LONDON, July 24, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --
In its Annual Review and Accounts for 2011-12 published today, the Tenancy Deposit Scheme has reported a strong set of financial results for an "outstanding year". These results have enabled the Scheme to reduce membership subscriptions and deliver greater service improvements to customers.
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The reduction is in line with the Scheme's not-for-profit status and the aim is to reduce costs to members as far as possible.
In addition to reducing the cost of protecting deposits, the Scheme has invested substantially in IT and communications with the membership. This investment, the Board believes, has contributed directly to achieving the UK Government's Customer Service Excellence Award.
In their joint forward to the Annual Review and Accounts, the Chairman of the Tenancy Deposit Scheme, Martin Partington, and Chief Executive Steve Harriott state that "By any account, the past financial year 2011-12 has been an outstanding year for TDS."
Milestones for the year included the launch of the Tenancy Deposit Scheme for Landlords in conjunction with the Residential Landlords Association and the joint bid with Scottish partners of SafeDeposits Scotland, a custodial deposit protection scheme.
In March this year, the end of the financial year, the Scheme was protecting 870,968 tenancies with a total value of deposits of just under £1 billion. These tenancies were registered through 4,298 letting agents and corporate and private landlords.
During 2011-12, the Tenancy Deposit Scheme closed over 10,000 deposit disputes and
the proportion of disputed deposits awarded to landlords and tenants was about equal. This parity comes from a gradual increase in the number of awards made to landlords and a decline in the tenant's share. This is mainly attributable to an increasing awareness among landlords and agents of the type of evidence needed to succeed in a claim against a tenant's deposit.
The recent programme of Adjudication Workshops, designed to offer greater comprehension of the dispute resolution process will have contributed to this increased awareness. As a result further workshops will take place in the autumn.
The prime reasons for deposit disputes are remain largely unchanged, with cleaning, damage and re-decoration at the top of the list.
Commented Steve Harriott, "These are an outstanding set of results for the Scheme. We have reduced membership fees and delivered greater benefits to our customers, and there is more to come! Customers are really seeing dividends from our not-for-profit status and they are taking advantage of our award winning customer service."
For the full Tenancy Deposit Scheme Annual Review and Accounts go to
http://multivu.prnewswire.com/tds/170712-annual-report.pdf
Editors note: Full details of The Tenancy Deposit Scheme are on http://www.tds.gb.com
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