If you want to protect tenancy deposits with us and haven't used our service before, you'll need to create an account. It's quick and easy. 

  1. Provide your email address
  2. Choose a password
  3. Provide answers to a choice of security questions

If you haven't got any deposits to protect right now, you can still create your account so it's ready when you are.

Protecting a deposit

Once your account is created and you've added any additional users, you can start protecting deposits. To protect a deposit:

  1. Create a new tenancy in your online account.
  2. Add the details of the tenancy, including rent amount, deposit amount and contact details for each tenant.
  3. Pay the deposit to us.

Once we receive the deposit, we'll send you confirmation the deposit is protected. We'll also use the contact details you provide to send confirmation to the tenant, and to create downloadable Prescribed Information for you to complete and give to the tenant. You can find this in your account.

The Tenant Fees Act and tenancy deposit cap

If you’re taking a tenancy deposit for a property in England, you must ensure you abide by the tenancy deposit cap, a key part of The Tenant Fees Act that came into force on 1 June 2019. Security deposits for new tenancies are capped at the equivalent of five weeks' rent for assured-shorthold tenancies with an annual rent of up to £50,000, or six weeks' rent for tenancies with an annual rent of £50,000 or more. Use our deposit cap calculator to work out how much deposit you can take for your tenancy.

Read more about The Tenant Fees Act and the deposit cap

Do you have several deposits to protect?

When you're letting several properties every week, the administration of deposit protection can easily become a time consuming task. We know your time is valuable, so we've created a tool allowing you to add multiple properties and create multiple tenancies in one go. Follow these simple steps to speed up your deposit protection administration.

  1. Download our Multiple Tenancy Upload tool.
  2. Add each new tenancy to the spreadsheet, one row per tenancy.
  3. Send your completed spreadsheet to bulkuploads@depositprotection.com.
  4. We'll send you confirmation the tenancies have been created, the value of the tenancy deposits and their payment reference. Use this payment reference when making your bank transfer to allow us to automatically allocate the money to the relevant deposits.

Multiple Tenancy Upload Tool

Do you let properties in Wales?

The Welsh Government requires landlords and letting agents to follow slightly different regulations if they let properties in Wales. You can read about the requirements for letting in Wales on the Rent Smart Wales website. You can also read our summary of deposit protection specific differences for letting in Wales.

Custodial service

Most of our customers use our free Custodial service, which is the one we'd recommend. In this scheme, we hold the tenant's deposit throughout the period of the tenancy, and administer the repayment when they leave. Click the button below to create your account, it only takes a couple of minutes.

Insured scheme

Our Insured scheme is a little different – you retain the tenant's deposit for the duration of the tenancy and pay us a small fee to protect it. You manage the deposit repayment at the end of the tenancy. Before protecting a deposit using our Insured scheme, you'll need to create an Insured scheme account using the button below.

If you've chosen our Insured scheme, you’ll need to provide validation documents before you can protect your deposits.

  • Once you’ve created your account, we’ll send a Direct Debit mandate form to you. You’ll need to complete and return this to us by post to the address below.

    You’ll also need to confirm you have Client Money Protection (CMP) in place. To do this, you must send us either a membership/CMP certificate or letter of confirmation, from one of the following CMP providers:

    • Client Money Protect
    • UK Association of Letting Agents (UKALA)
    • Safeagent
    • Money Shield
    • Propertymark
    • Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS)

  • We need 2 validation documents from the following list, one from each section.

    Document 1. An original or certified copy of the Tenancy Agreement for the tenancy the deposit relates to

    Document 2. An original or certified copy of any ONE of the following items to confirm the Landlord’s* address:

    • Local authority tax bill relating to the current tax year
    • Current UK/EEA photocard driving licence or blue disabled driver’s licence
    • Current full UK paper driving licence
    • Utility bill no older than three months (not including a mobile phone bill), or a certificate from a supplier of utilities confirming the arrangement to pay for the services on pre-payment terms
    • Bank or building society statement (original statements only, not printed from the internet) which includes the account holder’s address
    • Current home or motor insurance certificate (issued within last 12 months, The landlord must be the named policy holder)
    • Mortgage statement (no more than 12 months old)

    * Where an Organisation is creating an account, the documents above should be for a current statutory director or equivalent person in the Organisation.

    We can accept copies of your documents that have been individually certified by one of the following officials:

    • Post Office identity checking service
    • Officials of an embassy, consulate or high commission of the country of issue
    • Police officer
    • Solicitor or accountant
    • Notary Public
    • Representative of a FCA organisation or of a UK or EU regulated bank
    • Family GP
    • Civil servant
    • Teacher

    Certification must be no older than six months. The person undertaking the certification can’t be a family member, and they must provide their business contact details.

Frequently asked questions about Insured accounts

  • Send your documents to us by post to:

    Business Support Team
    The Deposit Protection Service
    The Pavilions Bridgwater Road
    Bristol
    BS99 6AA

  • Yes, original copies of your validation documents will be returned to you via post to the address you used to create your account. We recommend that you send certified copies of your validation documents to us to avoid the risk of your original copies being lost in the post.

  • Yes, you can send copies as long as they are legible, and have been individually certified by one of the officials listed above. Email your documents to support@depositprotection.com.

  • If you’re trading as an organisation and have a trading address different to your personal address, you’ll need to provide documentation to verify the trading address as well as your personal address.

  • If you urgently need to protect a deposit, our free Custodial scheme doesn’t require validation. Create your Custodial account and begin protecting deposits straight away here.

  • You must be a resident of Great Britain, Northern Ireland, the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man to use our Insured scheme. If you live outside of these territories you can use our free Custodial scheme.

  • Once we've completed the validation process we'll contact you to confirm your account is active. To protect a deposit, you’ll need to log into your account and add details for the tenancy, tenants, and deposit. We'll send you a Deposit ID, and an invoice for the protection fee to complete the process.

  • Our online service allows multiple user access, so members of your organisation can log into your account and carry out your deposit administration.

To protect deposits in Scotland, visit Letting Protection Service Scotland.

Stay up-to-date

Once you’ve created an account, you can choose to receive regular updates. As well as information about our service, we share important news about subjects affecting landlords and letting agents, tips on how to manage your tenancies, dispute resolution case studies, and most importantly, guidance about meeting your deposit protection obligations.