Your landlord must return your deposit within 10 days of the two of you agreeing how much you get back (GOV.UK, Tenancy deposit protection), and any deduction they want to make is theirs to prove, not yours to disprove (DPS). If you can’t agree, the scheme holding your deposit offers a free dispute service, which both you and the landlord have to agree to use. An adjudicator decides only on the evidence both sides send in, and much of yours can be gathered before you hand back the keys.
This guide covers tenancies in England with a deposit held in one of the three government-approved schemes. Lodgers who live with their landlord are outside deposit protection, so a lodger who can’t agree the return of a deposit with their landlord has no scheme to turn to; the formal route is a claim in the county court.
First, check your deposit was protected
A landlord or letting agent in England who takes a deposit for an assured tenancy must put it in an approved scheme within 30 days of receiving it, and within the same 30 days give you the ‘prescribed information’: which scheme holds it, how to get it back and how disputes work (Housing Act 2004, section 213). The three schemes are the Deposit Protection Service (DPS), mydeposits and the Tenancy Deposit Scheme (TDS). Each has a free search on its website: enter your details and it tells you whether it holds your deposit.
If none of them does, or you never got the prescribed information, the landlord broke the law. A county court must then order them to pay you between one and three times the deposit, on top of returning or protecting it (Housing Act 2004, section 214). The claim is made on Form N208; GOV.UK lists the court fee as £387. Since 1 May 2026 an unprotected deposit also stops a landlord getting a possession order on any ground except the two anti-social behaviour grounds until they protect it and give you the prescribed information, or return it (Housing Act 2004, section 215), so it matters for your security as well as your money.
The sums are not small in London. A deposit is capped at five weeks’ rent where the annual rent is under £50,000 (Tenant Fees Act 2019, Schedule 1). At London’s average one-bedroom rent of £1,760 a month (ONS Price Index of Private Rents, August 2026, on the London Rent Index on FTR London), that cap is about £2,030; on a two-bed at £2,232 it is about £2,575, which puts the penalty for an unprotected two-bed deposit anywhere from about £2,575 to about £7,726.
What a landlord can and can’t deduct
The deposit is your money, held against your obligations under the tenancy. The DPS puts the rule plainly: the landlord has to prove a legitimate claim to part of it, and the tenant has no obligation to prove their position (DPS, Common dispute questions). TDS’s guidance for landlords and tenants lists what an adjudicator must take into account, including these two (TDS, Guide to Deposits, Disputes and Damages).
Fair wear and tear is not chargeable. TDS uses the House of Lords definition, ‘reasonable use of the premises by the tenant and the ordinary operation of natural forces’, and adjudicators must allow for it (TDS, What is fair wear and tear). How much wear is fair depends on how long you lived there, how many people did, and the age and quality of the item when you moved in.
No betterment. A landlord can’t use your deposit to end up better off than before the damage. A five-year-old carpet with a burn is not worth the price of a new one, so an adjudicator reduces the claim to reflect the age of what was damaged.
| Claim | Usually allowed when | Usually refused or reduced when |
|---|---|---|
| Cleaning | The check-out report shows the home dirtier than the check-in report did | The home is as clean as at check-in, even without a professional clean |
| Carpets and flooring | Burns, stains or tears beyond everyday use | Worn walkways after years of normal use; the claim is for a full replacement of an old carpet |
| Walls and decoration | Large holes, heavy marks or painting done without permission | Light scuffs and marks after a long tenancy, or in a home shared by several people |
| Missing items | The item is on the check-in inventory and gone at check-out | There was no inventory, or it doesn’t list the item |
| Unpaid rent or bills | The tenancy made you liable and the arrears are shown | The bill was the landlord’s under the agreement |
On cleaning in particular, TDS says the tenant should return the property ‘cleaned to the same standard as at the outset’. A clause demanding a professional clean doesn’t override that: an adjudicator takes the clause into account but must avoid betterment, so a claim for a higher standard than you moved into may not fully succeed (TDS, Do I need to professionally clean the property?). A landlord also can’t make you buy a cleaning service as a condition of the tenancy, because the Tenant Fees Act bars requiring a tenant to enter a contract for a service (Tenant Fees Act 2019, section 1).
