UK Landlord Forum / Life

Good day, I have a tenant for coming on 11 years in one of my properties, she has become a single mother on universal credit and throughout her tenancy I have kept rents increases to a minimum and overlooked late payments. I made the mistake of registering her deposit late and to avoid future issues in gaining possession of property using S.21 can I hand deposit back, issue a new tenancy with her and place deposit within the 30 days and have no problems for future possession? Can she still revert back to the old tenancy and be successful in court in getting 1x - 3x from a court?

Just return the deposit. Don't grant new tenancy. Why would you if you're considering giving s21 at some point? If you do grant new tenancy and they agree, you can just protect the deposit without returning it.

You are still liable for deposit protection non-compliance penalties any which way until limitation runs out and she can't sue for it anymore.

QuoteI have a tenant for coming on 11 years in one of my properties

How many tenancies have you granted and when? Deposit protection legislations came into force on 6 April 2007. Requirements to protect applies per tenancy. A statutory periodic tenancy arising on the end of a fixed term counts seperately. Limitation is 6 years, although there's debate when that starts from.