TDS Tenancy Deposit Scheme: Tenant Guide UK

TDS is a government-approved scheme in England and Wales. It runs two models, and which one applies to you affects where your money actually sits.

The Custodial scheme is free for landlords and agents. TDS holds your deposit funds in a ring-fenced account for the duration of the tenancy. You can verify your deposit is protected through the TDS website at tenancydepositscheme.com using your surname, postcode, and deposit amount.

The Insured scheme is different. Your landlord or their letting agent holds your deposit directly, and they pay TDS a fee to provide a protection guarantee. Your money never goes to TDS, it stays with the landlord. If a dispute arises at the end of tenancy, TDS steps in to adjudicate, but the landlord holds the cash throughout.

Both models are legal and both are government-approved. The Insured scheme is more common when agents manage properties, because agents often hold client money accounts. The Custodial scheme is more common with private landlords managing their own properties.

Your landlord must also give you Prescribed Information within 30 days of receiving the deposit. This is a formal document that tells you which scheme is being used, how to access it, and what the dispute process looks like. If you never received it, that is itself a potential violation worth examining. See our guide on deposit protection violations and how to claim compensation for what that means in practice.

The Renters' Rights Act did not make all assured tenancies in England move to periodic tenancies from 1 May 2026; the abolition of assured shorthold tenancies and conversion to periodic assured tenancies is part of the Act's reform, but the commencement date stated here is wrong and was not 1 May 2026. Fixed-term tenancies no longer exist for new agreements, and existing fixed-term contracts converted automatically. TDS updated its guidance to reflect these changes, and deposit protection remains a legal requirement under the new regime.

The switch to periodic tenancies does not change how deposit protection works. Your deposit stays protected in the scheme it was registered with. The 30-day protection deadline still applies. The dispute process is unchanged.

What does change is that the tenancy no longer has a fixed end date, which means end-of-tenancy deposit claims now happen whenever the tenancy ends, not on a predetermined date. Landlords and agents managing multiple properties are being advised to tighten their check-in and check-out documentation precisely because the transition process is less predictable.

For tenants, the message is the same as it has always been: document everything, from the day you get the keys. If you are on a newer tenancy and want to understand your rights in full, our guide to Renters' Rights Act 2025 deposit rule changes covers what shifted and what stayed the same.

Go to tenancydepositscheme.com and use the deposit checker. You will need your surname, the property postcode, and the tenancy start date or deposit amount. The search is free.

If you find your deposit, the result will tell you whether it is in the Custodial or Insured scheme and give you a certificate reference number. Save that certificate. Screenshot it. You will want it if a dispute comes up later.

If the search returns no result, that does not automatically mean your landlord has failed to protect it. They might have used a different scheme. DPS (Deposit Protection Service) and mydeposits are the other two government-approved options in England and Wales. Check all three before drawing conclusions.

If you have checked all three and found nothing, and it has been more than 30 days since you paid your deposit, your landlord may be in breach of Section 213 of the Housing Act 2004. That breach carries a compensation penalty of one to three times the deposit value, payable to you. A £1,195 deposit could mean up to £3,585 in compensation, on top of the deposit itself. See our guide on what to do if your landlord didn't protect your deposit within 30 days for the exact steps to take.

At the end of your tenancy, if you and your landlord cannot agree on deductions, TDS offers a free adjudication service. You do not need a solicitor. You do not need to go to court.

Here is how it works in sequence. First, your landlord makes a deduction claim and notifies you. You have a right to dispute it. If you cannot reach agreement after a direct negotiation attempt, either party can raise a formal dispute with TDS, usually within a set window after the tenancy ends.

TDS then appoints an independent adjudicator. Both sides submit their evidence. The adjudicator reviews it and makes a binding decision based on the balance of probabilities. The whole process typically takes 28 days once both sides have submitted their evidence packs.

Cleaning disputes are the most common reason for adjudication, accounting for 54% of cases in England and Wales (TDS, 2025). If your landlord is claiming a professional clean you believe is unjustified, the adjudicator will look at: the check-in inventory, any photos taken at check-in and check-out, the tenancy agreement cleaning clauses, and whether the property was professionally cleaned before you moved in.

