Tenancy Deposit Protection with Rentman

 

Contents

Tenancy Deposit Protection with Rentman. 1

Overview.. 2

Banking and Balances. 2

Holding Fee vs Deposit 2

Our recommendation is : 2

Notifying the Tenants. 3

Setup : Deposit  Protection Schemes Screen. 4

Deposit Tab on Deal Screen. 5

Using the Schemes. 6

Deposit Protection Scheme. 6

Using the Dispute Service (TDS) scheme. 7

Using the MyDeposits or Tenancy Deposit Solution (TDSL) scheme. 7

Disputes. 8

Returning Deposits. 9

 

Overview

 

Rentman includes a tenancy agreement for each of the deposit schemes. These tenancy agreements have the prescribed information that you must, by law, give the tenant.

Rentman’s ToDo screen will guide you through the process by showing tenancies where you have yet to register deposits and tenancies that have been registered but where the tenant has not been notified.

 

Banking and Balances

The schemes are represented within Rentman by bank accounts. You can post deposit money from your client account into these (pseudo) accounts to represent you lodging the actual money with the scheme provider.

 

Rentman treats a Scheme as just another client account Bank Account; so deposits (and disputed amounts) lodged with the schemes continue to show in the trial balance and landlord balances etc. The thinking being that it is lodged with the scheme using the agent's ID so should still be considered 'held' by the agent (in the same way that money held in a Barclays's account is still held by the agent not Barclays) - treating the scheme as a repository and arbitration service rather than a stakeholder on equal footing. Note:  ARLA agrees with this thinking.

 

Please also remember the term “Client Account” can mean one of two things:

a)      all the money held by the agent on behalf of clients regardless of whether it be as cash or in one of any number of bank accounts

b)      a bank account of that name.

Rentman “client account reports” refer to that first meaning. If you want to see just the entries for the bank account of that name use the Bank Ledger screen and print from there.

Holding Fee vs Deposit

There is some debate as to when a holding fee becomes a “Deposit” under the law – is it when you receive the first holding deposit, when you have received the full amount of the deposit or when the tenancy begins? The law simply states that you must register and inform the tenant within 30 days of receipt.

 

Our recommendation is :

On the company preferences screen set the order deal sheet money gets allocated to “Fees, Rent, Other, Deposit”. Any holding fee will then be allocated as your administration fee (and can be invoiced and retained as such if the applicants back out). As you receive more money the deal sheet receipts get allocated in the order selected. The moment any deal sheet money is allocated against Deposit in Rentman you should consider it as “Deposit” (as defined in law). You must register the deposit within 30 days of THAT date… not within 30 days of the start of the tenancy.

 

The ToDo list shows unregistered deposits with the date the first money was allocated as deposit, the start of the tenancy, the amount of the deposit and how much is outstanding.

 

 

Tenancies where the first money allocated as deposit was received > 21 days ago will be shown in red.

 

Notifying the Tenants

The first notification to the Tenant and Landlord produced by Rentman is the Tenancy Agreement. You should (must) give the tenant a receipt for a holding deposit with a brochure about your preferred scheme.

 

Once the deposit has been registered you should send the tenant a notification letter informing him that the deposit has been registered together with the registration number. This notification letter simply refers the tenant to the tenancy agreement as the agreements have the prescribed information in the manner dictated by the respective scheme providers. This notification should also be sent within 30 days from the date of first receipt.

 

 

 

 

Setup : Deposit  Protection Schemes Screen.

Go to this screen by clicking the System/Setup/Deposit Schemes menu option in Rentman.

 

 

There is a record for each of the deposit schemes. Enter here your agency’s registration id (aka membership number) with each scheme. TDS also has a Member ID and Branch ID that are required for the import (see below); unfortunately you will have to ask TDS what your values are as, at present, they only inform you of your “membership number”. Leave these values blank for other schemes.

 

Deposit Tab on Deal Screen

 

This is where you see the amount being held plus any movement of the money between accounts.

 

It is also from here that you register the deposit with the schemes, send details to the tenant, post between accounts and retain against rent, expenses or invoices.

 

 

At the moment Rentman can only help with the registration process for The Dispute Service. As and when each of the other schemes implements an electronic registration process it will be supported by Rentman.

Using the Schemes

Deposit Protection Scheme.

