deposit Scheme (TDS). Your landlord may have used a different scheme without telling you, which is sloppy but not necessarily a breach. If none of the three schemes show a protected deposit, your landlord has broken the law.
In England, an eligible claim for failure to protect the deposit uses section 214 of the Housing Act 2004. For Welsh occupation contracts, Schedule 5 supplies the remedy instead. Both provide compensation of one to three times the deposit for a proven breach, separate from orders concerning the deposit money itself. The county court routes are explained below.
How the mydeposits dispute process works
When your tenancy ends and you disagree with proposed deductions, mydeposits offers free Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR). Both sides must agree to adjudication. An independent adjudicator then considers the submitted evidence and makes a binding decision, without a court hearing.
The process works like this:
- Your tenancy ends and your landlord proposes deductions.
- You tell mydeposits you do not agree with the proposed deductions.
- Both sides submit evidence. The adjudicator reviews it. Neither side gets to argue in person.
- After referral, the adjudicator aims to decide within 28 calendar days, under the published process. Earlier evidence and assessment stages take additional time.
- The deposit is released according to that decision.
Adjudicators decide from the evidence. If the landlord has no check-in report, it may be harder to prove damage or poor cleaning, but dated photographs and messages can still establish the property's condition. Respond to each deduction with the records you have. Missing inventories do not produce an automatic win for either side.
Tenants win partial or full returns far more often than landlords are awarded the entire claimed deposit, so the system rewards tenants who come prepared.
For a full breakdown of how to raise a dispute across all three schemes, including what evidence to submit, see our guide on how to raise a deposit dispute with mydeposits, DPS or TDS.
What evidence wins a mydeposits dispute
The most common reason tenants lose deposit disputes is missing paperwork, not unfair adjudicators.
The evidence that wins disputes:
Check-in and check-out reports. These are the backbone of any dispute. A dated, signed check-in report showing the property's condition when you moved in is the clearest way to prove that damage existed before your tenancy. If your landlord never gave you a check-in report, that works in your favour, but you still need your own evidence of the property's condition on the day you moved in.
Photographs with metadata. Photos taken on a phone with location and date data embedded are far stronger than photos without. Take them at check-in and at check-out. Email them to yourself on both days so the timestamp is on record.
Written communications. If you reported a maintenance issue in writing and your landlord ignored it, keep those messages. If the property then deteriorated because the issue was not fixed, you have evidence the fault was not yours.
Invoices and quotes. If your landlord claims £400 for professional cleaning, the adjudicator will want to see an invoice from a named cleaning company, not a round number typed into an email. Unsubstantiated charges typically fail.
Fair wear and tear is not a deductible loss. Your landlord cannot charge you for a carpet that was already five years old and showing age-appropriate wear when you left. Adjudicators know the difference between normal use and genuine damage.
If your landlord is making deductions that feel fabricated or inflated, Remedy Legal can help you assess your position. The free instant situation assessment takes a few minutes and tells you what you're likely owed.
How the Renters' Rights Act 2025 changes deposit rules
The Renters' Rights Act is being implemented in stages, with its main tenancy provisions in force in England since 1 May 2026. Wales has its own regime under the Renting Homes (Wales) Act 2016. The deposit protection rules themselves remain consistent. Protect within 30 days, and serve Prescribed Information on time. What changes is the broader tenancy structure around deposits.
The deposit cap is unchanged in England. Under the Tenant Fees Act 2019, which applies in England only, a landlord cannot charge more than five weeks' rent where annual rent is under £50,000, and the Renters' Rights Act carries that into the new periodic tenancy framework. Wales has no equivalent cap on a security deposit. The Renting Homes (Fees etc.) (Wales) Act 2019 allows Welsh Ministers to set one, but no regulations have been made, so no five-week limit applies there. All assured shorthold tenancies converted to assured periodic tenancies on 1 May 2026, so the 30-day protection requirement applies to those tenancies on an ongoing basis.
Landlords were also required to serve an official Renters' Rights Act Information Sheet by 31 May 2026 for pre-existing tenancies. If your landlord never did, that is a compliance gap worth noting.
One practical change is worth watching. As more tenants challenge unlawful practices under the new framework, the volume of deposit disputes is expected to rise. The dispute process through mydeposits remains free and unchanged, but be prepared for longer wait times if there is a surge in ADR cases post-May 2026.
For the full picture on what the Act changes for tenants, see our breakdown of Renters Rights Act 2025 deposit rule changes.
What to do if your landlord ignores the mydeposits process
Most deposit disputes resolve through the mydeposits ADR service. Some do not, usually because a landlord in an insurance-backed scheme refuses to engage with the ADR process or disputes that any claim is valid.
If ADR is not used or cannot cover the dispute, consider the county court. An English section 214 protection claim starts under Part 8, normally using N208. For Welsh occupation contracts, Schedule 5 claims normally start under Part 7, under Practice Direction 56A. Ordinary deductions claims generally use Part 7. Our N208 guide explains how to distinguish them.
Before you file anything in court, send a letter before action. This is a formal written notice that gives your landlord a specific deadline (usually 14 days) to resolve the issue before you proceed with a claim. In many cases, this alone triggers a response. Landlords often prefer to settle than to appear in court. Remedy Legal generates letter before action documents that cite the correct legislation, and you can use the platform's letter before action landlord guide to understand exactly what the letter needs to say.
If your deposit is sitting with mydeposits and your tenancy is ending, gather your evidence now, before you return the keys. Get your check-in report, your move-out photographs, and any written records of maintenance issues. If you have not checked that your deposit is protected, do that today using the mydeposits Deposit Checker. If you have already been hit with deductions that feel wrong, Remedy can assess your position for free and draft the letters you need to get it back.
