The Court of Appeal has decided by a majority (2-1) that landlords who fail to protect their tenant's deposits in a tenancy deposit scheme pursuant to Chapter 4 of the Housing Act 2004 can avoid a sanction of repayment of the deposit together with three times the deposit to the tenant providing they protect the deposit before the date of the hearing of any claim or counterclaim brought by the tenant.
The Government assessed in 2007 that 1.7 million tenants, 870,000 landlords and 12,000 letting agents would be affected by the tenancy deposit regime.
Lord Justice Sedley in his dissenting judgment stated that if the interpretation given by the majority of the Court of Appeal was correct "then the scheme is a dead letter".
Ms Tiensia who brought the case has sought permission to appeal to the Supreme Court from the Court of Appeal.
To read the full judgment, click here.
Ms Tiensia was represented by James Bowen, who recently joined Garden Court's Housing Team.
