Can I get my holding deposit back? The 2026 position
In England, a landlord or letting agent must refund your holding deposit in full, within 7 days, in three situations: you sign the tenancy, the landlord pulls out, or the 15-day deadline passes without a tenancy being agreed. They can keep it only in four narrow cases, and they lose even those if they don't explain their reasons in writing within 7 days. Those rules come from Schedule 2 of the Tenant Fees Act 2019, and they're more tenant-friendly than most renters (and plenty of agents) realise. This guide covers the 1-week cap, exactly when the money must come back, the situations where a landlord can lawfully keep it, and how to force the issue when they won't pay up.
2026 update - Renters' Rights Act 2025: Renting law has changed significantly. The Renters' Rights Act 2025 abolishes Section 21 'no-fault' evictions, ends fixed-term assured shorthold tenancies in favour of rolling periodic tenancies, and creates a new mandatory PRS Landlord Ombudsman plus a Private Rented Sector Database that landlords must join. The Act is being brought in over 2026, so check the current commencement position for any specific provision. See our Renters' Rights Act 2025 guide for the full picture.
What is a holding deposit and how much can a landlord ask for?
A holding deposit is a payment that reserves a property while referencing and paperwork go through. Since 1 June 2019, the Tenant Fees Act 2019 caps it at one week's rent, worked out as the annual rent divided by 52. Anything above that is a prohibited payment the landlord must not charge.
The maths is quick. On a £1,000-a-month tenancy the annual rent is £12,000, so the most a landlord or agent can take as a holding deposit is just over £230. On £750 a month it's around £173. If you've been asked for "two weeks to hold it" or a flat £500 on an ordinary rent, the excess is unlawful and recoverable.
A holding deposit is not the same thing as your tenancy deposit, which is the larger sum (capped at 5 weeks' rent for annual rents under £50,000) held against damage and arrears during the tenancy and protected in a government scheme. Deductions from that deposit follow completely different rules; our deposit disputes guide covers those.
When must a landlord refund a holding deposit?
The default rule is refund. Schedule 2 sets a "deadline for agreement": the fifteenth day after the landlord or agent receives your money, unless you've agreed a different date in writing. The person holding the deposit must then repay it in full when any of three things happens, each with its own 7-day clock.
| What happens | Refund due? | The 7-day clock starts | Rule (TFA 2019 Sch.2) | |---|---|---|---| | You and the landlord sign the tenancy agreement | Yes, in full (or credited to rent or deposit with your consent) | Date of the tenancy agreement | paras 3(a), 4(a), 6 | | The landlord decides not to go ahead before the deadline | Yes, in full | The day the landlord decides | paras 3(b), 4(b) | | The deadline passes with no tenancy agreed | Yes, in full | The deadline for agreement | paras 3(c), 4(c) | | The landlord thinks an exception applies but sends no written reasons within 7 days | Yes, regardless of the exception | The landlord's decision or the deadline | para 5 |
That last row matters more than any other. Even where a landlord could lawfully have kept your money, paragraph 5 says the deposit must still be repaid if you weren't given a written explanation within 7 days of the landlord's decision (or of the deadline). A text saying "sorry, you failed referencing" the following month doesn't cut it. No timely written reasons, no retention.
When can a landlord keep my holding deposit?
A landlord or agent can keep a holding deposit in only four situations: you failed a right-to-rent check they couldn't have foreseen, you gave false or misleading information that reasonably affected their decision, you pulled out before the deadline, or you dragged your feet while they did everything needed to get the tenancy signed. Each exception is narrower than it sounds.
- Right to rent (para 8). The landlord is barred by section 22 of the Immigration Act 2014 from letting to you, and neither the landlord nor the agent knew, or could reasonably have known, before taking your money. If your paperwork made the position obvious up front, the exception falls away.
- False or misleading information (para 9). The gap between what you said and the truth must be something the landlord is reasonably entitled to take into account. Overstating your salary or hiding a CCJ that referencing then surfaces may qualify. A typo in a phone number or a landlord "just deciding" your references weren't glowing enough typically doesn't. Failing referencing on true information you gave honestly is not, by itself, giving false information.
- You withdraw (para 10). You tell the landlord or agent before the deadline that you've decided not to proceed.
- You fail to take reasonable steps (paras 11 and 12). The landlord (and any agent) took all reasonable steps to get the tenancy agreed before the deadline, but you didn't: ignoring the referencing forms for a fortnight, refusing to supply documents, not turning up to sign.
Then comes the tenant's trump card. Paragraph 13 switches off the withdrawal and reasonable-steps exceptions if, before the deadline, the landlord or agent either demanded a banned payment (any fee prohibited by sections 1 or 2 of the Act) or behaved so unreasonably that no one could expect you to go ahead. If you walked away because the agent suddenly wanted a £150 "admin fee", or the landlord tried to move the rent up after taking your money, the exception is gone and the refund is due.
Under the Renters' Rights Act 2025 that last scenario has a sharper edge: asking for more than the advertised rent is now itself unlawful, which we cover below.
What happens to my holding deposit when the tenancy goes ahead?