The adjudicator will not simply take the landlord's word. A landlord who submits an invoice for a £500 professional clean but has no check-in photos showing a clean property at the start of the tenancy is unlikely to win that deduction. Evidence gaps cost landlords cases, not tenants.

If you want to understand how to structure your own evidence before submitting to adjudication, Remedy Legal's tenancy deposit dispute resolution guide covers exactly that.

TDS adjudicators decide on what the evidence shows. The tenant with better documentation wins. That is not a metaphor.

Before you raise a dispute, pull together everything you have.

Check-in inventory: Did you sign one at the start of the tenancy? Did you note existing damage? If your landlord is claiming damage you flagged on day one, that inventory is your defence.

Dated photographs: Photos timestamped on the day you moved in and the day you handed back the keys. If your phone photo metadata shows the date, that counts. The more granular the better, with close-up shots of scuffs, stains, and appliances.

Correspondence: Text messages, emails, WhatsApp messages between you and the landlord. If you reported a repair issue and the landlord ignored it, that supports your case that the damage was pre-existing or caused by their neglect.

Professional clean receipts: If you paid for a professional clean at the end of your tenancy, keep that receipt. Landlords who claim a cleaning deduction despite evidence you paid for a clean at move-out rarely win those deductions in adjudication.

The tenancy agreement: Pull out the exact clause that mentions cleaning or damages. Some clauses are unenforceable. Our guide to unfair tenancy agreement clauses explains which ones you can challenge.

If your evidence is thin because the landlord conducted no formal check-in, that works in your favour. The obligation to prove deductions are justified sits with the landlord, not you. Adjudicators will not approve deductions that are unsupported by evidence.

TDS expects parties to attempt direct resolution before raising a formal dispute. In practice, that means you should send a written request for your deposit back, stating clearly which deductions you accept and which you reject.

Do this by email or text, not phone. You want a record.

If your landlord ignores you, delays, or refuses to engage, you have a few options running in parallel.

A formal letter before action is often enough to prompt movement. A letter citing Section 214 of the Housing Act 2004 and the specific deduction you are disputing, sent to your landlord in writing, shifts the dynamic. Landlords who were ignoring texts often respond promptly to a letter that cites legislation and a compensation figure. Our guide on how to write a letter before action to your landlord covers what to include.

Remedy Legal can generate that letter for you. Remedy Legal is an AI-powered platform that assesses your deposit situation, identifies what deductions you can challenge, and drafts a formal letter to your landlord citing the relevant law. The assessment is free with no credit card required. If you want the full letter generation and tribunal support tools, that is £40 as a one-off payment.

If your landlord is in the TDS Insured scheme, they are holding your money directly. If they go silent, the TDS dispute process is the mechanism to get it back. Do not delay raising the dispute once the direct negotiation window has passed. TDS has a time limit on when you can file.

TDS adjudication resolves the majority of deposit disputes fairly. But there are situations where the adjudication process alone is not the right route.

If your landlord never protected your deposit at all, TDS adjudication is not the route to claim compensation. That requires a court application under Section 214 of the Housing Act 2004. The compensation of one to three times the deposit value is separate from, and additional to, getting your deposit back.

If your landlord has used unlawful deductions as a pretext to delay returning your money in retaliation for a complaint, for example after you reported disrepair, that is a different issue with its own legal remedies. See our guide on landlord retaliation eviction and your tenant rights for context.

For straightforward disputes, TDS adjudication works well and costs you nothing. For anything more complex, including unprotected deposits, retaliatory behaviour, or disputes tied to a broader disrepair claim, you may want a more structured assessment of your position.

Remedy Legal gives you a free instant assessment that checks your deposit protection status, identifies what claims you may have, and estimates what your case might be worth based on similar past claims. You do not pay anything to find out where you stand. If you want expert eyes on your case, the no-win no-fee tier starts at 10% of what you recover, and you only pay if you win.