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The Deposit Protection
Service (DPS) has safeguarded the deposits of more than 2 million
tenants since it launched in 2007, four years ago today. Deposits totalling £1.1
billion have been submitted to the custodial tenancy deposit
protection scheme by 20,000 letting agents and 250,000 landlords.
The deposit pool
currently stands at £550 million representing 720,000 active
deposits.
Kevin Firth, Director
of The DPS said: “We’re proud to be delivering our protection
services to such a significant volume of tenants, landlords and
agents in England, Wales and even Scotland. It’s particularly
impressive as we did not have an existing member base – so it’s
been great to see so many landlords and letting agents positively
choosing to safeguard their tenants’ deposits with us over the
years.”
The DPS has introduced
several enhancements over the last year including increased online
functionality, a facility for tenants to check whether their deposits
have been protected, SMS reminders and, most recently, their online
service agent ‘Emma’. Kevin added: “Further enhancing our
customer service channels by introducing the virtual agent was an
important step and Emma’s been working hard with over 15,000
requests in just over 3 weeks.
“It’s particularly
important for tenants to have access to enough information as often
they are less familiar with what the law requires of them when it
comes to renting a property.”
In the last year, The
DPS has sent 85,000 text messages to tenants, prompting them to log
on and reclaim their deposits – resulting in £2 million of
previously unclaimed deposits being returned.
Kevin added: “It’s
important that we keep innovating in our use of technology to make
deposit protection as easy and accessible as possible. We use SMS, we
blog and we Tweet to help ensure that people are aware of their
responsibilities when it comes to deposits.
“Continuing to
increase awareness is particularly important at the moment as – in
the middle of a private rental sector boom – more and more people
are finding themselves thrust into the role of reluctant landlord.
We’re still registering around 200 new landlords a day, so I’m
confident that the message is hitting home.”
Stephen Skelton was the
first landlord to submit a deposit to The DPS in 2007, he said: “I
have always found The DPS effective and trouble free which is why I
have continued to use the scheme. In fact, I have recently just added
another property to my account so will continue in my position as the
longest running member of the scheme for a little while yet!”
The DPS is the only
scheme to protect deposits by retaining them for the duration of a
tenancy on behalf of tenants, landlords and letting agents.
www.depositprotection.com
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