Honourable and personal residential letting experts

A small proportion of tenants struggle to find the security deposit of 5 weeks rent, particularly if they are relying on the deposit from their previous property.

Where a landlord is struggling to find a tenant there is a ‘no deposit’ alternative which could be helpful if agreed by both the landlord and tenant – it is called Reposit.

Under the Reposit scheme tenants are charged the equivalent of one week of rent to ensure Reposit underwrite up to eight weeks’ rent worth of costs for landlords of any agreed damage, cleaning, repairs etc. at the end of the tenancy.

Tenants still meet the costs for these items, but they do so after the end of the tenancy, when they need to reimburse Reposit for the agreed sums. If they do not then Reposit take legal action to recover the money. The initial charge covers the risk that Reposit can’t recover the money.

A risk of this option is many tenants perceive it as insurance to cover the cost of any dilapidations, despite it being made clear it is not an insurance. In our experience tenants with Reposit do not appear to take the same care of the property at the end of the tenancy. We see this in higher average costs of dilapidations than with a traditional deposit.

Unfortunately there is also a more detailed process for us to follow to ensure Reposit can recover the money from the tenants, which takes substantially more time than with a traditional deposit.

As a result we need to charge landlords £120 inc VAT to cover the extra time associated with managing the ‘no deposit’ system.

We advise landlords to use a traditional security deposit wherever possible, keeping the Reposit ‘no deposit’ alternative as a suitable option if needed.