91% of tenants suceed at arbitration say My Deposits

A news report out by My Deposits shows that 91% of tenants get their money back at tenancy deposit arbitrations. The report states:

"Figures from mydeposits.co.uk show 91 per cent of dispute cases settled by the scheme's independent adjudication service found in favour of the tenant. The average amount in dispute was £733, which is significantly lower than the average deposit of £1,052.

In only nine per cent of cases landlords and letting agents were able to withhold the full deposit."

However the report goes on to say that only a small proportion of deposits, 0.35%, actually go to arbitration. This could mean though that it is still largely only the good landlords who are protecting deposits, and that the bad landlords, the ones who will habitually make unjustified deductions, are still refusing to comply.

It would be interesting if the Deposit Protection Service could follow up their survey reported in July 2008 (and discussed by me here) that 62% of landlords were failing to protect.