Before you hand back the keys
An adjudicator decides only on the evidence in front of them, and the best evidence is dated and made at the time. Start with the check-in inventory: it is the baseline every claim is measured against. If you never got one, the landlord will struggle to show the condition things were in when you arrived; your own move-in photos, if you took them, fill that gap.
- Clean to the standard the check-in report records, and keep receipts if you pay someone.
- Photograph and film every room on the last day, including inside the oven, fridge and cupboards, with the files’ dates intact.
- Take meter readings and photograph them.
- Get written confirmation, an email is enough, of the date you returned every key.
- Give your forwarding address in writing.
Report any repair that was the landlord’s job, in writing, while you still live there. A boiler or a leak you reported months ago is hard for a landlord to charge you for at the end.
Timing matters too. Most private tenancies in England have been assured periodic tenancies since 1 May 2026, which you end by giving at least two months’ written notice (GOV.UK, Assured periodic tenancies: a guide for tenants). If you leave without enough notice, the landlord can claim the rent up to the end of that notice period, and that is a lawful deduction; an older agreement may allow a shorter notice period, so check yours.
If the landlord proposes deductions you disagree with
- Reply in writing. Say which deductions you accept and which you don’t, and why, pointing to the check-in report and your photos. Agreeing the undisputed part matters: TDS says that by the time a dispute reaches the scheme, the landlord should already have paid you any part of the deposit that is neither an agreed deduction nor in dispute (TDS, undisputed amounts).
- Raise a dispute with the scheme. Do it promptly: for deposits in its insured scheme, mydeposits requires tenants to request resolution within three calendar months of moving out, or of the deposit ceasing to be protected if that is sooner (mydeposits, The resolution process), and GOV.UK warns that each scheme may set a time limit. The disputed money stays protected until the dispute ends.
- Send your evidence. Both sides submit evidence separately. Keep it organised: the inventories, your photos, receipts and the emails about repairs.
- Wait for the decision. mydeposits says its adjudicator decides within 28 calendar days once all the evidence is in, and pays out within five working days of the decision; TDS says it aims to resolve adjudications in about 28 days (TDS, How long does an adjudication take?).
The service is free and you don’t need a solicitor. What it isn’t is compulsory: GOV.UK says both you and the landlord have to agree to use it. If the landlord refuses, or you would rather not, the alternative is a small claim in the county court (GOV.UK, Make a court claim for money), which carries a court fee. That is one more reason to have your evidence in order: it is what a judge will look at too.
If your landlord has gone quiet and you can’t reach them at all, contact the scheme anyway: GOV.UK says you can raise a dispute through it to recover your deposit.
When a deduction is fair
Not every deduction is a fight worth having. If the check-out report shows a stain that the check-in report didn’t, and it is beyond everyday use, the landlord is entitled to a reasonable cost of putting it right, reduced for the age of the item. Arguing a clear-cut claim only delays the rest of your money. Save the dispute for deductions that are for wear and tear, for items that weren’t on the inventory, or for amounts that would leave the landlord better off than before.
The same records help your next move. Keep the same records after you move, since a new landlord or agent may ask your last landlord for a reference; our guide to passing tenant referencing in London explains what agents check, and how deposit protection schemes work covers the schemes in more detail. Before you move in anywhere new, the London property viewing checklist shows what to record on day one.
Looking for your next home
On FTR London you can browse flats and rooms to rent across London by borough, zone, bedrooms and property type, and contact landlords directly. Landlords can list a home directly without paying a letting agent.
How we researched this: deposit rules checked against GOV.UK and legislation.gov.uk, and dispute timescales against the DPS, TDS and mydeposits websites, on 25 September 2026; rents from the ONS Price Index of Private Rents (August 2026).
Correction, 25 September 2026: an earlier version of this article said the average London deposit was about £2,300, citing a Q1 2026 edition of an ONS rental series that does not exist (the series it named ended in December 2023); on current ONS figures a five-week deposit on an average London rent is about £2,690. It also described the scheme’s dispute service as binding on the landlord without saying that both sides must first agree to use it, and presented the absence of fees for renters as a reason to use FTR London, though tenant fees have been banned in England since 2019. It said scheme adjudicators use a standard depreciation framework, when TDS’s guidance says each case is decided on its own merits; said without a source that most renters accept hundreds of pounds in questionable deductions every year; and suggested only the landlord was bound by the decision, when it is final for both sides. The article has been rewritten.