Here is a question to the Blog Clinic from Lynda who is a landlord.
If I protected the tenants’ deposit but failed to give them the booklet on guide to renting, can the tenant sue me at the end of the tenancy?
Answer
No, the landlord cannot sue you for failing to provide the governments ‘How to Rent’ booklet. Failure to provide that just means that you cannot serve a section 21 notice on them, until such time as it has been served.
However, when you protected the deposit, did you also serve notice on the tenants with the Prescribed Information? If not, then the tenants CAN sue you – for up to 3x the deposit sum.
They can sue you for this at any time during the tenancy and for up to 6 years afterwards.
You may be a bit confused as the legislation unhelpfully describes the How to Rent booklet as ‘prescribed information’. But it is not at all the same as the tenancy deposit prescribed information and different rules apply.
