The 30-day deposit window: what actually starts the clock

The clock starts on the day you receive the money - not the day the tenancy starts, not the day the tenant moves in, and not the day you get round to opening the scheme account. Within 30 days of receipt you must protect the deposit in a government-authorised scheme and give the tenant the scheme's prescribed information. Two duties, one deadline.

The dates that trip people up

• Money taken weeks before move-in: the 30 days runs from when it landed, so the deadline can fall before the tenancy has even started.
• Paid to your letting agent: receipt by your agent is receipt by you - your deadline is already running whether or not they've told you.
• Paid in instalments: the safe assumption is that the clock starts with the first payment, not the last.
• A holding deposit is a different thing under the Tenant Fees Act - it only enters the protection rules once it's converted into the tenancy deposit.

Prescribed information is not the same as protection

Protecting the money is the half everyone remembers. The prescribed information - the scheme's details, your details, the deposit amount, how it's protected and how disputes are handled - is the half that gets missed, and it carries the same deadline and the same consequences. If you protected on day three and served nothing, you are not compliant.

Why this got sharper after 1 May 2026

A tenant can ask the court to order repayment of the deposit plus a penalty of between one and three times its value. That has always been the headline risk. The quieter one is possession: a court will not make a possession order while the deposit rules are unmet - you have to have protected it and served the information, or returned the deposit (in full, or with agreed deductions), or had the tenant's challenge decided or settled first. With Section 21 gone, every route to possession now runs through the courts, so an unprotected deposit no longer just costs money - it blocks the door.

While you're in there: check the amount

The deposit itself is capped at five weeks' rent where the annual rent is under £50,000, and six weeks' rent at or above that. Taking more than the cap is a separate breach from failing to protect it, and it's a surprisingly easy one to commit after a rent increase if you top the deposit up to match.

Sources: Housing Act 2004, sections 213-215 · Tenant Fees Act 2019 (deposit cap) · GOV.UK tenancy deposit protection guidance · GOV.UK 'Repossessing your privately rented property after 1 May 2026'. General information, not legal advice, as at August 2026.