Key Points
- A landlord must usually provide prescribed information within 30 days of receiving a tenancy deposit.
- Protecting a deposit alone may not be enough to comply with the rules.
- Tenants can sometimes claim compensation even where the deposit was properly protected.
- Missing or late prescribed information can still amount to a tenancy deposit breach.
- A deposit can be protected correctly and a claim may still exist.
Many tenants know that a landlord must protect a tenancy deposit. Fewer realise that landlords must also provide specific information about that protection within strict legal deadlines.
This information is known as prescribed information. If your deposit was protected but you never received the required paperwork, you may still have a tenancy deposit claim.
What Is Prescribed Information?
Prescribed information is a set of details that landlords must provide to tenants after receiving a tenancy deposit.
The purpose is to ensure tenants understand:
- Where the deposit is protected.
- Which tenancy deposit scheme is being used.
- How the deposit will be returned.
- How disputes can be resolved.
- Who is responsible for the deposit.
Providing this information is a separate legal requirement from protecting the deposit itself.
Why Does Prescribed Information Matter?
The tenancy deposit rules are designed to make sure tenants know what has happened to their money.
A tenant should not have to guess whether a deposit is protected or where it is being held.
The prescribed information requirements are intended to create transparency and allow tenants to understand their rights throughout the tenancy.
Can A Deposit Be Protected But The Rules Still Be Breached?
Your landlord protects the deposit within 30 days and uses the correct scheme.
However, you never receive the deposit certificate, prescribed information, or details explaining where the deposit is held.
Many tenants assume everything is compliant in this situation. In reality, a tenancy deposit breach may still have occurred.
Yes.
This is one of the most common misunderstandings surrounding tenancy deposits.
A landlord might:
- Protect the deposit correctly.
- Protect the deposit within 30 days.
- Use the correct scheme.
Yet still fail to comply with the law because the prescribed information was never provided.
In some cases, tenants only discover this issue months or years later.
Our team can review your tenancy documents and establish whether the tenancy deposit rules were properly followed.
What Information Must A Landlord Provide?
The exact requirements vary slightly depending on the tenancy deposit scheme involved, but prescribed information will commonly include:
Common Prescribed Information
If important information is missing, incomplete, or never provided, a breach may have occurred.
When Must Prescribed Information Be Provided?
In most cases, prescribed information must be provided within 30 days of the landlord receiving the deposit.
This deadline generally runs alongside the requirement to protect the deposit itself.
Missing the deadline can be significant because late compliance does not necessarily remove the original breach.
Can You Claim If Prescribed Information Was Never Provided?
Potentially, yes.
A tenant may be entitled to bring a claim where:
- No prescribed information was provided.
- The information was provided late.
- The information was incomplete.
- The information was inaccurate.
The circumstances of each case are different, but compensation may still be available even where the deposit itself was properly protected.
Can You Claim If The Information Was Provided Late?
Possibly.
Just as a landlord can breach the rules by protecting a deposit late, they may also breach the rules by providing prescribed information after the legal deadline.
A landlord cannot necessarily avoid liability simply by supplying the paperwork after the breach has already occurred.
How Do You Know Whether You Received Prescribed Information?
Many tenants are unsure whether they ever received the required documents.
Useful questions include:
- Did you receive a deposit protection certificate?
- Were you told which scheme was being used?
- Did you receive written information explaining your rights?
- Do you have emails or letters containing deposit scheme details?
If the answer to these questions is no, it may be worth investigating further.
How Much Compensation Could Be Available?
Where a successful tenancy deposit claim is made, compensation is commonly awarded at between one and three times the value of the deposit.
For example:
- A £500 deposit could result in compensation of between £500 and £1,500.
- A £1,000 deposit could result in compensation of between £1,000 and £3,000.
- A £2,000 deposit could result in compensation of between £2,000 and £6,000.
The final amount will depend on the facts of the case and the court’s assessment of the breach.
Tenancy Deposit Compensation Calculator
Every case is different, but the calculator below can provide a useful estimate of the compensation that may potentially be available.
Examples Of Prescribed Information Failures
The examples below are illustrative only and should not be treated as guarantees.
Deposit protected within 30 days.
No prescribed information provided.
Potential outcome: A compensation claim may still be available despite the deposit being protected correctly.
Deposit protected correctly.
Prescribed information provided several months later.
Potential outcome: The delay may still amount to a breach of the tenancy deposit rules.
Evidence That Can Help Support A Claim
Useful Documents
What Should You Do Next?
If you believe your landlord failed to provide prescribed information, it is sensible to gather your tenancy documents and establish what information was actually supplied.
Many tenants focus only on whether the deposit was protected. However, compliance with the tenancy deposit rules involves more than simply registering the deposit with a scheme.
You can learn more about the wider claims process on our Tenancy Deposit Claims page.
You may also find our guides helpful:
What Happens If A Deposit Wasn’t Protected?
and
Can A Landlord Protect A Deposit Late?.
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📖 Read: What Happens If A Deposit Wasn’t Protected?
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