This article has been written in response to a tenant’s question: “My mother is my guarantor and has paid my deposit, how does this affect my tenancy?”
It is a common occurrence for a third party to pay the deposit on behalf of a tenant in accordance with arrangements they have made between them. This person is normally the guarantor, a family member, employer or the local authority.
As your mother has paid your tenancy deposit on your behalf, she will become a ‘relevant person’ in relation to that deposit. This means that she should also be provided with the ‘prescribed information’ which will tell her the specific details of how the deposit is being protected and a scheme leaflet explaining how the deposit protection scheme works.
The agent/landlord must protect the deposit and issue the prescribed information within 30 days of receipt.
The fact that your mother has paid your deposit will have no effect on your tenancy; you may wish to speak with your agent/landlord to discuss where any due deposit funds will be returned at the end of the tenancy. Depending on which type of deposit scheme is being used, there are differences in the repayment processes.
TDS offers letting agents and landlords two schemes in which they can protect the tenancy deposit, TDS Insured and TDS Custodial. The schemes have slightly different methods when it comes to raising disputes. With TDS Insured, the agent, landlord or any tenant can raise a dispute and with the TDS Custodial Scheme the landlord or agent with the deposit listed in their account or lead tenant can raise a dispute.
Although being the relevant person in relation to the deposit, your mother will be neither the landlord, agent or the tenant and therefore will not be able to raise a dispute with the Tenancy Deposit Scheme.
The Tenancy Deposit Scheme (TDS) is a government approved scheme for the protection of tenancy deposits; we offer both insured and custodial protection. We also provide fair adjudication for disputes that arise over the tenancy deposits that we protect.
TDS can only comment on the process for our scheme, other deposit protection schemes may have a different process/require different steps. Content is correct at the time of writing.