This is the custodial scheme.

  1. Mark the deposit as held by the Agent, select DPS as the scheme and click the register button. Rentman will open up your browser at the DPS web page where you can register the tenancy and pay the deposit to them (using cheque or direct debit). Enter the registration ID in Rentman.
  2. Click the Post button.  A new screen appears for you to post the deposit amount to the “Deposit Protection Scheme” bank account. Two new entries will appear on the deposit screen showing the deposit being sent to the account AND received by the account.
  3. Click Notify Tenant button to send a letter informing the tenant that the deposit has been registered.

 

DO NOT transfer the deposit to the Landlord’s account within the DPS scheme. (This is contrary to the advice given by DPS but they are wrong - if the Landlord wishes to administer the deposit by having it transferred to his/her account within the scheme then the Lettings Agreement should show that the Landlord is holding the deposit.)

 

REMEMBER : Even though you may have lodged the deposit with DPS it is still being held by you, the agent and will show in your trial balance and on the landlord ledgers. It is just being looked after on your behalf by the scheme instead of Barclays (or whoever you usually bank with).


Using the Dispute Service (TDS) scheme.

This is an insured scheme backed by NAEA/ARLA. See above regarding the member id and branch id values required by the import – you may need to contact TDS to find out what your values are.

  1. Mark the deposit as held by the Agent, select TDS as the scheme and click the register button. Rentman will open up your browser at the TDS web page where you can register the tenancy.
  2. Rentman creates an XML file in the correct XML format for you to import the tenancy details. Once logged into the TDS website click on ‘Import Functions’. The name of the XML file has been copied to the clipboard so you can right-click and paste into the “File” textbox and click the “Import” button. 
  3. The TDS website will respond with this tenancy’s registration ID ; enter it into Rentman.
  4. If you keep deposits in a separate bank account click the Post button.  A new screen will appear for you to post the deposit amount to that bank account. Two new entries will appear on the deposit screen showing the deposit being sent to the account AND received by the account.
  5. Click Notify Tenant button to send a letter informing the tenant that the deposit has been registered.

 

 

Using the MyDeposits or Tenancy Deposit Solution (TDSL) scheme.

This is an insured scheme backed by the National Association of Landlords.

  1. If you, the agent, are registered with this scheme and are holding the deposit treat the same as TDS above but substitute TDSL as the scheme provider.
  2. Otherwise… mark the deposit as held by the Landlord, select TDSL as the scheme.
  3. If you are able to register on behalf of the landlord do so and enter the registration ID into Rentman.
  4. If the landlord is to register this tenancy, ask him to do so now and enter the registration id he gives you into Rentman.
  5. The deposit money will be given to the landlord with the statement of account.
  6. Once you have entered the registration ID into rentman click the Notify Tenant button to send a letter informing the tenant that the deposit has been registered.

Disputes

Click the Disputes button on the Deposits screen in Rentman. A new screen appears for you to enter details of the dispute.

 

 

This information will also be required to be submitted to the scheme provider ; at present there is no electronic way for Rentman to upload this data for you.

 

If this tenancy is covered by TDS or TDSL insured schemes you will need to transfer the disputed amount to the provider. You should find that the scheme provider has been setup as a bank account within Rentman to represent and track money sent to the schemes. Again, in time it is hoped that Rentman will be able to post the money for you via BACS but none of the scheme providers offer that ability as yet.

  1. Click the ‘Post’ button on the deposits screen and transfer the disputed amount into the scheme provider’s pseudo Bank account.
  2. Send the scheme provider a cheque.
  3. Be sure to return all undisputed amounts to the tenant and/or landlord as soon as possible lest that too becomes a source of conflict (and legal redress).

Returning Deposits

 

Click the return to tenant button on the deposit screen and enter in the amount being returned.

 

 

If the money is being returned by the scheme provider (as will usually be the case with DPS or disputed amounts) then the money is to be returned from the appropriate bank account.

 

For instance: In many cases the DPS will return the tenants amount directly to them plus a single transfer to the agent for any retained amounts. To make Rentman reflect real life make sure the amount being returned to the tenant is marked as being from the DPS bank account. Then Transfer the retained amount from the DPS account to the Client Account (as one transaction). Then retain as rent, pay an invoice etc specifying each transaction as being from the Client Account.