If you take the tenancy, the holding deposit doesn't just vanish into the landlord's pocket. Either it comes back to you within 7 days of signing, or, with your consent, it's credited towards your first rent payment or your tenancy deposit. Consent means your agreement, not a line buried in the agent's terms that you were never asked about.
Where it's rolled into the tenancy deposit, the law treats that money as received by the landlord on the date of the tenancy agreement, which starts the 30-day clock under section 213 of the Housing Act 2004 to protect it in an authorised scheme and serve the prescribed information.
That's worth pausing on, because holding-deposit rows and unprotected tenancy deposits travel together. A landlord who is casual about the 7-day refund rule is often casual about the 30-day protection rule too. If your main deposit was never protected, a county court may order the landlord to pay you compensation of 1 to 3 times the deposit on top of returning it. It typically takes 2 minutes to check whether your deposit was protected, free.
Make sure the paperwork keeps up as well: get the credit recorded in writing, and check the tenancy inventory at move-in, since that document decides most end-of-tenancy deduction arguments later.
My landlord kept my holding deposit. How do I get it back?
Ask in writing, escalate to the agent's redress scheme or your council's trading standards team, and use the First-tier Tribunal as the formal recovery route. Most disputes fold at the first or second step, because the landlord's paperwork rarely survives contact with paragraph 5. Work through the stages in order.
- Written request (give 7 to 14 days). Email the landlord or agent. State the date you paid, the amount, what happened, and why Schedule 2 of the Tenant Fees Act 2019 requires repayment. Ask a pointed question: "Please send me the written reasons for retention you were required to give within 7 days under paragraph 5 of Schedule 2." If none exist, say the refund is due regardless of any exception.
- Letter before action (14 days). If the first request is ignored, send a formal letter headed "Letter before action". Include: the parties, the facts with dates, the amount claimed, the statutory basis (TFA 2019, Schedule 2), a 14-day deadline, and a statement that you'll apply to the First-tier Tribunal or court without further notice. Keep a copy and proof of sending. The structure mirrors the deposit letter in our deposit disputes guide.
- Agent's redress scheme (free). Every letting agent in England must belong to a government-approved redress scheme (The Property Ombudsman or the Property Redress Scheme) under the 2014 redress order. If an agent holds your money, complain to the agent formally first, then take it to their scheme after 8 weeks or a deadlock letter. The scheme can direct repayment and modest compensation at no cost to you.
- Council trading standards. Local weights and measures authorities (trading standards) enforce the Act under section 6. Report the breach to the council where the property sits. The council can fine the landlord or agent up to £5,000 per breach, and a repeat breach within 5 years is a criminal offence carrying a penalty of up to £30,000 as an alternative to prosecution. Councils can also require your money to be repaid. Your report also builds the record that turns a first offence into a repeat one.
- First-tier Tribunal. Under section 15 you may apply to the First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber) to recover a holding deposit withheld in breach of Schedule 2, or any prohibited payment such as the amount above the 1-week cap. The tribunal route is designed for people without lawyers, runs mostly on paper, and typically decides within a few months. Bring the payment record, the ads and messages, and the silence where the paragraph 5 written reasons should be.
What changed under the Renters' Rights Act 2025?
The holding-deposit rules themselves survived: the 1-week cap, the 15-day deadline, the 7-day refunds and the written-reasons requirement all still apply in England. What the Renters' Rights Act 2025 changed is the ground around them, in two ways that matter to anyone paying to reserve a home.
First, rental bidding is banned. Since 1 May 2026 landlords and agents may not ask for, encourage or accept offers above a property's advertised rent, and councils can impose civil penalties of up to £7,000 for breaches. If you paid a holding deposit and were then told someone "offered more" so the rent is going up, that conduct is now unlawful in itself, and pulling out in response engages paragraph 13, so the deposit comes back.
Second, demanding rent before you've signed is banned. A new section 5A, inserted into the Tenant Fees Act by the 2025 Act, prohibits landlords and agents from inviting, encouraging or accepting pre-tenancy payments of rent. The old trick of "pay the first month now to secure it" alongside a holding deposit is off the table. The Act is still being phased in across 2026, so check the current commencement position before relying on any specific provision.
Do the same holding deposit rules apply in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland?
No. The Tenant Fees Act 2019 scheme described above applies to housing in England only. Wales has its own regime under the Renting Homes (Fees etc.) (Wales) Act 2019, which also treats holding deposits as a permitted payment with repayment rules of its own; the mechanics differ, so check the Welsh rules before acting. In Scotland, charging any premium as a condition of granting a private tenancy is an offence under section 82 of the Rent (Scotland) Act 1984, as applied to modern private residential tenancies, so holding deposits generally can't lawfully be taken at all. Northern Ireland runs on separate rules again; take local advice there.
The short version
The law leans your way. A holding deposit is refundable by default, the exceptions are narrow, and a landlord who skipped the 7-day written reasons has no exceptions at all. Ask in writing, escalate on a timetable, and let trading standards and the tribunal do the heavy lifting if the landlord digs in. There's more on every deposit question in our deposits hub.
And while you're chasing a few hundred pounds of holding deposit, check the bigger sum too. If a landlord (past or present) never protected your tenancy deposit in an authorised scheme, you may be entitled to compensation of 1 to 3 times the deposit amount - check if you have a claim, free.