Deposits on student houses: the position in 2026
A landlord letting a student house in England can take a deposit of at most 5 weeks' rent, must protect it in one of three government-authorised schemes within 30 days of receiving it, and must return it within 10 days of you both agreeing how much comes back. Most student houses are let on a joint tenancy, so there's usually one deposit for the whole house and every housemate's money stands behind every deduction. If the deposit was never protected, a county court can order the landlord to pay between 1 and 3 times the deposit in compensation on top of returning it. This guide covers the cap, the joint tenancy mechanics, end-of-year deductions and how to get your money back.
2026 update - Renters' Rights Act 2025: Since 1 May 2026, assured shorthold tenancies in England have converted to open-ended periodic tenancies and Section 21 no-fault eviction is abolished. The government's guide to the Act also states landlords will be prevented from gaining possession if they haven't properly protected a tenant's deposit. See our Renters' Rights Act 2025 guide.
How much deposit can a student landlord take?
Five weeks' rent, where the annual rent for the tenancy is under £50,000. That cap comes from Schedule 1 of the Tenant Fees Act 2019 and has applied to tenancies granted since 1 June 2019. One week's rent is the annual rent divided by 52.
On a joint tenancy the cap works off the rent for the whole house, not your individual share. A typical 5-bedroom student house at £2,600 a month has an annual rent of £31,200, which makes one week's rent £600 and caps the deposit at £3,000, or £600 per housemate if you split it evenly. Anything above the cap is a prohibited payment, and you may recover the excess through your council's trading standards team or the First-tier Tribunal.
The reservation payment you hand over before signing is different. A holding deposit is capped at one week's rent and carries its own strict refund deadlines, covered in our holding deposits guide.
How do deposits work on a joint student tenancy?
One tenancy agreement usually means one deposit. The landlord or agent registers it with a scheme as a single sum, typically naming one housemate as the lead tenant who deals with the scheme on everyone's behalf. At the end of the year the scheme normally repays through that lead tenant, who then splits the money.
The part that catches students out is that deductions come off the shared pot before anyone gets paid. Joint tenants are jointly responsible for the state of the whole property, so a damaged door in one bedroom or a filthy kitchen can shrink everyone's refund, not just the person responsible. Recovering a housemate's share of a deduction is then a private matter between you, which is why agreeing house rules on cleaning and damage early is worth more than it sounds. Our guide to student tenancy agreements explains joint liability in full.
How do I check my deposit was protected?
Search all three authorised schemes for England and Wales free of charge: the Tenancy Deposit Scheme (TDS), the Deposit Protection Service (DPS) and mydeposits. You'll need your postcode, a tenant's surname and the tenancy start date. The check takes minutes per scheme.
The legal duties sit in sections 212 to 214 of the Housing Act 2004. Your landlord must protect the deposit in an authorised scheme within 30 days of receiving it, and within the same 30 days give you the prescribed information confirming where it's held and how to get it back. On a joint tenancy the prescribed information should reach the tenants; if only the lead tenant received anything, ask for a copy and keep it with your agreement.
What if my deposit was never protected?
You may be entitled to serious compensation. Under section 214 of the Housing Act 2004, a county court that finds the landlord failed to protect the deposit, or failed to give the prescribed information within 30 days, must order the deposit repaid and must also order the landlord to pay a penalty of between one and three times the deposit. On a £3,000 house deposit that's £3,000 to £9,000 on top of the deposit itself, with the court deciding where in the range the penalty lands based on how badly the landlord failed.
Three points matter for students. The claim still works after you've moved out, so a deposit from a house you left last summer isn't a lost cause. It covers prescribed-information failures as well as straight non-protection. And you typically have 6 years to bring the claim under the Limitation Act 1980, so deposits from earlier years of your course may still be claimable. Our deposit compensation calculator shows the 1 to 3 times range on your figures.
End-of-year deductions: cleaning, damage and fair wear and tear
Cleaning and damage claims dominate student deposit rows every summer. The rules are more tenant-friendly than most landlords let on:
- The standard is move-in condition, not showroom condition. A cleaning deduction only holds if the house went back dirtier than it was at check-in, and only for the reasonable cost of putting that right. Since the Tenant Fees Act 2019, a landlord can't make professional cleaning a term of the tenancy.
- Fair wear and tear is off limits. Worn carpet in hallways, faded curtains and minor wall scuffs are the ordinary cost of letting a house to five people for a year. A landlord can't charge you for them.
- No new for old. If a 6-year-old carpet gets damaged, the landlord may claim the remaining value of a 6-year-old carpet, not the price of a new one. Adjudicators apportion by age and quality as a matter of routine.
- Repairs that were the landlord's job can't come off the deposit. The structure, exterior, and the installations for water, gas, electricity, sanitation and heating sit with the landlord under section 11 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985.
Your best weapon is evidence from day one. Photograph every room, every appliance and every existing mark on the day you get the keys, and check the inventory line by line before signing it. Nine months later, those photos decide disputes.
How do I get the deposit back at the end of the year?
Ask for it in writing on the day you hand back the keys. Once you and the landlord agree how much you'll get back, the deposit must be returned within 10 days, and any undisputed part should be released while a disputed amount stays protected in the scheme.
If the landlord proposes deductions you don't accept, challenge them item by item and then use your scheme's free dispute resolution service. TDS, the DPS and mydeposits each run one: both sides submit evidence, an impartial adjudicator decides on paper, and the burden of proving each deduction sits with the landlord. If the landlord simply goes silent, every scheme runs a claim route that pays you without their agreement. The step-by-step process, including the letter before action and county court route, is in our guide on how to get your deposit back, with the deduction rules covered in depth in our deposit disputes guide.
Student houses are usually shared houses in law as well as in practice, and licensing failures can strengthen your hand in a wider dispute; see our guide to HMO tenant rights. For the whole cycle from viewing to move-out, start with our Student Renting Guide.
If your landlord never protected your deposit, you may be entitled to compensation of 1 to 3 times the deposit amount - check if you have a claim, free.