Quarter of renters struggle to get their full deposit back

Survey also finds one in four had to borrow money to cover it

- HOLLY BANCROFT

One in four renters struggles to get their full deposit back at the end of a tenancy, according to new research.

Almost a quarter of the 1,000 private tenants surveyed - 23 per cent - said they had experienced deposit deductions that they did not think were reasonable. Of these, only one in five had used the deposit scheme’s dispute resolution service, a free service designed to deal with disputes about the amount of money tenants receive back from their landlords.

Other renters said they hadn’t used the service because they weren’t aware they had the right to challenge their landlord (18 per cent), or they thought it would take too long (13 per cent), or that their landlord had broken the law by not protecting their deposit (18 per cent).

The survey, carried out by Generation Rent, found that one in four respondents had needed to borrow money from their friends or family to cover their deposit – while 14 per cent had used credit cards or loans, 32 per cent had to use their savings, and only 29 per cent of tenants were able to cover the cost from their current account.

Data obtained through freedom of information requests by the charity last year showed that the average deposit was £1,118 in England and Wales, and £793 in Scotland. Landlords can ask for up to five weeks’ rent as a deposit and also for a month’s rent in advance before a tenancy agreement is signed. In May 2024, the average private rent in Great Britain was £1,262 per month – £101 higher than 12 months ago.

The average rent for England was a bit higher at £1,301, with £736 being the average for Wales and £957 for Scotland, according to Office for National Statistics data.