http://www.homemove.co.uk/news/16-09-2009/one-in-three-landlords-fail-to-register-deposits.html

A new survey by The Deposit Protection Service (DPS) has revealed that almost one in three landlords are at risk being fined for failing to register tenants’ deposits.

However, the research shows an improvement on a year ago, when twice as many landlords were breaking the law over deposits.

Landlords have been required to register deposits with a Government-accredited scheme since April 2007 and DPS director, Kevin Firth, comments: “The fact that the number of landlords ignoring the law has halved is testament to the fact that most landlords want to do the right thing … but more needs to be done and ignorance is no excuse.”

For this reason DPS has come out in favour of a national register of landlords, which it says “would leave rogue landlords with nowhere to hide”.

The Government is still working on measures to introduce a register of landlords in England and Wales that will include the home address of the landlord and the addresses of all rental properties owned.

Under the proposals, landlords will be allocated registration numbers for use in tenancy agreements, court proceedings and housing benefit claims but will have to pay a small fee for the scheme to be administered.