2. Landlords who rent real estate as part of a short-term, unsecured contractual rent, or tenants, must not protect their tenant`s or tenant`s deposit under any of the approved plans. Landlords in England or Wales must protect their tenants` deposits through a rental deposit system when they have rented the property on a Guaranteed Short Term Rent (AST) which began on or after April 6, 2007. Each lease agreement should contain a surety clause. While each owner has the option to customize this clause, the state in which your rental property is located may have certain deposit laws that you must comply with. Regardless of your government laws, there are certain bases on the terms of the bond that you should always include in your agreement. Below is an example. If you are a landlord based in England and Wales, you must inform your tenant, by law, within 30 days of receiving the deposit, of where the deposit is guaranteed. The rental deposit protection provisions came into force in Scotland on 2 July 2012. Landlords who take a deposit from a tenant with a guaranteed short-term tenancy agreement in England or Wales or a short-term lease in Scotland now have a legal obligation to protect the deposit under an authorized bonding system and to provide the tenant with important information about the tenant`s tenancy agreement and deposit method. In Scotland, deposits must be protected in all types of rentals, whether they are short or non-short leases. Landlords in Scotland must comply with Regulation 42 of the 2011 Rent Guarantee Regulation (Scotland) and provide the tenant with information on how to protect their deposit. This rental deposit form – with separate versions for (1) property owners in England and Wales and (2) property owners in Scotland – helps landlords comply with rental bond laws and provide their tenants with the right information.
If your tenant`s tenancy deposit is not properly documented, you may not be in possession at the end of the tenancy agreement and you may be able to pay a significant penalty. The most important data on when you should provide the information to the tenant varies depending on when the deposit was received. Since there are different data, we advise you to take a look at the Scottish Government website to get more information on when to use the form. Below is an example of a surety clause in a rental agreement. These clauses can range from a few sentences to a few paragraphs.