You must protect your tenants' deposits using a tenant deposit protection (TDP) scheme, if they have an AST which started after 6 April 2007.

If your tenants are covered by the TDP legislation and you do not protect their deposits, you may not be able to get possession of your property at the end of the tenancy.

If your tenant believes their deposit is not being protected in a scheme, they can apply to the county court. If the court is satisfied that the landlord has not used a scheme to protect the deposit or has not done all the things he is required to under the legislation and scheme rules, it must do one of the following:

• order the person holding the deposit to repay it to the tenant
• order the person holding the deposit to pay it into a custodial scheme’s bank account within 14 days

In addition, the court must also order the landlord to pay the tenant three times the deposit within 14 days of making the order.