TDS Prescribed Information Template — Tenancy Deposit Scheme

If your tenant’s deposit sits with the Tenancy Deposit Scheme, the prescribed information has to name TDS, give its contact details and describe how its dispute service works. Section 213(5) of the Housing Act 2004 requires information about the particular scheme protecting the particular deposit — a generic document that could describe any of the three schemes does not do the job.

TDS differs from the other two English schemes in how much of the work it leaves with you. It publishes a prescribed information template as a Word document and expects you to complete it, because — as TDS itself points out — the legislation prescribes the content but no particular layout. Nothing is auto-generated on your behalf. That is why a template that already carries your property, tenancy and landlord details is worth having.

Alongside the completed form you must give the tenant the TDS scheme leaflet explaining how the scheme works. Download the current one from your TDS account each time rather than reusing a saved copy: TDS uses several different titles for it across its own site, and appears to have reissued its leaflets following the Renters’ Rights Act. Serving an out-of-date leaflet is an avoidable weakness in an otherwise complete package.

Thirty days from receipt of the deposit, served on the tenant and on any relevant person who contributed to it. The penalty for missing that window runs to three times the deposit.

What TDS does differently. The scheme is operated by The Dispute Service Limited (company number 4851694), registered at West Wing, First Floor, The Maylands Building, 200 Maylands Avenue, Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, HP2 7TG. The custodial helpline is 0300 037 1001. The custodial and insured products run on separate sites, so make sure you are logged into the right one.

On the custodial product TDS holds the money and protection is free. When a tenancy ends and one party proposes how to split the deposit, the other party gets 30 working days to agree or disagree — a noticeably longer window than the other schemes, and worth setting expectations about. Once agreed, TDS repays within 5 working days.

On the insured product you hold the money and pay to protect it. A dispute must be raised no earlier than 10 days and no later than 3 months after the tenancy ends, and in those first 10 days both sides are expected to make a genuine attempt to settle. Adjudication is free and normally decided within 28 days of TDS receiving the evidence.

One quirk worth knowing: TDS cannot refer a case to adjudication if either party objects or says they intend to go to court. Consent is not a formality here — a tenant who refuses ADR pushes the whole thing into the county court.